Gingacon 2024 – Furries and a missing cheese slicer

 Hello peeps and woofers alike~

Last weekend I attended my first Gingacon event and, as the name implies, it is an anime convention especially aimed at fans of the Ginga series and other works by mangaka Yoshihiro Takahashi. Gingacon's target audience was also the furry community and people overall who are into animal-themed fictional works and toys (Pokémon, Digimon, Tamagotchi etc) as well as stories and fan creations.
This year's Gingacon was held on Saturday, 23rd November in Tampere, Finland. The host building was a school commonly called Tredu by the locals.

Let's get this summary started!

 

Gingacon info booklet.

My trip to the con started on Friday but, I admit, I might have been panic-packing on Thursday. As mentioned in previous blog posts I had planned to rewear my shiny Mightyena gijinka and, well, that costume consists of parts from other cosplays, stuff from my wardrobe and from my vintage kimono collection. It's effectively a fancier closet cosplay with some accessories added on top to make it more recognizable, aka a pair of ears and a tail – of which the latter I didn't have during its debut. But yeah, when I was packing my suitcase I might have had a panic moment when I realized that I didn't really remember exactly what brown pants I had used for the costume previously and all the brown costume pants I found didn't fit! So there I am losing my shit over some pants until it dawns on me that "hey, weren't those old corduroy pants I snagged from grandma brown?". *lightbulb moment* So I go digging through my wardrobe like a dwarf digging a hole diggy diggy hole and I found the damn pants and, even better, they fit so comfortably! Pants crisis, averted.

...
Except that wasn't my only crisis. I had a wig crisis too. xD I did find the old wig I had used for this cosplay but when I quickly tried it on I just had one blaring opinion – it looked like shite. It just wasn't flattering on my face at all, way too much fiber and poofiness on top. And the more I thought about it the more I kinda wanted a longer and shaggier wig but, of course, I only own short brown wigs. :)) I have like two bigass plastic containers full of wigs and somehow I never have the wig I need – a cosplayer's eternal curse amirite? Oh well, I ended up borrowing a wig from Firith, who was my con company for the trip too. I will buy a more fitting wig later for the next outing.

On Friday we took the train down to Tampere. I should maybe mention that we had an accommodation catastrophe since Gure, who was supposed to accomodate us during Gingacon, got sick with fever a few days before the con déjà vu and that threw our plans out the window. So in a last-minute panic I'm scrambling to get a new place to stay in while Firith loses all hope of even going. Our train tickets were non-refundable too and we literally knew no one else who lived in Tampere. Another thing is that Gingacon is held in an area outside of Tampere's centrum so there's not really any hotels nearby (and it's not like we could have afforded an emergency hotel stay on such short notice anyway). In my desperation I asked around in the Gingacon work crew Discord group and luckily Nawulf in there suggested this one airbnb that was very close to the con building, which ended up being our saving grace that secured the con trip!

It was late when we arrived to our airbnb stay and we both were a bit nervous because we had never used an airbnb before. Luckily the host was friendly and showed us great hospitality so everything went well! It was one of those airbnb types where you live together with the family in their home, essentially just renting a vacant room for the stay. We were allowed to use the living room to watch some TV; it was nice to wind down a bit before going to bed.
On Saturday morning we packed our stuff and put our costumes on before leaving (luckily there were like three bathrooms so we didn't hog the only bathroom in the house for cosplay prep xD). We were a bit behind schedule but not too bad.

Tampereen Seudun Ammattiopisto, aka Tredu.

I think the clock was around 12:30 local time when we arrived to the con. It looked quite empty from outside and we were momentarily very confused because there were signs on the front doors saying something like "entrance not allowed" and there also weren't any obvious big Gingacon signs anywhere stating that we were in the right place. Luckily we weren't dumbfounded for long because someone from inside noticed us and came outside to welcome us in and told us that they were working on hiding those "no entrance" signs.

View to the right (feat. cloakroom) upon entering.

Immediately upon entering the information desk was in front of our noses. There was a slight queue so we waited for our turn to get our badges. I had applied to be part of the work force and, more exactly, a green room worker. Firith in turn had applied for the cosplay competition and thus also got a badge, albeit an orange contestant badge instead of a blue worker badge. :3

My worker badge (and con ticket) featuring Gingacon's mascot Routa!
(yes, I censored my name for privacy reasons)

As soon as we got our badges we headed to the cloakroom to drop off our luggage and almost immediately after that Firith had to bolt for the cosplay competition's pre-judging phase. I had roughly 20 mins left to explore before my 3h work shift would start.
One thing that I quickly noticed was that Tredu was extremely similar in style to Pohjankartano in Oulu, except smaller. I mean the similarity was tripping me through the whole day lol! If you've read any of my Matsucon summaries you'll probably get what I mean with how these two buildings resemble one another, especially the way the stairs and upper floors are arranged.

General view of the main area, including the stage.

Another general view, Artist's Alley visible in the back.

I didn't really have enough time to do any proper exploration before my shift would start so instead I just kindly waddled over to the green room, which was hidden away in a corridor to the left half of the building, near a vending machine. There were signs pointing me in the right direction so I didn't get lost lol.
One thing I immediately noticed when stepping inside the green room was that it was surprisingly large in size, especially for a smaller con like Gingacon. There were tables full of many different food items including instant noodles, fresh fruits and vegetables to put on bread, snacks, chips and cookies, Pocky sticks, orange soda and juice and porridge and yeah, basically anything that's easy to eat or prepare! There was so much more variation than I expected; hands down probably the most comprehensive green room I've used to date, 10/10 would work again.

One of many green room tables.

I don't know if I misunderstood or misremember or if the information was wonky, but I do remember asking if there was any warm food and was told that Gingacon didn't supply warm food to the workers, unless you count the instant noodles. But then not long after I learned that there was some homemade food in the fridge that was free to use and had seemingly been prepared for the con workers? There were like two or three aluminium packages with some chicken dish inside and I think there was a bowl of salad too or something? I was just perplexed why said homemade food didn't count as a warm meal? Maybe it was just brainfarts on one or both sides but whatever the case may have been one thing was clear – there was enough food so you wouldn't have to work on an empty stomach.

This food package gave me a laugh. xD (artist unknown)

My work shift lasted from 13-16 and I spent that time watching over the green room and doing various tasks to keep it functioning like instructing and helping green room users, emptying the trash bags, making more coffee whenever it ran out and so on. Usually Nemi was also there to help me observe the situation so it never really got too hectic or overwhelming. Most times it was actually pretty chill and manageable and thus a pleasant working experience.

One tiny little thing that kept occuring though was that someone would every now and then come and ask where the cheese slicer was because there was a block of cheese but nothing to slice it with. Turns out that Nemi had forgotten to bring the cheese slicer. xD So yeah, those who wanted cheese on their bread had to resort to violating the cheese with a knife for the first hours of the con while the cheese slicer was on its way. Eventually there was a message in the Discord channel that the slicer had arrived, and because Nemi was hosting the Pokémon Go meetup at that time and thus I was the sole person watching over the green room, it meant that I put on my errand boy shoes and ran to pick up the much coveted metallic object from the info desk.

THE MYTHICAL CHEESE SLICER HAS GRACED US.

In hindsight I would perhaps have liked to check out the Pokémon Go meetup but it collided with my working hours so no can do. It was nice though because there was an in-game event running called the Wild Area and Gingacon put lures on the pokéstop just outside during the full duration of the con. I must admit I've kinda fallen off the PoGo wagon, I have no clue about the whole Dynamax thing and so on but it's still fun to play casually every now and then. I just hope that all my mons aren't horribly outdated by now lmao.

Oh and speaking of Pokémon, me and Firith decided already on the morning when we put on our cosplays that we would postpone photoshooting my shiny Mightyena outfit. Reason number one was that we wouldn't really have time (bless the diminishing sunlight hours during the winter months in Finland) due to our respective responsibilities and reason number two was that my ears didn't function at all like intended and thus I didn't really feel like having a proper photoshoot before fixing them... again. I didn't have time to test wear them before the con. You see, I've remade them once but despite my efforts to add in steel wire they still didn't stay upright (I really need a different attachment method for support than just safety pins). So my ears were just hanging down the sides of my face and I looked like a sad doggo all day. *sniff* But at least I have a proof photo that I did have the costume on!

Crappy phone quality, I know.

I did have some slight difficulties with the lenses, or more exactly one of them. For some reason the right eye one kept being lowkey scratchy so I took it out and reinserted it like three or four times before it went away. I was starting to worry that the lens was defective (I had not had time to test these before the con either) but luckily that wasn't the case. I intentionally bought super bright manson-styled lenses to look more cartoony and well, shiny Mightyena has super vibrant blue eyes so I wanted to match that for extra accuracy haha. I also added those triangles to aid recognizability a little but I'm honestly not sure if anyone actually knew what I was supposed to be lol. Not like it matters anyway, I still had plenty of fun!

This was by the way the first cosplay on which I had a big floofy tail. I had to constantly remember to lift the tail up and out of the way before I sat down because otherwise it would get in the way due to its rather massive size. xD At least I can say that the tail mostly functioned as it should; the only thing I need to fix for next time is to move the elastic loops even closer to the edges to keep the edges from protruding – something I didn't realize while sewing it as a first-timer. You live and you learn!

Tail awareness every tiem.

While I was working in the green room I got handed this little bag of gifts from the organizers. I was quite taken at first because I have not experienced this kind of appreciation before as a volunteer worker. ;;_;; Apparently every worker got a 'thank you' goodie bag with Gingacon merchandise featuring the mascot character Routa, which was super cute and made me feel seen omg.

Standard issue green room meal. :'D Stupidly delish noodles!

Once my obligations shift was over I immediately headed over to the plush doll meetup on the third floor. This was the one program I had planned already prior that I wanted to attend. I gotta admit though that I'm a lazy congoer when it comes to attending activities like lectures and panels etc, most times I might see something interesting when the activities are revealed online but then when I'm at the con I most often aren't really in the mood during that specific time when something I was moderately interested in is happening. It's like I'm not feeling it, you know? Like the headspace is not right at that moment and then I just can't be arsed because I know I wouldn't stay focused and/or invested enough. Maybe it's a neurodivergence thing or maybe I'm just getting old, who knows lol.
Anyways, this stuffed doll meet was something I really had a drive to check out – one big reason being that it stood out to me. I've honestly never seen such an activity at any con before (which feels weird when I think about it, I mean so many alt people collect plushies) and it seemed like a relaxed low-threshold meetup where you'd maybe hear some fun and engaging stories.

Plushie meetup collection!

One key aspect of this meetup was that it was free-for-all, meaning that you didn't have to reserve a spot in advance, aka it was essentially a drop-in program. You were also encouraged to bring any soft toy with you to the meetup to show it off and tell the others about the story behind it, if you wanted to. This was the part that incited me to attend because oftentimes people have some emotional attachment to plush dolls and I find it interesting to hear this kind of personal stories, even if it's brief. Oh, and did I mention that I love plush dolls in general? I have soooo many from my childhood and also a bunch of newer ones that I've bought as an adult – mostly imported ones from Pokémon Center in Japan and such.
Honestly I really enjoyed the meetup, we all sat in a circle around the room and just one by one we told the others the story behind the particular plush we had brought with us to the meeting. The stories ranged from tragic accidents to unhinged, outright hilarious ones like taking a short-time loan to afford a must-have plushie that was out of budget at the moment.
I hope that this type of meeting will be held in the future too (staple meetup at future Gingacons?), it was a great social experience which helped me feel less childish and stigmatized in my plush collecting hobby.

My childhood fish plushie and boba tea.

I left the meetup a little before it officially ended because Firith had gone earlier to order us some bubble tea and was waiting for me in the main hall. I decided to be silly and sneaked up on Firith because I saw that my target was reading a book and thus not paying attention and then I took my fish plush and lowered it in front of the unsuspecting reader's face while singing a part of a meme variant of the Kalakaveri (lit. 'fish friend') song by K-Citymarket food store. Video below is of the edited variant, I don't know who the original creator is but all credit goes to whoever it is. Y'all can thank me later for the brain rot... or not. :'D Laitetaan vahinko kiertään!

While we were sitting at the table enjoying our bobas a shy person approached us and asked if we wanted to adopt a puppy, as in those adoptable character arts you might find on sites like Furaffinity or DeviantArt. It took me a second to realize what was going on and then this person made it clearer by asking if any of us two likes to draw, to which I raised my hand. So the gist is that this person had designed a bunch of adoptable puppies (essentially a reference art that you would claim ownership of) and I was presented with a lot of random numbers to choose one, kind of like a lottery ticket. It was a cute little encounter that I didn't expect but which gave a heartfelt touch to the overall atmosphere of the con. I wish I would have talked more with this random stranger but they disappeared almost as soon as they came, although they were very polite and charming with the whole "hey I'm socially anxious but want to get to know new people and this is my way of breaking the ice" shtick.

Yes, my phone's low battery makes me uncomfortable too.

After that encounter we finally had time to plow through the Artist's Alley and the dealers. There were some familiar artists whom I had bought from already at other cons but there were also some new faces I had not seen before, like some people who sold handmade ceramics! I was a bit let down because I didn't really find anything that really caught my fancy (I like supporting independent artists and buying small items) despite there being quite a nice amount of tables. There were several who had interesting items but I was mostly looking for magnets as my keychain collection is growing so large at this point that I don't know where to display all the ones that I own, send help.

View of Artist's Alley.

More Artist's Alley. JeMiChi's table in front.

On the second floor was what was referred to as the "Ginga room". This included the booth of Suomen Hopeanuoli-fanit ry which is the association that organizes Gingacon. There was a lucky wheel and some merchandise for sale, including Ginga fanzines. I also saw during my brief run-through during the day that on the second floor were also different activities like a fur workshop for making ears and tails and opportunities to draw and color in Ginga-themed linearts. But when I did my proper exploration the fur workshop and the drawing room had already closed for the day so yeah, I didn't really get to observe them in action. Seemed like fun concepts though based on the quick glimpse I did catch.

A part of the Hopeanuoli-fanit merch booth.

Oh, I forgot to say earlier but I did meet Lillepysen briefly, an old friend of mine from many years back. We used to play video games together casually and shared some fandoms. It was nice to see her again and swap some words, albeit a bit in a hurry because we both had stuff we still stuff we needed to do haha. Ah, cons and running into people you know~

I also ran into some completely random people just randomly duking it out with a Beyblade battle near the video game room. It made my closeted little nerd heart take an extra beat because it was so nostalgic and unexpected! I remember when Beyblade first came out – I was obsessed! I had a Gameboy Advance game (which kinda sucked, sadly), duvet covers, stickers and of course some G1 spinning tops. Even begged dad for money so I could buy a Beyblade from the local toy store during a vacation when I was a kid. xD

Surprise encounter: Beyblade battlers.

This impressive Tamagotchi and virtual pet display
was near the Beyblade trio.

It was getting quite late at this point. I had wanted to check out what the retro video game room had to offer but I also knew that I wouldn't really have time to sit down and play because our ride was coming soon to pick us up. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was honestly happy that the consoles in the room really were the true retro stuff – there was a Super Nintendo, Playstation 2, Playstation 1 and so on. Yes, the good old ones that takes me back to simpler days. I think the newest console I saw might have been a Nintendo Gamecube?
There were surprisingly many gaming consoles too, a lot more than I expected – I didn't count but I'm pretty sure that the total amount was close to 10 or so. Two thumbs up from me, a really solid game room. Whoever arranged this deserves applause, I lowkey regret that I didn't have a bit more time so that I could have played at least a little.

I got so excited when I saw that the Super Nintendo had
both Super Mario World and Super Mario All-Stars!

We had to leave the con a bit before it officially ended because we were dependant on Gure (mostly recovered) giving us a ride to the train station and thus had to work with more than just our own time schedules too. We had to catch a train to Harjavalta that same night but before the train would depart we had some time to kill so we went to have some pizza in the train station. It was surprisingly good, especially when hungry.

Lordipizza. Yes, the Eurovision winner Lordi.

We boarded the train and it was full of people. We had the random chance encounter to be situated next to a couple in their 50s who clearly looked like metalheads.. and also clearly looked like they had just been in a bar drinking. The lady was in the sleepy phase but the longhaired dude (he kinda looked like Marko Hietala except with more narrow face and features) was super chatty and curious about us. We both had changed out of costumes before leaving the con but we still had makeup on so yeah, I had my casual clothes (I look like a rocker so he probably sensed that we're his people lol) with those Mightyena triangles below my eyes and I guess it caught his curiosity. It was funny because he asked where we had been and I assumed he didn't know what cosplay was so I explained it in simpler terms, like taking the long way around to make sure he gets the gist of it and then this man just looks at me and his eyes widen and he goes "do you mean that cosplay thing?" and I'm like say whaaaat how does this random dude know the word cosplay? XD He then goes off on a tangent about how he fucking loooooves Star Wars (bro literally goes like "I have ADHD I can't stop talking", bless his heart) and how he's always wanted to try to dress up but that he didn't know how to nor where and now he fears that he's too old and it would be improper of him to go to any conventions. I encouraged him to go to any free events first and check it out because age is really not a hindrance and that there's people of all ages who enjoy dressing up (even though you mostly see the young ones in social media and on the streets). He seemed genuinely interested and really inspired and ngl I wish that he gathers the courage to actually go check out a cosplay event in the future. This was hands down the most wholesome random drunk encounter I've ever had. Not to mention that of course we also talked about metal bands and what bands we had seen live and he had like all the same favorite bands that I do, it was absolutely crazy how much we bonded over such a short time. They were going to the 70 000 Tons of Metal cruise too, that's a bucket list thing for me.

This about sums up my Gingacon experience. I didn't mention every little thing because this summary would have gotten so long (hopefully Firith will mention what I didn't so you can read that report for a more complete picture of our trip!) but let's just say that this was an eventful journey with a lot of twists and turns but which turned out well in the end.
Gingacon left a very good first impression on me – I went in with low to no expectations and was positively surprised in almost all fields. It might be a small con with a specific target audience (the prominent Ginga focus might deter people who aren't familiar with the series) but it felt so genuine and passionate through and through. I also want to say that I find it really great from an inclusivity perspective that there are cons like Gingacon and Pörröcon etc that are extra welcoming towards fursuiters and furries because yeah, sadly I have seen that there is negative stigma and attitudes towards the furry community among the broader anime/manga community, especially online. I don't get the impression that such behavior would be common in Finland but yeah, I believe everyone deserves a safe space to express themselves and their interests freely – as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else and abides by the law, of course. We are all just geeks of different flavors doing geeky things that makes us happy.
All in all I'm really happy I attended Gingacon and I would definitely consider a revisit next year, especially if it's in Tampere again. I know Gingacon has existed since 2016 but I've always been either completely unaware or simply forgot of its existence after hearing about it, until now.
And finally, a big thanks to the main organizers for the flexibility and compassion in arranging my work hours to suit my current capabilities, it's always a blessing to come across such thoughtful and understanding people in higher positions. <3

And before I end this post, here's my lil' con loot:

The contents of the 'appreciation bag'!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this report! Remember to follow the blog if you like my content and aren't already a reader!
See you again soon! ~ Shiro Samurai