Tracon 2025 – Con hype reignited!

 Hello in the house!

Tracon was held on 5-7 September 2025 in Tampere, Finland. It has quite literally been a decade since I last attended (or well, eleven years, to be precise) but this year the stars lined up just right to make it possible for me to return and see how much it has changed! 

Let's-a go! 

Tracon 2025 info booklet.

I should maybe preface here and say that I didn't stop attending Tracon due to a loss of interest or anything like that, in fact even back in the days when I first started going to cons Tracon, early on, climbed to the top spots – it was always one of my most liked events. The reason it fell out was mainly due to economical and logistical reasons (living in the north means it's at the very least a 5h trip with train) and also a few personal ones later on, like worsening mental health that made me mostly only feel safe at nearby small events.

But over the last year or two, truthfully, I've been feeling like I'm missing out by not going to Tracon. I had heard so much good about it, how it has expanded and become something akin to "Finland's Närcon", a mixture of a summer festival and an anime convention. And if there's another convention that I used to attend and miss attending a lot it is Närcon – and the reason I haven't gone to Närcon for years is because it's crazy expensive for me (I have to travel over 1000 km one way, oof) and cumbersome to get there. It just isn't possible right now and so the next best thing is Tracon and, thanks to the wonderful Sallukka and Dongrieg, I managed to go there!
You see, before Tracon's tickets were released I had asked Sallukka casually that if, by chance, they managed to get one for me as well (it's a tight fight to get tickets, popular Finnish cons have had big issues with scalpers for years...) I would like to join them – if it was possible to make it work. My home internet is ass due to being in a grayzone area so yeah, I have poor chances to get a ticket myself. They did get con tickets for all of us three and so I then booked train tickets for myself (making sure to book the seat next to them for company) and they made some changes to the Airbnb stay and then we were set for departure!
On the Thursday before the con my stepfather drove me to Kemi before his work shift began. The train wasn't leaving until just before 17:00 so I spent the afternoon at Sallukka and Dongrieg's place. Joni came over too, he'd drive us to the train station so that Sallukka wouldn't have to leave the car there over the weekend. Because we had a few hours to kill we went to a second-hand shop (Sallukka was looking for parts for a potential cosplay) and I found some vintage My Little Pony dolls, yay! 

Eventually we left for the train station after a detour to Lidl because last-minute snacks for the trip and yeah, what followed was 5 hours sitting in the train and just lagging away lol. I have no memory of what I did in the train aside from curling up in a fetal position to sleep (the seat next to me stayed empty the whole duration) because I got a massive afternoon crash. Oh, and to escape the motion sickness.

It was almost 22:00 when the train arrived in Tampere. Dongrieg activated his navigation skills and we waddled our way to the Airbnb. Luckily it was quite central and thus close to the train station, just a few minutes of walking. I almost stepped on dog poo. Because it was so late we had some trouble with coming up with a place to eat (the few that were open were on the expensive side lol) but luckily at least McDonald's was open and didn't threaten us with bankruptcy.

Our stay during Tracon... after the obligatory cosplayer explosion. :'D

The rest of what remained of Thursday night we just chilled, watched The Simpsons on TV and I did some skincare and other preparations for tomorrow.

Then came Friday. I woke up around 10-ish something. We had no morning urgency because, if I recall correctly, Tracon opened its doors at 16:00 in the evening so we had plenty of time to get ready. Of course if we wanted to we could have headed out to claim our ticket bands in advance but in the end we decided against it because, based on Sallukka and Dongrieg's experiences last year, there wasn't much of a line to get your tickets on-site. Me kelattiin että mitä jos kaikki rynttäävät siihen ennakkohakuun niin siellä on sit jonot ja varsinaisessa conin avauksessa ei enään oo sillee reverse psychology tai jotain. :D So after morning showers and whatnot we headed out to check some stores and grab breakfast; I used the ResQ app to get an inexpensive box of takeaway sushi and almost a kilo of dried cranberries (for 3€) from Punnitse & Säästä to take home because we don't have that kind of luxury store where I live lol. I love ResQ, it's such a great initiative to lessen food waste and save some bucks. :) 
We went back to the Airbnb and I ate the sushis for breakfast/lunch, I was hungry lol. I figured I could just grab something else from ResQ later for dinner.

Eventually me and Sallukka started putting on our cosplays; Dongrieg doesn't cosplay yet but is interested. I did my new OC Shou and the whole makeup process was mostly fine except that I couldn't use the larger elf ears that I originally wanted to use because the spirit gum just wouldn't stick enough to hold their weight. I had to use the smaller ears which I thankfully had packed with me, just in case.

Pretty much the only proof photo I have of Shou for now. 

Once we were finally done we walked to the con. I don't remember what the clock was but maybe it was like 30 minutes or 1 hour after Tracon had officially opened its doors? Something like that. We took a shortcut by walking through the train station which was hella convenient because otherwise you'd have to go around (which I believe is what I used to do back in the days lol), which takes longer.

I was so disoriented when we arrived at the con area because we didn't enter through the main entrance but through the park's side entrance, which didn't even exist when I last was at Tracon, as in the whole fenced outdoor area didn't exist. It took me a good many minutes to recognize where we were lol.

Ticket exchange booths outdoors.

One of the first wow-moments I had was seeing all the food trucks and market stalls lined up immediately upon entering the fenced area. It felt like I had stepped into some kind of outdoorsy summer food festival except that there were cosplayers everywhere. It was an amazing feeling, I felt like a child eager to explore lol!

Tracon con ticket, wiee~

The outdoors area was large, larger than I initially expected. There were photo opportunity decorations, a live stage, a large green area where you could just sit and picnic with friends under the shade of trees etc. Not to mention all the shops (including a big daily rotating Artist Alley tent!) and the benches where you could sit and enjoy your foods. I even heard that even if you didn't have a Tracon ticket you actually had access to the fenced outdoors area – you just couldn't get indoors. So that's like access to roughly half of the con because some of the activities etc were outdoors and there were plenty of things to see and experience for it to be worth a trip to Tampere even if you didn't manage to land a ticket. I honestly like this approach because it makes the con accessible for those who would otherwise be excluded or unable to attend.

The obligatory metrilaku (lit. 'meter liquorice') seller. :'DD

One of several food trucks. Didn't even have to leave the area if you got hungry!

We didn't immediately head inside but instead briefly browsed a bit and checked out the, err, I guess we can call it the square area? Torilla tavataan eiku. There were some dealers outside selling stuff ranging from glass pottery and blacksmith stuff to more typical independent artist (aka Artist Alley) stuff like earrings and post cards. 
It was a bit cloudy but the weather was quite pleasant, I know that it looks a bit dull on the photos but it was a nice day lol. My camera doesn't really do the vibes justice. xD

"Market square" area. Tampere-talo to the right, aka Tracon building.

Ever wanted to smith your own jewelry from scratch? 

It was pretty insane because in the square area was this smithy booth with an anvil, fireplace and everything, like a straight-up blacksmith workshop – and not just that, you could sign up for a course where the bros running the shop would help you forge your own jewelry from scratch. How cool is that??

These guys looked like they came straight from a Korpiklaani music video. x)

We waddled our way indoors and entered the good old Tampere-talo (or Tampere Hall, in English). I gotta say here that I really like Tampere-talo as a con building still – it's so roomy, well-lit, inviting and yet it somehow feels lowkey luxurious in a way? It felt weirdly nostalgic to be back and yeah, once we stepped inside that's when it hit me how much I've really missed Tracon. The con feeling and hype is something else!

We immediately headed for the Dealer's Hall in the back of the main floor because Dongrieg wanted to make some manga and video game purchases and I needed to find Talking to Myself's jewelry store to grab a sword necklace I had reserved and drooled over post-Mericon. It was nice to see that after all these years the Dealer's Hall was in its familiar place so I managed to navigate myself decently.

The beginning of Dealer's Hall area.

Puolenkuun Pelit was the first dealer we checked out!

I did notice that there was a large amount of merchandise sellers and artisans in the designated area and it felt perhaps even bigger than what I remembered? It was nice to see the variety of goods for sale, ranging from manga pockets to steampunk and witchy accessories and home decor! If I hadn't been such a massive dumb-dumb and forgotten my leftover cash from the previous con trip I would have splurged because there was so much I would have liked to buy lol. Instead I had to be very stringent with what I decided to buy, very much so. 

Such a treat to see the Swedish Afternoon Fika here!

One thing I noticed both in the Dealer's Hall and when I later on visited the Artist's Alley upstairs was that there were sellers from outside of Finland, which was so cool to see! I saw Afternoon Fika in the Dealer's Hall area and was so surprised because I knew they were from Sweden because I remember seeing them and buying from there years ago in Närcon! It was such a nice surprise and I loved the opportunity to see how much their store and products had evolved since the last time I saw them. The marine animal and dinosaur plushies are amazing and I seriously wanted to buy one of the shark plushes but, in the end, I couldn't afford it. ;_; 

There even was a shop where a dude sold self-made lightsaber hilts!

When the clock was nearing 17:00 we decided, quite spontaneously, to go check out the "Kosminen musiikkimatka – Connection Interrupted LIVE" music program because there were seat tickets available and live music performances are always nice. But before we headed upstairs to get to the right place I had to drop off my camera bag at the cloakroom because Tracon has this rule in place that states that belongings over a certain size can't be taken into at least the concert rooms, possibly all activity rooms. Luckily it's not really that much of a hassle and I could just pick my camera bag back up after the show is over – the only thing this rule affected is that my photos from the indoor live music shows are all taken with my phone camera but thankfully phone cameras have caught up with SLR cameras the last few years so yeah, there's not a massive dip in quality anymore. :D

Connection Interrupted's "space rig" on stage.

This was honestly so cool! There were these two cosmic space travelers playing something that I'd call electronic, nostalgic club music. I attended it as a spur of the moment thing, drawn in by the promise of something unique and unique it was; I read afterwards that it's a hobby music group and the whole computer rig thingy is self-funded and created, making their passion and soul for the project so tangible. I didn't have any clear expectations when going in but when the two masked guys appeared behind the rig it clicked for me that 'ohhh, this is like a spacecraft simulation music thing with imbedded storytelling elements'. The whole mystery movie ambience and atmosphere thing shifting between dreamlike tranquility and space disasters sucked me in rather quickly and I found my head bobbing to the rhythms in no time! Once I got into the mood I found myself enjoying and appreciating the ride surprisingly much. I liked the songs, the performance and the use of colors, smoke and all of the tiny changes in the rig and other elements that told the story in discreet, observational ways. I also liked how it embraced existential topics without being too dreary and how subtle and refined the whole performance was; I'm not sure if it was intended or not but it almost felt like watching some sort of psychoanalysis of humanity's essence packed into the shape of a mysterious and perilous space journey with nudges towards retro space shooters. One of the best parts was the launch with the countdown in the earlier half, that was so hype with the sound effects making the floor rumble beneath the feet!

Honestly, I would attend this again if I see this group performing somewhere in the future where I happen to be. It's a novel concept that combines the feeling of space mystery with electronic live music and invites the watcher to really think what's beyond the "minimalist surface" (by that I mean that the performance is rather static, it's the same large props and placement for the whole duration). I felt like it was a really intelligent, thought-provoking show that had a lot of hidden layers and could be interpreted in many different ways.

Corridor to/from the Dealer's Hall. There were some artist tables along the sides!

I'm not entirely sure what we did after the space music show, I think we might have briefly returned to the Dealer's Hall and then I think we headed back to our Airbnb stay to drop off our purchases and grab something to eat. I know I grabbed some fried chicken and noodles through ResQ from a different restaurant (Daiwo Sushi) than the morning sushi (Itsudemo).
Once back at our room we just relaxed for a bit and recharged our mental batteries from the overwhelm. Neither me nor Sallukka changed out of costume just yet.

Walking back to the con, this time entering through the main entrance.

It's hard to remember what we did when because truth is that time went by so fast and it felt like I was constantly in a mixed daze of equal parts hype and overwhelm. There was so much I would have wanted to see and panels that were interesting enough to go check out but yeah, I'm one of those people that when there's tons of interesting things to keep tabs on I just kinda have a shutdown and end up not being able to take in and process everything because I'm so overstimulated lol. So I had this little priority list in my head that I will focus on live music performances because yeah, that's like one of Tracon's main pulls that it prides itself on (and Tampere-talo is great as a host building for concerts).

Friday was mostly an exploration and shopping day. I know I entirely missed the "outdoors Artist's Alley" aka the Taidepolku art tent on Friday because of how time flew by. In hindsight it sucks because I only noticed on Saturday that the tent held 20 unique artists per day, meaning 60 artists in the outdoor tent alone! That's insane! But if I want to be realistic I have to factor in that yes, I passed by the tent on Friday and yes, the queue to even get in was equally insane. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people just gave up because they lost motivation upon seeing how long the line was. I remember thinking to myself during the day when we first arrived at the con "oh I'll just go later when there's no line"... pfffrt, as if such a miracle ever happened.

But at least I didn't miss my Friday must-see, namely the "Nörttifolkkia Temmien tahtiin" folk music group outdoors at 21:00. I absolutely adore acoustic shows in general and folk covers etc and folk metal of course. This was on the live stage in the green area and, despite the humidity at this hour of the night messing with the violin strings, it was such a cozy and great show! My favorite was a cover of the Gerudo Valley theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time except with some Finnish lyrics thrown in due to similarities in sounds (Kerava sounds a bit like Gerudo lol).

Temmit folk group on the live stage outdoors.

After this concert was wrapped up at roughly 22:00 we stayed for the "Flamman tulishow" that would begin almost directly after; for those who can't read Finnish it's a fire show by the group Flamma. I've never seen this particular group before but I've seen several fire shows during my life so I kinda know what to expect haha. They were good though, and fire shows are always cool!

Flamma taking the stage.

I had some trouble with the special arrangements because everyone in the audience had to sit on the grass so that those in the back could also see, which is fair, but I happened to be in the very front with Sallukka and super hesitant to sit down because I didn't want to ruin my costume in the moist grass already ruined the haori once #trauma but, even more so, I had real difficulties trying to get down in a crouching position (to keep most of my costume off the ground) because of a really unstable and painful left knee. I had wrapped it for stability already on the morning but it only helps so much with hypermobility and chronic pain issues so yeah, I couldn't focus on the fire show because all I could focus on was the damn throbbing pain in my knee and keeping my balance. I did eventually lose balance and fall over and I was so embarrassed because there was of course someone straight behind me whom I fell over. ;_; I gave up at that point and left my spot to go stand at the far back. I know it was informed prior to the show's start that those with mobility issues etc could sit on the edges of the live stage but I was too hesitant to go there because I'd have to cross the crowd and get in everyone's way. Yeah I'm super anxious to even remotely annoy others by passing through, even if I would need it. And I lowkey was afraid that I'm "too able-bodied" to have a right to use it because only one of my knees is bad.

After the fire show was over we decided to head back to the Airbnb for the night. There would still have been some activities left until almost midnight but we were getting tired and just wanted to wind down at this point. We walked back to our place of stay and I ate the fried chicken dish I had picked up earlier after I was done deleting the makeup from my face; it's so refreshing to shower after a full day sweating in a costume lol. And here I even tried to pick a lighter cosplay so I wouldn't boil to death but of course I forgot that yeah, autumn in the north isn't the same as autumn in the south. xD

The rest of the night I remember doing my dailies on Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves etc on my phone and then playing a bit on my Nintendo Switch. I also don't know why we're like this at the late hours but I distinctly remember a serious midnight conversation with Sallukka and Dongrieg where we pondered the deep questions about life and... well, that included the intellectual pinnacle of "pylly synnyttää kakan ja pönttö vie sen kotiin" (translates to "the ass births the shit and the toilet takes it home"). Poop talk is high culture.

On Saturday I woke up roughly around 9:40 and with the power of Lidl's Donkey Kong energy drink I started putting on my cosplay for the day, namely captain Ukitake from Bleach. Or well, I tried to start but instead I had a moment of panic because I couldn't find my wig cap anywhere! After searching hunting high and low for it I finally found it wrapped around the friggin' door handle. I really have no idea why I put it on such a weird place last night. :S I had some issues with my foundation being all streaky and shit for some reason (it was perfectly fine yesterday lol) but thankfully the powder hid the worst of it; sometimes the foundation trolls like that.  

Walking towards another day of fun~

Just like on the day before me, Sallukka and Dongrieg entered Tracon through the side entrance, it's just more conveniently placed for us considering the direction we arrived from. We had barely gotten inside the fenced area when a No-Face cosplayer from Spirited Away approached us on the road pictured above and exclaimed "all Bleach cosplayers get free candy!" while handing us some mint candies. It was sudden and adorable and I immediately felt appreciated. ;_;

Ukitake and Unohana (Sallukka) vibing feat. Minazuki-rausku. <3

Pretty sure we went straight for the Dealer's Hall again and just generally hanged around until it was time for the AMV competition to start at 15:30. I've got to admit my ignorance here and say that I've largely lived under a rock because up until now I barely knew what an Anime Music Video really was – like I had this vague idea that it was like a compilation of different anime clips with random upbeat music thrown in but apparently it's a much more intricate art form than that. I went in with no idea what sort of quality to expect but I was blown away by the talent! It was a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be and some of the videos had amazing storytelling and the clips were synced so well with the rhythm and emotions of the chosen songs. I almost got inspired to try to create something myself.. until I remembered how shite I am at video editing. x'D

More Dealer's Hall glory!

There was honestly so much cool and nerdy stuff for sale...

... including obligatory Pokémon plush dolls. I have that Magikarp btw.

During the duration of the AMV competition I noticed I felt a weird headache. I thought at first that it's probably just your average wig headache and tried readjusting the wig, which eased the worst of it. I went on with my day not thinking too much about it. 
Oh and yeah, I forgot my phone inside my camera bag (that I, once again, had to leave at the cloakroom before entering the AMV competition) so that's why I don't have any photos of the competition. Sorry!

Throughout the day there were a handful of encounters with other Bleach cosplayers and fans – a few wanted photos and some passed us by complimenting our costumes. I always feel so awkward with social interactions but I also enjoy those little moments of fandom joy. ;^;

An overview and map of all the floors.

I would have liked to watch the "Viikinkimiekkailun taistelunäytös" which was a viking swordfighting display but I completely forgot about it during the day! I did catch the "Yagyu shinkage ryu miekkailunäytös" though, which showcased the aforementioned school's teachings of swordsmanship. As someone who used to practice kendo back in the days I could spot some slight similarities but it was nevertheless interesting to watch and chat about. The people holding the display were polite and friendly and you could get some hands-on experience if you wanted to. :) 

Yagyu Shinkage-ryu is more than just a Combat Style in Rise of the Ronin.

The weather was similar to what we got on Friday so yeah, I was getting roasted in my shinigami robes lol. I tried to stay outdoors as much as possible because it was breezier than indoors. The main floor and the second floor were alright (especially if you had a folding fan) but the third floor was sauna levels of unbearably hot. 

I'm pretty sure I went to the third floor already on the first day but it was so packed with people and suffocatingly warm that it was really uncomfortable to try to browse the Artist's Alley that was located up there. I remember mostly just skimming through the tables even though some of the sellers were only there for one day; I'm pretty sure I missed some artists on Friday but no can do. On Saturday I tried to go up there on like two or three separate occasions to make sure I didn't miss anyone. It always felt like you were on a timer once you got up there because the air quality and heat was almost unbearable if you were in a heavier or layered costume! During one of the days when I was upstairs it reeked of spilled beer lol.

Third floor's Artist Alley.

I loved the variety of items for sale and there were several artists I had never seen previously, including some from far abroad. Yes, further than Sweden. :D This is one of those times when I once again lamented over forgetting my extra cash at home. *sniff* I was particularly stoked to see a first-timer who had some amazing Digimon prints and acrylic stands for sale – if I see him again somewhere I'm taking WereGarurumon home lol.

Roleplaying area (I think?) was on the second floor.

Of course when you're wandering around and having fun you're bound to get hungry – or at least snackish. This time we didn't head back to our apartment to grab something to eat (or well, Sallukka and Dongrieg did go back briefly but only to drop off their purchases) but instead tried out some of the food truck offers. You could get warm food like hamburgers and stuff but we tried out those cute round little pancakes and it was delicious! I did carry with me some candy-flavored dates but those I inhaled already during the AMV competition so yeah, I was hungry again by now. :'D

Mini pancakes with white chocolate and blueberries!

Despite my knee being a jerk and being all wibbly-wobbly I had a great time on Saturday. I remember when I was outside waiting for Sallukka and Dongrieg at some point (I mean, you look away for even one minute and you lose your company in the whirlpool of people lol) there was this person standing next to one of the junctions leading to the live stage and they said something that implied that they had been waiting for me to come within range so that they could get a photo; they had a capillary fracture or something like that on their feet and couldn't walk much. They were so sweet and ecstatic about seeing someone cosplaying Ukitake, I just hope they weren't in too much pain to be able to enjoy the con. ;_; 

Live stage area. This was were Temmit and Flamma were on Friday.

Saturday went by really fast and soon enough it was time for the "Sekakuoro Unreality: Legendojen arvoiset" choir concert, one of our group's must-sees. I absolutely adore choirs overall and might have some extra affinity for the artform because when my mom was a young girl she used to sing in a choir that traveled all the way to Iceland once. I've always loved singing myself but I'm ridiculously shy and only sing alone or else I die lol.

I had never seen Unreality perform before so I was quite excited for this one! It started at 20:00 and lasted for one hour. I wouldn't have minded if it had been even longer because it really stirred something in me and it was really ethereal. I did record one of the songs, Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold, but they also played immortal geek classics like the Dovahkiin song! 
My recording quality doesn't do the performance justice at all but I uploaded it below, for anyone who wants to hear it. 

Once this concert was over the time was 21:00 and we were ready to call it a day. Together we all waddled back downstairs to retrieve our stuff from the cloakroom and while I was grabbing my stuff I felt someone tapping softly on my shoulder. I turn around and there's this person in casual clothes just next to me who says how much they love my cosplay and we ended up talking a bit about Ukitake and Bleach in general and I kinda got the feeling that they probably would have otherwise wanted a photo but were polite because yeah, they could see I was getting ready to leave the con. I asked if they wanted a hug instead and their eyes lit up and I gave them this big proper hug and then they apologized because they started crying oh my god. ;;__;; I said there's no need to apologize for happy tears.
I don't know what it is but it feels like whenever I cosplay Ukitake that's when I get these wholesome moments – it feels like for a lot of Bleach fans he's just one character in the roster but there's a small group of people who are really big fans and these devoted fans are the ones I seem to attract. :') One of the reasons I love cosplaying Ukitake, aside from how special this cosplay is to me, is because I tend to get these tender and memorable social interactions that stay with me! 
The only thing I wish I would have noticed during this encounter was that I had forgotten to take my glasses off after the Unreality concert. I was completely unaware of the fact I still had them on and only noticed after they left. Oops. I was tired. :'D

Back at the Airbnb we spent the rest of the night watching dumb Youtube clips like Sinkkulaiva (yes it's trashy lmao) episodes with commentary by Juufin and then youtuber Franssi playing Mörköpeli, aka The Groke Game, a Moomin fangame that got taken down. It was a lot of fun!

I had intrusive thoughts. My intrusive thoughts won.

Oh, remember that wig headache I mentioned? It wasn't a wig headache, it was the wig cap that had cut into my skin so deep there was this raised red wound. :DD Yes it hurt, could barely even touch it for several days lmao. #cosplayilmantuskaaonteeskentelyä

Sunday came. It was time to pack all belongings and leave the room. The morning could have gone better because my phone's GPS was a lil' shit and didn't work properly when I tried to make my way to the closest foodstore to recycle our cans and bottles – I ended up going in the wrong direction at first. Always lovely when you're short on time. :)) Oh well, still made it back on time and off we went. 
Neither Sallukka nor Dongrieg were too keen on carrying all our luggage to the con and frankly, I wasn't too excited by it either. Thank lord the train station had these luggage storage locker things you could rent for a set amount of hours that was hella convenient. Need to remember that for next time because it saves you from the after-con hassle of retrieving your luggage from the big cloakroom outdoors when literally everyone else needs to do the same thing too lol.

None of us cosplayed on Sunday, not worth the hassle. Ja ehkä oli vähän conidarran alkua. Sunday was like a half day for us because the train up north would leave around 16:00 – there's not a lot of train options on Sundays and this was the most sensible one to take. Of course we missed a lot of programs that would have been interesting to see but such is the burden of living far away. 

Tracon had something for everyone, including rhythm games.

Drum session anyone? No chance of getting bored this weekend. :D

At 12:30 the "Akateeminen puhallinorkesteri ja laulusolistit: Historiaa ja hittejä – Tracon 20v juhlakonsertti" started, the academic brass band ceremonial concert celebrating Tracon's 20th anniversary. Yes, this was a big anniversary year for Tracon and I think perhaps that's why there were so many programs and activities? I mean, it would make sense at least.

They played to a full audience I'm pretty sure.

I had high expectations for this one. I got the impression it was the crown jewel of the concerts in regards to the anniversary at least and yeah, it looked like the hall was full so it sure was anticipated. But still I ended up a little disappointed; it was not bad by any means but I know part of my personal disappointment comes from the fact there wasn't a single song I had heard prior lol. Yeah I know, that's on me for being out of the loop and not having watched a lot of anime. The only song I even remotely knew, at least by name, was Hare Hare Yukai and I never cared for it nor understood why it was so hyped back in the days but, then again, I never watched the anime it originated from either. How blasphemous and uncivilized of me, I know. :) Of course I know what Fire Emblem and Super Smash Bros. game series are that they also played songs from but it was from the newer entries and I've only played the older entries lmao rip because my gaming backlog is immense. :-DD 
Some of the vocalists were decent but others left a bit to be desired imho, especially after the wow-factor of the Unreality concert that had such a strong and convincing presence. 

After the brass orchestra we had roughly 2 hours left of time to stroll around and wrap up any loose ends of things we wanted to do.

Second floor view.

There was a maid café on the second floor.

I know I went to check the third floor's Artist Alley for one last time, now that it was a bit less of a death trap since I wasn't overheating in costume lol. I noticed there were several tables that had "sold out" notes in place were items used to be earlier so yeah, selling at Tracon is probably quite lucrative! Very happy for all the artists who got great sales! And Tracon really motivated me to start working on my own stuff too.

Youkai art exhibition at the outdoor area.

For the last hour or so I tried my luck to get into the Taidepolku art tent outside, aka "the outdoors Artist Alley". I did manage to get inside yesterday during a low activity moment but the one thing I would have wanted to buy, a Sephiroth print, was sold out. The artist said it had been really popular.

Outdoors area. Not sure what direction this is lolol.

When I reached the junction leading to the Taidepolku tent I noticed this massive line of people. I stood around the general area for a while and I spotted a Sheena Fujibayashi cosplayer from one of my childhood games, Tales of Symphonia. We ended up talking for a good while and bonding over the game and well, games in general. It was a great talk!

Eventually I went to stand in line, not sure if I even was in the right place, until this person in front of me asked me if I'm waiting to get inside Taidepolku. I of course said yes and then I was handed this big sign that said "end of the line" and I was bewildered for half a second until it clicked and I then gave it forward to the people who came to stand behind me. :'D

You can't even see half of the queue on this photo. #jonocon

So I stand there in line, waiting more or less patiently once I realized the train is leaving in one hour and the line isn't really moving fast enough lol. I learn that Sallukka and Dongrieg had tried to go check out the tent earlier but immediately gave up when they saw how eternal the line was. Can't blame them though – normally I would have given up too. The only reason I was stubborn to get in was because I saw, when passing next to the exit opening, that the table visible from that entrance had a really beautiful Neuvillette print that I needed in my life!

60 unique artists in Taidepolku alone, meaning 20 per day!

I swear the line got bigger and bigger the closer you got because at first, when you were far away, you couldn't see the full length and all the twists and turns lol. I'm not sure how many years it took off my life but eventually I got in. The security worker who let people in cut off the line just in front of me (there was this group of friends in front and she asked if they were the same group) and I was begging like "can I please get in, my train is leaving in less than one hour" lmao – every minute counted at this point. Good thing she was understanding and let me in because I was stressed at this point. 

Taidepolku (lit. "art path") tent inside view.

There was this artist inside who had this nice-looking Sephiroth acrylic charm (I haven't seen a Sephiroth one before at cons I've been to) that I wanted but they were one of the few who didn't take credit cards. And this is when I wanted to kick myself for forgetting those extra euro bills at home. By the time I managed to jumble together an alternative way to pay, and returned to that table, I was told that they literally just sold the very last one right in front of my nose! My typical luck at play. xD So instead of Sephiroth I got a Neuvillette charm, which also happened to be the last one lol. I have several different Neuvillette charms already from other artists but he's my number one favorite Genshin character so I'm collecting them all lmao. I did of course buy the print too (it was a different table) that I saw from the exit earlier. 

I've always wanted to try boffer fighting. Maybe next time!

After my Taidepolku trip I met up with Sallukka and Dongrieg and then we left Tracon behind. Before going to the train station I grabbed some takeaway sushi from a Chinese restaurant called Zhuang Yuan Lou; for some reason I can't seem to find it on Google Maps (it is on ResQ though) but it was located inside the shopping mall at Tullikatu 6 near Tampere-talo. I wouldn't care to mention this otherwise but holy hell the sushi was overly delicious so yeah, I'm making like a mental note to myself to remember this place for next year! I haven't had such good sushi in years – it was absolute heaven in my mouth and, in hindsight, I wish I would have bought the second box that was available too. I really wasn't expecting anything special because the place was rather small and somewhat hidden on the bottom floor of this mall and yeah, the place looked so average in all ways but damn, what a gem.

Surprise sushi bliss in the train. 

The train trip back home went fine, except that I dropped my Zhongli pin on the platform while waiting for the train to arrive. I heard it fall though so I retrieved it. I've dropped and lost so many pins during my teenage years so you gotta stay vigilant now as an adult. xD

Phew. I think my Tracon summary is done with all that. This took me several days to write because it's so massive. Good thing I had been smart in advance and made some notes throughout the con days so that I even remembered anything at this point! I tend to forget and mix things up am I old? and these little notes really helped me write this summary lol. 
Surprisingly my con hangover isn't as bad as I expected it to be (I've had worse hangovers from Kummacon and Matsucon, no shade!) – perhaps the con hype and post-excitement helped combat the scales, hehe. I'm so fired up after Tracon, I had so much fun and I've missed this feeling of unbridled geeky joy. I loved seeing all the various costumes and especially the quirky rare ones you don't expect to see like someone cosplaying Mr Lordi himself (yes, the Finnish monster band), the Bananas in Pyjamas, Skibidi Toilet, Blåhaj, a whole group of only Nurse Joys from Pokémon and many more that enriched the experience!

Bonus photo!

These two goofballs were like the highlight of my con!

I saw these two wizard Merlin (Disney's The Sword in the Stone) cosplayers on Saturday and I completely lost it when I recognized them. XD I've never seen anyone cosplay Merlin in real life before and these versions make it a thousand times better and I told it to these two who then proceeded to tell me that that's exactly their cosplay goals – namely to cosplay fun and rare characters that very few have done before. They were so hilarious and with such amazingly boisterous personalities that the laughs were contagious. xD Without lying every subsequent time when we came across each other throughout the day we'd crack up immediately. It was beyond beautiful.
Sadly they didn't have any social media accounts or anything so I can't tag them here but, like, wherever you are please keep on doing what you do!

I absolutely adored this new Tracon experience. Tracon has grown so much; I had an amazing time and, although it was impossible to experience and see everything I was interested in, I left with a feeling of giddy excitement and nerdy fulfillment that I haven't felt from cons in a long time. I know I just have to go next year too, this crushed all my expectations! I don't have the words to describe everything I'm feeling right now but I know I feel so alive and ready to get creative to make next year even more fun!

Thanks for reading!~
A really big and special thank you goes out to both Sallukka and Dongrieg for making this experience possible. ♥ Love you!

~ Shiro Samurai ~

Tracon 2025 cosplay plans!

Hi hi!

Yes, I'm actually attending Tracon again! It's only been like.. uhh.. 11 years since the last time? xD I've heard that Tracon has changed quite a lot and I really want to see how it is nowadays. I didn't think I'd get a chance to revisit "this soon" LOL but things worked out and here I am, packing and panicking for the trip!

The reason I'm so late with my costume plans is because they kept changing so much. One of the original plans even changed last minute because the wig self-destructed don't ask omg and so I had to find something else. Luckily it wasn't hard to come up with a replacement and the choice was made even easier when I learned that Sallukka was planning a cosplay from the same series!

As of how things look right now I will do a new OC cosplay on Friday. His name is Shou and he's from the same story/universe as Yuuto is. I haven't had time to make any art of this character yet so please bear with the lack of visualization for now. ^^" I know I've been rather short-worded about my OCs in general but I do plan to write stories for some of them that I might publish somewhere – ideally in a physical novel compilation because I like physical media. It's good to have ambitions.. or something.

For Saturday I will rewear an old classic who already saw the light of day earlier this year...

Character: Jushiro Ukitake

Series: Bleach

Yes, Ukitake it is! He's such a comfy cosplay to wear and with Bleach being on the rise once more it feels like it's a great time to bring out my old costumes again. Not like popularity has ever dictated my cosplay choices anyway but, I mean, when something I still enjoy happens to get a revival years down the line it's a golden opportunity to relive those nostalgia years!

I briefly thought about bringing a cosplay for Sunday too but figured it's not really worth it because I won't be at the con that long on the last day (if at all) and yeah, the reason for this is obvious – when you live as far north as I do the traveling back home takes a looooong time. I'm also a sucker for comfort nowadays and the idea of sitting in a train with cosplay on for 5+ hours doesn't sound as exciting now as it did for my younger and weebier self lol. And well, changing out of cosplay before leaving the con is such a hassle for just a couple hours of wear time at most so nahh, no Sunday costume for me.

That's it for my lineup! Anyone else rocking Soul Reaper robes? :D

Matsucon 2025 – Cultural exchange and dab in the park

 Greetings!

Matsucon was held this past weekend in Oulu, 9-10 August, Finland. Just like on previous years Pohjankartano school was the con building this time too. It's a pretty good place to host a convention since it's close to centrum and also the train and bus station, it's also spacious and there's enough rooms for all kinds of activities!

Let's get to the summary!

Matsucon's poster/advertisement! 

As one can make out from the cake in the poster, 2025 was some kind of celebration milestone for Matsucon. Apparently "Pocky ry", the registered association or whatever it's called in English (basically the group behind organizing Matsucon), turns 10 years this year! I'll admit to being such a pleb that I didn't notice anything drastically different from the other Matsucons I've been to, aside from the birthday arts of Matsucon's mascots lol. :'D I mean yeah there were guests of honor but as far as I can remember that's been a rather expected/common feature of Matsucon? Well, regardless it was a good year for Matsucon~

But hey, let's backtrack a bit. So me and Firith traveled to Matsucon together by train the day before the con. There was a lot of uncertainty about what the weather would be like during the weekend it literally kept changing every day I checked but I had packed with me Urahara as planned, just in case. It would have sucked if the weather turned out fine in the end and I had omitted my chance at cosplaying. :-DD
Once we arrived at Oulu we came to the conclusion that we were both pretty dang hungry and so we just slid into the nearest pizzeria we could find on the way. Yes, before even checking in at the hotel first lol. I had a pizza and it was so stonks that I couldn't finish it all and had to take the last couple slices with me wrapped in tinfoil. It's good that hotel rooms have minibars but oh lord Metapod my savior did the fridge smell of my greasy garlic pizza afterwards... xD

The rest of the day went by preparing for tomorrow and the rest was random hotel bullshit and trying to wind down after all the traveling. These old millennial bones can't keep up with this one con a week schedule lmao. Thank higher beings there's a break after Matsucon.

Saturday morning came, we woke up at 7:30 and headed almost straight for breakfast. Sokos Hotel Arina's breakfast buffet is very familiar to me by now, lol. The weather seemed fine at this point too.
Once we got back to our room I started putting on my cosplay. I had intentionally left my lenses at home this time because I figured it would be an unnecessary strain on my eyes because over half of my time at the con I would sit inside the green room during my work shifts. Urahara also has gray eyes anyway and usually the shadow of his hat blocks his eyes so I figured I could skip the lenses this time as I wasn't planning on photoshooting or anything anyway and well, I just wanted to be comfy and not have my eyes acting out because of dryness or whatever. I'm very relieved I decided to go without lenses because my eyes ended up being super dry all day – it felt like I had worn lenses for hours except that I hadn't!

Well, once we were done we took a taxi to the con; don't want to sweat off all the makeup before even arriving at the con. Yeah, despite it being August and northern Finland it was still rather hot – sure, the worst heat wave has passed but it still feels like it's warmer than it should be at this time of year? We can all collectively blame climate change I guess.

Matsucon entrance.

I think the clock was something around or near 11:00 when we arrived at the con. Immediately at the entrance I got my worker's badge and then I think we first went to check the Dealer's Hall in the main hall on the base floor. It's like a big open space with merch sellers and artisan tables along with merch for the guest of honors. You could of course also buy snacks and other Japanese treats.

View directly after entering the con. Dealer's Hall to the right.

Dealer's Hall and artisans were both in the same area.

I don't know how other countries do it but Finnish cons typically separate artist's alley and artisans nowadays, although technically they are the same type of sellers. The difference, as far as I know, is that artisan's are "too experienced" to be in the traditional artist's alley in a sense; usually an artisan has a long-running and/or highly successful business with high selling volumes. I think some cons are trying to prioritize giving the artist alley spots to artists who are newer and/or less experienced because the alley tables are cheaper than merch/artisan tables? So yeah, there's a lot of overlap and the line is blurry of when someone is considered an artist versus an artisan (I mean both are independent artists selling their works) but I can imagine this distinction was made in the interest of fairness and to make sure budding artists don't get mowed over by established ones with more experienced portfolios (aka more likely to be chosen by the con), especially because the artist alley slots always fill up crazy fast things you learn when you organize a con and far from everyone who applies gets a spot.

View of the main hall from the other side.

I browsed the different sellers and overall there was a great con atmosphere. It got a bit crowded at times but nothing out of the ordinary. So many sellers were very friendly and chatty, it was fun talking to everyone! I ended up buying a few items and then I think I went to chat with the Cryo tabletop guys (had some questions about the upcoming Maracon, which I'll maybe attend) and after that I had to hurry upstairs to my work station because I had to be in the green room for some briefing 15 minutes before my shift would start.

Second floor's corridor. Cryo's room to the left.

I've worked at Matsucon's green room once before so the briefing was very, well, brief. It's basically the same rules and everything of how to do things and what the work tasks are etc. Working in the green room is quite chill if you ask me but a requirement is that you have a valid hygiene pass certification so yeah, not everyone can apply for this volunteer role. So what do I do in the green room then? Well, the most important one I'd say is to make sure that there's always fresh coffee available because everyone needs caffeine all the time lmao. Of course there's basic stuff like answering food and green room related questions that other workers might ask and to keep the place tidy. Oh, and of course make sure that only people who are allowed to enter the green room are there, aka con workers and those who provide for the con in some way (panelists, security officers, sellers, guest of honors).

Green room edibles. :D Take a pause and eat~

One thing that made me chuckle was when I was in the green room just doing random small tasks and some other worker just says out loud "should we be trusting of Urahara being in charge of our foods?". xD I mean yeah the character is highly sus but I promise I'm not sus lmao!

All my work shifts on Saturday were 2h shifts followed by 2h free time and so when I stamped out of my first competed shift at 14:00 I went to do a speedrun of the Artist's Alley on the second floor (green room was on the third floor). Just like on previous years Artist's Alley was located on the second floor and split into two halves, one half on one end of the corridor and the other on the other end. It works sufficiently well although it can be quite difficult to browse during the rush hours because the hallway is rather narrow. I mean it is a school corridor.

View of the Artist's Alley. Or well, one half of it.

I felt like most sellers in the Artist's Alley were familiar to me this year, maybe there was one or two I didn't recall seeing before, but I still enjoy checking all tables in case there's something new. I feel a bit bad that I couldn't purchase from everyone who had interesting items but I have to be careful with my budget this month. :'( I already lowkey overspent a bit but it was worth it rausku is life.

Funny "feed Naruto/Sasuke" jars at Anocado's table. XD

I don't really know what was different with this year's Matsucon but it somehow felt more cozy, more idk... united? Or at least I personally had a surprisingly good time despite being stuck literally half my total con time inside the four walls of the green room. xD I must admit I liked Matsucon's older volunteer system better where you could choose if you wanted to have shifts on both days or focused into one day and the other day free. I understand why they possibly changed that to have everyone work both days but as a long-time volunteer I used to praise Matsucon in my mind for being the one who did things differently and let the volunteer have a semblance of control of how they wanted to work. As much as I had a good time it also, simultaneously, felt like my con experience was more scattered and sprawled out than before – especially my free time because I never had more than 2h at a time so yeah, I always had to plan what I "could do" and be as "time efficient" as possible to not waste it. Feels kinda counterproductive to stress about free time lol. :') For example I gave up on going to the video game room because time blindness when getting immersed playing is too real.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that roughly during this time (around 2 PM) I had checked the activities and rather spontaneously decided to go check out the "dragon art & samurai dance" program, despite having no clue what it truly was (mainly because Matsucon's leaflet didn't have program descriptions written out, you had to check them through a QR code). I just thought it sounded interesting and I happened to be free during the time slot it was on so I went to check what it was about. I noticed immediately that the room was almost full and there was a Japanese lady in kimono standing in front doing some kind of presentation. I glanced an empty chair in front and sat my ass down and, despite my initial confusion of a mismatch in expectations (seemed like some kind of business advertisement at first lol), it was a very worthwhile experience.

Japan and Finland in unity art statement? Something like that. :3

Eventually another lady in wafuku, Shihomi, took the stage and after introducing herself and what she does I was intrigued. She's an arts and entertainment performer expressing and sharing the teachings of Japanese divinity, zen etc through various art and dance acts. I really liked the way she spoke, it was professional without being dull and heavy; there was clearly a passion of sharing her culture without making it appear "exotic" and "marketable" for westerners. I liked especially how there were spiritual and zen components weaved into the samurai dance performance (which I sadly didn't get photos of because there were people sitting in front of me and catching a good photo of a moving person is hard!) and also after when she did the calligraphy dragon art. 

Dragon scroll painting.

I can't quite explain it but during the performances, especially the samurai dance with the fan, I felt a stir of emotions that came out of nowhere. Maybe it was the atmospheric music that let the mind wander combined with her refined moves and sharp expression but something deeply spiritual felt very tangible in those moments. I rarely get watery eyes but the silent yet powerful energy of that performance moved me.

The dragon painting was also a treat to watch. She freehanded it in roughly 10 minutes, with a prayer before starting and after finishing it. It was mesmerizing in its simplicity and professionalism – of placing trust in the process. I liked the descriptions of the dragon's powers in shintoism and how the direction the soaring dragon's head is facing matters.
She mentioned that the finished scroll was for sale for 500€ (half price from normal quote/value) but that's waaaaay out of my budget. *sniff* I do hope someone who could afford it bought it during Matsucon, it would definitely be a really cool and unique home decor, along with a memory to look back on...

You could buy home lucky charms and other crafts made by Shihomi.

After the painting was done the next activity was a bon odori dance for everyone to join in on. At this point I decided to leave because I didn't see Firith anywhere in the room and I'm too awkward to dance around people lol. Besides, my knee had been unstable lately (I had wrapped it for stability) and I didn't want to take any risks to aggravate it further thankfully con workers are allowed to use the elevator.

I found Firith just outside at the cafeteria and I'm not sure what we did at this point but I think we went to browse the other half of the Artist's Alley? It's a bit hard to remember what exactly I did when because all this time I was just trying to explore as much as possible without overstaying anywhere lol, I had to optimize the shit out of my free time. 

The rest of the con day flowed by without a hitch. Or well, except that in the green room one of the two coffee brewers randomly dropped a spring from nowhere?? It still worked though and no one was entirely sure where it came from lmao. Having a malfunctioning coffee machine would have been a whole new level of disaster kahvin menekkiä ei voi estää. Oh, and at some point when I was in the green room there suddenly came a massive rainfall out of nowhere, like it was raining sideways. :'D Good thing it came when I was indoors...

On Saturday I had the last shift and so when I was done the con closed for the day. Me and Firith had some differing opinions on if we should take a taxi in case it rains again or walk back to the hotel, I voted for the latter. We ended up walking and it was a good idea because it didn't rain and the weather was actually pleasant because it had cooled a bit and so it was rather refreshing. We ended up taking the semi-classic "proof that I had a costume on" photo at the nearby park. And got goofy about it. :'D

Am I hip with the kids or cringe now?

Once we got to the hotel we peeled off our cost--, wait a sec, no we didn't. Before we got to the hotel we grabbed some bubble tea and ResQ app sushi lol. Yes, we still had the smelly pizza slices in the fridge too. xD It's kinda convenient when the hotel is in the heart of the centrum so you just have to walk a few meters to get boba, get food, go to the foodstore or the bar or anything really. 

Back at the hotel the costume flew off and into the shower I went. Firith had planned a meeting with some mutual friends at a bar in like an hour or so and so we had to get ready. We still had time to chomp down the sushi though and slurp our bobas, no stress. 
We went out into Oulu's night life and met up with Gure and Selja and one of their friends. The bar that had been chosen I personally found very uncomfortable at first; it was claustrophobic and the music was way too loud and everyone around us were drunk and loud and yeah, it was sensory overload hell for me. Luckily a spot on the terrace freed up and we quickly moved outside, which was much better because we didn't have to listen to drunks unaware of their own decibel levels. I still despise the guts of random people who start smoking right next to me and blow those cancer fumes in my face. :)

Eventually we parted ways and me and Firith went back to the hotel and watched some National Geographic and binged doritos until past midnight lol.

Sunday morning came and it was another round of breakfast and then we had to pack up everything and leave the room. I had no cosplay for Sunday and that was for the better, just didn't want to sit in the train in costume nor waste precious free time trying to change out of costume at the con.

Matsucon outside area. People hung out outside too. :)

My first work shift was at 11:00 but we arrived at Matsucon before that and so we had some time to wander around and explore. Sunday was more calm than Saturday but that's a given, it's almost always a more laid-back day regardless of the con. 

Feel Japan drop-in workshop.

Already yesterday we were curious about this Feel Japan workshop on the second floor but on Sunday we decided to check it out. You could try calligraphy (kanji on paper), I think I saw some kendama toys and there was this lovely slightly older Japanese lady, Yoko, who apparently lives in Finland and organizes cultural exchange events. You could try out kimono here and get help dressing up, which is a really nice experience offered for those who've never tried it and are curious. I ended up talking with her that I actually collect and wear vintage kimono myself (although I've had a long break on the collecting part) and she and the other lady who was in the workshop got so excited when I dug up an old photo to show them. It's been years since I last had someone so exhilaratingly beam kakkoii at me. x) Aah, so precious! I really should dress up more often, it's been a long time since I last did a proper wafuku coordination...

General view of the main area (Dealer's Hall) from above.

Sadly I didn't have that much time to talk before I had to leave because my work shift was starting. I was hoping to return later but in the end I didn't have time before they closed the workshop. :( Oh well, I hope a similar workshop will be held in future conventions in Oulu so I could check it out more thoroughly – would have liked to try the calligraphy with some guidance!

The video game room~

I took a peek into the video game room at some point but they didn't have U.N. Squadron on Super Nintendo, although there were quite many SNES games available. I hope I one day find a con that has that game available to play, I miss it so much. 

I was tempted to buy that Dragonair... ;_;

I honestly don't remember much what I did on Sunday. I just worked and existed in a daze lol? Conidarra iskee ennen kun coni ees on loppu? :'D No but really, I remember having a decent time and like idling at the Artist's Alley, checking if I missed something on my earlier runs and such. I always triple-check just in case because it feels like you always miss something somehow. 

Organization booths were downstairs, mainly other cons advertising!

I had the very last hour's shift and that meant I was in the green room packing things up, wiping tables etc when we started closing it down when there was like 30 minutes left. Once again there was a loooot of bread left over (I still remember the rieska mayhem many years ago omfg) and anyone of the workers who wanted to could take some home with them. I grabbed what I could carry before I left. xD

After we retrieved our luggages from the cloakroom we took a taxi to the train station. At the train station we saw a random pink abandoned travel bag next to the rails on the opposite of where we stood? No idea what was going on but it was unattended for the whole duration we were there (almost one hour) and it was kinda weird, not gonna lie. I hope the original owner reclaimed it. :S


Anyways, Matsucon this year was a solid experience. I liked the overall atmosphere and flow of the event and I'm happy I went to impromptu check out Shihomi's performances, those really elevated my Matsucon experience and made it more memorable as a whole; I even feel inspired now to paint more and seek inspiration from other channels in life.

My con haul! Kultainen ES on vihdoin löydetty. xD #tietäjättietää

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who interacted with me! <3