Kummacon 2026 – Where did you all people come from?

 Hello weirdos!

I was at Kummacon last weekend (16-17th May) and, unlike all previous times, this year Kummacon was held in the University of Oulu (Oulun yliopisto). This was also the first Kummacon in 5 years where I went as a visitor and not as a volunteer worker and, in hindsight, it was the right choice. 

Let's get on with the summary~

Kummacon 2026 poster.

I traveled with Firith and we took the train from Kemi to Oulu on Friday early evening. The train ride only takes roughly one hour (it was like 20 minutes delayed though #perusvr) so one's ass doesn't have time to get flattened by all the sitting lol. Once we got out of the train station we crossed the street and went to eat dinner at a nearby Tibetan restaurant because it had a buffet and it was super close. We did have an average amount of luggage, for a con weekend, but neither of us was keen on walking any more than necessary with it. Another reason why we decided to eat in centrum instead of after we had dropped our bags at the accommodation was because the university that Kummacon was to be held in was located in a part of Oulu called Linnanmaa, which is a fair distance away from the city center and thus a bit of an inconvenience for those arriving from other towns and/or by public transport (aka you don't have a car); there's also only like one restaurant in that area so you were really limited on food options once you got there. We just figured it would be better to eat before taking the taxi to the airbnb. 

We had an... embarrassing amount of trouble finding the airbnb. The taxi took us to the right general area but it was one of those lowkey confusing residential areas with a lot of apartments clustered up and pseudo-hidden staircases leading up to the upper apartments. We were about to go up the wrong staircase (it was the only clearly visible one okay? ;_; ) when some random Finnish man came outside from the apartment just next to said starcase, who was clearly fed up with lost airnbnb bookers wandering around the area, and he asked if we were looking for the place and then proceeded to tell us where the correct staircase was along with asking us to pass along a shitty review to the hosts. He clearly disliked the couple who hired out the airbnb apartment and wanted them to lay down the whole business. I kinda got the impression that some previous guests had been nuisances, at least he raged about some previous guests parking their car wrong – I mean, the first thing he asked us was "did you arrive by car?". Ahh, getting embroiled in surprise neighborhood beefs. :'D

Oh well, we finally found our way inside the apartment, it was on the upper level. I think Mister Angry might even have been straight below us omfg. The apartment was nice and clean and there was even a sauna! A somewhat small one, but still. 
I took out some of my cosplay stuff from my suitcase and noticed that there was no ironing board anywhere. I'm not sure why I was even expecting there to be one (not even all hotels have one!) but when I unfolded my Jedi robe, and took a good look at it, I felt like I had to do something to get at least some of the worst wrinkles out because yeah, it looked like it had been thrown haphazardly into a drawer and forgotten.. which it kinda had, oops.

Desperate attempts are desperate. Go go sauna steam power!

It wasn't perfect but for an emergency solution it worked surprisingly okay. Steam does relax and soften fibers and I did notice an improvement after letting it cook in there for an hour or something. Of course I vigorously threw some water on the rocks to generate extra amounts of steam. xD

I don't think anything else of interest happened during the Friday, aside from the fact we finally finished watching the second season of the anime Bastard!! after having issues with Netflix working at home. It only took like... almost 260 days to finish it. Oof. There's a reason that whenever I start watching an anime I always try to marathon it because otherwise I forget so easily what was going on – good thing Bastard!! doesn't have a lot going on lol, it's mostly just nonsensical action with a ridiculously overpowered protagonist and a staggering amount of fanservice thrown in. I'd assume quite many would file it under that weird why-am-I-watching-this guilty pleasure folder haha. I know I did.

Fazer chocos for breakfast. Our dumbasses had nothing else.

I slept bad. Really bad. Like it-took-me-5-hours-to-fall-asleep levels of bad. The bed was outrageously soft and you just sank into the mattress like a rock once you laid down. The support was nonexistent. My lower back hurt so much throughout the night and I slept like a dog, constantly aware that I'm trying to sleep and tossing and turning non-stop. If anything it was a relief when morning finally came and it became an acceptable time to get up and start the day. Yet despite sleeping like shit I still felt surprisingly fresh? I have no idea how that worked out, the math wasn't mathing.

I had decided to do a random, unspecified Jedi OC again, just like I did in Kemin mangapäivä earlier. Although this time I put in more effort, aka I used a wig and put on makeup – which, normally, is my bare minimum but ehh, even that takes effort and energy I don't always have readily available. Life's been tough lately. After all Kummacon is a bigger event and I kinda didn't want to look like I dined with swamp trolls the night before and woke up from under a bridge lol. Donning my Star Wars getup is perfect for exploring and it's also quick and easy to put on. Besides, I've never been to the University of Oulu before so I wanted something comfy to move around in.

Boring proof pic, in questionable phone quality. Yay!

The clock was roughly 12:40 when we arrived at the university. Conveniently it was within walking distance from where the airbnb was located. The weather wasn't the most exciting though, it was very dull and gray outside and it looked like rain might come down any minute. I wasn't really in the mood to photoshoot my own costume with the cloudy dreariness but I took some photos of Firith's Darkrai gijinka (Pokémon) before we went inside.

Kummacon entrance view.

I'm not sure what exactly my first impression was when I stepped inside but I know I noticed very early how crammed it felt. Perhaps I should have expected a lot of hallways and crowdedness since it's an university building, just like Närcon and many others, but I guess somehow I was still blindsided by the sheer amount of people? I never really thought of Kummacon as a big event, I'm not even sure where on the con size scale it is nowadays; it probably has grown over the years and maybe it's not so small anymore?

General view almost immediately upon entering.

I'm quite sure that the Kummacon location upgrade had something to do with the "Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture" designation. Maybe a bigger culture budget was allocated? Would make sense at least! I'm really happy for Kummacon if that was the case, it's not unheard of that cons struggle with funding and I know several that died because they didn't get enough funding to be able to continue. 
It's just speculation but I wouldn't be surprised if the whole capital of culture thing put Kummacon on the radar for many previously unaware and that's why it felt like there were a lot more people than previous years? I mean for real, it felt like it had exploded in terms of visitors!

Continuing down that same corridor...

... eventually lead to an open, branching area.

I think one of the first things we did was to check out the Kumma Kirppis, aka Kummacon's own second-hand shop.. or flea market, thrift store or whatever else you wanna call it. Basically congoers can sign up for it in advance and have their goods sold there during the con by Kummacon personnel. It's a nice way to sell things you don't need forward to other fans. :) It was quite hidden, outside the main areas and I'm pretty sure that unless Firith hadn't checked beforehand and knew where to go I probably wouldn't have found it lol. I'm not sure if I liked the placement personally, I lowkey feel like it probably affected sales and overall awareness because yeah, I did hear from friends that they never found it. Which brings me to my other gripe – the lack of signs. In such a large building signs are paramount to a good experience and, while there were signs, I felt like there could have been more. I don't have the best navigation skills and it being a new place I kinda got the feeling that perhaps there was an assumption that most visitors would be from Oulu and thus already familiar with the university? The signs that were there were good, but most were just next to whatever they were indicating; what I missed would have been signs in other locations, especially the large open areas, pointing towards places of interest like the Artist Alley, video game room, photography booth etc. Most of these were not easy to find intuitively (aka if you had no map)! The stage where the cosplay competition etc was held was really far away from all the other used spaces and this one had a good amount of signs along the whole distance – yeah it was like a 5 min walk to the other end of the university. 

Kumma Kirppis view.

Along the path to the second-hand area, if you went down the right path (against the wall) you would pass by the video game room, the karaoke room and this little area where a local indie game developer group had a station where you could playtest a beta version of their upcoming game. I chatted with one of the makers and he seemed really passionate about the project and said that their base of operations is in Oulu so yeah, it's extremely local haha! The game is a mix of different genres including puzzle-solving and roleplaying with visual novel styled storytelling. Go support these guys!

Indie devs Runoi Games upcoming Fortune Fragments game.

I took a peek inside the video game room and I liked the retro dominance going on in there. I saw a Nintendo Gamecube, a PS2, a Super Nintendo and I think there was an older Xbox in the back. Always when I see a Super Nintendo I have to go check what games are available and I'm in particular looking for Super Mario World and U.N. Squadron (Area 88 in Japan) because those were a major part of my childhood and I miss those games, especially the latter with its banger soundtrack. ;_; Neither was available so I didn't stay to play this time, although I saw there were some other awesome games like good old Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Gamecube!

Gaming room!

I gotta give props for the gaming room having retro consoles, especially because most people who are gamers probably own at least a current gen console or a last gen console (like the PS4) but I think there's many attendants who might not have the older consoles at home, especially the younger people who didn't grow up with them back when they were new. I've noticed a shift in the age groups of attendants since a few years back – I feel like there's been a big influx of young people (school-aged children and young adults) while people my age and older have slowly dissipated or moved to being a part of the organizers and workforce. So yeah, it makes my millennial gamer heart extra soft to see older consoles accessible for those who didn't get to live that era (or those who miss that era!), especially now that the value of older games and consoles are skyrocketing and are, quite frankly, rather unaffordable for the average person without a lot of spendable income.

Chill beanbag corner. Every con needs one of these.

Our exploration journey continued. We had to pass through the main shopping area where both the Dealer's Hall and the artisans were (it's basically the same as the Artist Alley but for those deemed 'sellers', aka who have a registered business and probably do vending as a full-time job) located and holy moly was it crowded on Saturday! There were so many people it was really anxiety-inducing. Neither of us could stand to stay in there long enough to even browse, it was way too overwhelming.

General Dealer's Hall view.

Another corner of the Dealer's Hall incl. Manga Cafe.

And Dealer's Hall again but from the opposite side.

We unequivocally decided to check the Dealer's Hall the next day, in hopes it would be more manageable. I did like what little I had time to see, there was a nice variety of items for sale and not everyone were familiar faces either! 

After some time Firith had to leave for some worker responsibilities (cosplay contestant judging) and so I was left to wander on my own. I have no memory of what I did during this time, I just know that when the cosplay competition was about to start I walked all the way back to the other side of the building, only to be met by this ludicrously large queue to which I said "fuck it" and walked back to the main area. xD I mean I'm not that interested in the cosplay contest that I'd stay in like a kilometer long line, especially when my feet were killing me at this point and standing still was painful. 

I proceeded to sit down near the cloakroom-ish area and played Pokémon Go to pass the time while waiting for the cosplay competition to finish. There was conveniently a raid at a gym within distance so I played it (sent raid invites to get backup from players in Kemi) and got a perfect IV Pheromosa from it lol.

Classic paper wall where you could doodle and write con greetings.

I know that when I was in the middle of the raid Firith tried to call me and ask if I was ready to leave the con and go grab dinner with Sallukka and Dongrieg, whom we had already briefly bumped into earlier in the Dealer's Hall. I had to click away the call at first because there's a high risk Pokémon Go crashes/restarts on my phone if I answer calls. I felt so rude lol but luckily all three of them were very close so it wasn't a big deal in the end – it was more silly than not because we were so close to each other but yeah, that damn tie-dyed fabric drape curtain conveniently hid me from their point of view lmao.

Sallukka and Dongrieg had arrived with their own car to the con (a one-day trip) so we could actually drive to centrum and choose from a much larger pool of restaurants than if we hadn't all had the same idea to go eat at the same time! But before we went to eat we quickly docked at our airbnb and Firith and me removed our costumes, it's easier to eat when you don't have to worry about messing up your cosplay fr. 
We ended up going to a sushi buffet restaurant called Okiniiri and it was a nice experience to wind down for the day. Very nice dessert table with mochis, honey cake and churros! Still thinking about that random cute ladybug that was on the wall next to our table though, I hope it got out safely. :c

After we had finished eating we went to a nearby foodstore and bought some necessities for the upcoming Eurovision-watching, aka beverages and sweets. Sallukka and Dongrieg dropped us off at the airbnb after that was done and continued on their way back home. Firith went to turn the sauna on and I had just time to shower and get ready by the time Eurovision started. 
Before the show started there was this silly slip-up where I was trying to explain that dismissed call during the Pokémon Go raid earlier and that it didn't mean that I was in a bad mood or anything and yeah, while explaining I didn't even notice at first that I accidentally said "laittaa luuri koiraan" instead of "laittaa luuri korvaan" until Firith burst out laughing. In my defense I was exhausted from the day and talking on autopilot. xD It's a bit hard to translate but the phrase of 'hanging up on someone' in Finnish would, when literally translated, be like "to put the phone in the ear" and, well, I accidentally said "to put the phone in the dog" lololol.

Eurovision time! (oli hyvä lonkku. :D)

My favorites were Albania, Croatia, Romania, Sweden (the singer is the former Fröken Snusk) and Finland of course. Serbia got my hopes up with the outfits and the cool sword but the song just didn't click the way I hoped it would. I was hoping Finland would win with all the hype around it, 20 years since Lordi's first Finnish win etc but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Well at least a certain country didn't win in the end, that's all that matters. 

It was like... uhh, way too late by the time I fell asleep. And I felt it on the morning! Of course I couldn't be lucky and feel oddly fresh two days in a row with poor sleep. I think I slept like 4 hours at the very best and those hours were shit quality sleep. Once I was up and sat down in the kitchen I felt an absolutely debilitating pang of nausea building up – it felt like I'd blackout and throw up at the same time continuously and it took a lot of effort to just stay conscious. It was horrible, no cap.
It's not exactly a secret that I struggle with chronic sleep difficulties and nightmares and often am very tired on the mornings and throughout the day.. but this was an unprecedented level of sleep-deprivation nausea even for me. In hindsight I'm so relieved I didn't apply to be a con worker this year because waking up with this level of nausea on a work day would have been a death knell. There's no way I could have predicted this nor the shitty bed but I'm so glad I listened to my gut feeling this time and decided to go as just a visitor.

Eventually the worst of the nausea somehow slowly passed, don't ask me how because I didn't go back to sleep and we still had no breakfast either. I just drank some water from the tap and prayed, I guess? 

I had not prepared a cosplay for Sunday and that was a good decision – no way would I have been able to go costuming with both the lingering nausea and the feet pain! I should have taken some spare shoes because yeah, I could have fit my flip flops in the suitcase. Well at least I didn't get blisters, although at one point it looked like some could have formed.

General hall view.

We took a taxi to the con just to avoid the trickling rain and having to drag all our luggage around. The weather did clear up a bit later on but we had to be out of the airbnb by 12:00. Oh well, if one thing was immediately noticeable it was that there were fewer people around – which meant we could finally go take a proper look at the Dealer's Hall.

Various organization booths were present, mostly other cons.

I didn't buy anything from the Dealer's Hall this time, mainly because I'm painfully aware of how much stuff I have at home that I don't actually need and in fact need to get rid of due to a shortage of storage space. I've been quite a hoarder most of my life and I'm trying really hard to work on that, which means only buying things that I actually really need or really want after thinking about it – in other words: I'm trying to be more aware of my spending habits and, in particular, to lessen impulsive buying and comfort buying. It's hard because all my life I've subconsciously self-soothed by buying stuff that gave me joy, even if just for a moment. Having a broken childhood sucks.

Entrance to the Artist Alley...

... and a view inside it. 

I did buy a wooden fridge magnet in the Artist Alley though depicting a smiling samoyed. I had to buy it because for some reason I got suddenly emotional when I saw it because it made me think of our old family dog, a samoyed named Lady, whom we had in my early teenage years. Fridge magnets are useful too since I keep a bunch of notes and important papers on the fridge so that I remember them.

Kumma Kahvila sortiment.

In the same general area as the Artist Alley was the Kumma Kahvila, aka Kummacon's cafeteria. It sold sweet and salty snacks, coffee and such. There were a bunch of tables around the cafeteria so you could sit there and eat. On Saturday there was a homemade chocolate banana cake available that I almost bought a slice of but on Sunday there was no cake at all. *sniff* A little bit of ragrets.

Oh and yeah, before I forget! This is unrelated to Kummacon but is relevant to my blog at large so here goes a brief mention that I was, once again, featured on FeedSpot's Top 60 Cosplay Blogs list, hooray! It's nice to have one's work acknowledged. I mean I really enjoy blogging and I wouldn't be writing for over a decade if I didn't find a lot of enjoyment in sharing my whimsy hobby experiences with others who are like-minded! I hope this summary and all previous and upcoming posts will keep inspiring people near and far and maybe even bring a smile on a bad day. :) 

Fih.

Speaking of smiles and being whimsical I... *clears throat* .. I might not have been entirely 100% in ordinary clothes on Sunday. I wore this funny Magikarp hat my big sister bought from Japan as a gift after she made a joke to me about seeing it in passing and I answered by saying I seriously want it... which meant she had to backtrack and find the shop that sold it like two hours after first spotting it. xD Joke's on her! No but really, it's all in good fun – she knows the first generation mons (Gameboy era) but after that she lost interest, she was more into Magic: the Gathering back in the days. She knows I never grew out of being a Pokémon nerd though and pokes fun of it. We have a good relationship.

Photo booth for congoers. It's a free photography service.

My Magikarp hat generated some fun reactions including some random congoer trying to show me their Pokémon TCG collection while I was browsing snacks from the cafe. It was cute but a bit awkward because I was trying to buy something at that moment and there were others trying to browse as well (in that same small space) and yeah, it wasn't the best time nor place for that interaction. I didn't see them again after that; I hope they didn't think I intentionally ignored them. :/

Sunday was otherwise a pretty slow day for me. I didn't really participate in anything aside from Firith's book talk program. After the book talk was over we went to pick up what remained of our second-hand items, the clock was roughly 15:30 at this point. We both felt like we were satisfied with our con experience and ready to leave once we got our unsold items back and so we booked a taxi and went to wait outside. You could tell a lot of other people had the same thoughts because we saw people in droves leaving and others possibly waiting outside for a ride to come pick them up. 

Have some random eggplant display art. 

We left Kummacon around 16:00. We got a decent discount on the taxi because VR (Finnish railway company) had a deal with that particular taxi company so that if you went to the train station you got a cheaper ride, profits! 

As soon as we arrived at the train station I booted up the ResQ app on my phone to check if there was any good deals nearby but alas, there was none. We then wondered if we'd have time to go eat something before the train arrives because we were quite hungry by now. The good Chinese restaurant we'd usually frequent was temporarily closed due to fire damage so we couldn't go to our trusty place this time. It's almost literally on the opposite side of the road so that's one reason we've been regulars there haha. But yeah, we browsed our options on Google Maps for a while before we saw that the hamburger place that's in the same building as the train station actually had pretty damn good customer reviews. I was worried it might be one of those really expensive ones but we decided to take a look and thankfully it seemed to have rather normal prices so yeah, we booked our foods and sat down. 

After-con burgers om nom nom~

The burgers were a lot better than expected! I had some chicken burger with devil's jam and I certainly wouldn't mind having another the next time I'm in Oulu, hehe.

The rest of the journey home went well, I don't have so much more to say because nothing out of the ordinary happened. But in regards to Kummacon itself I'm generally pleased with the trip, although I do have mixed feelings about the building and how the location was used. It was nice how big the university was but I constantly had that feeling of it not being used to its full potential and some placements just seemed suboptimal to me, I guess? I'm also not sure if Kummacon had the whole university in their use or just specific sections of it, yet regardless it did feel inconvenient and empty that you had to pass through tons of unused space just to get to the stage – it felt so disconnected from the rest of the event. I don't know, I saw the potential and I had a good time but it also felt like it could have been even better? Of course I don't know what exactly the organizers had to work with and yeah, if they had used all sections they were given and the rest was off-limits then that's not on them and the choices made were thus understandable. :)

All in all Kummacon is a great free entrance event with a very low barrier of entry, it's very chill and relaxed. Kummacon's main focus has always been literature, popular culture and queerness and they're very visible with the latter – there's rainbow flags everyone and the safe space principle is followed – if you feel like the odd one out in everyday society then in Kummacon you will feel right at home. It's a con for all the outcasts, weirdos, queers, geeks and bookworms. I would recommend visiting if you live within the northern half of the country.

Thanks for reading and thanks to all the people keeping Kummacon alive! Stay nerdy~
Shiro Samurai out.

Kummacon 2025 – Bleach and poop in the fridge

Hello nerds, furries and everyone inbetween!

Kummacon was held this past weekend during 17-18 May in Oulu, Finland. Just like the previous year the host building was Oulu's International School, which is conveniently placed in the heart of the centrum! For those not familiar with Kummacon it's a free event focused around literature, geek culture, cosplay and of course LGBTQ+ pride.

Let's get to the summary!

Kummacon poster.

Once again I had applied to be part of the work force and so had Firith, my traveling companion. My mom drove me to Kemi's bus station on Friday and there me and Firith took Onnibus together to Oulu; we would have preferred the train but there were no suitable departure times for our needs this time and so we had to take the bus. Thankfully we didn't have to carry with us a whole fucking TV and a PS5 this time so yeah, the bus ride went a bit smoother than last year. xD I didn't get stuck either because I remembered to not wear chains this time lmao. Once we got to Oulu it was moderately late and so we took a taxi to the same hotel we've been frequenting lately every time we need an overnight stay in Oulu, namely Sokos Hotel Arina.
After dumping our stuff in the hotel room we headed out to handle some errands. First we quickly checked Underground (alt lifestyle store) before it closed we also speeded through Pelimies lol and then we bought some treats from Asian Market near the railroad station. We were quite parched at this point so we grabbed takeaway bubble teas and then we did a quick return to the hotel to drink the bobas and pick up our kirppis ('flea market') items. We headed back out and dropped off our kirppis stuff at Kummacon's location so they could be put in place for the con start tomorrow. After that was done we walked all the way back to the railroad area and went to eat dinner at the Chinese restaurant on the opposite side of the road.
The funny thing is that through this whole day I kept having this insistent feeling that I've forgotten to pack something but I just couldn't place what it was. Yeah I know, I almost always have this feeling because I'm paranoid like that but now it was particularly strong. It was kind of a running joke throughout the day, in fact. xD When it became time to go sleep I realized what I had forgotten – my toothpaste. I had also realized a bit earlier that I had no spare clothes aka the t-shirt I was wearing was the only one I had with me; it was kinda the reason we went to Underground but I didn't find anything I liked enough to buy. :(
Well, we watched some National Geographic for a while and I did my pre-cosplay routines (shaved my beard, face peeling etc) before I went to sleep. As always I struggled to fall asleep but that's nothing new under the sun lol.

Saturday morning came and holy moly was I tired! My eyelids felt like a boatload of bricks, I wanted to sleep a thousand years lmao. Somehow I managed to get up I don't know how and so we headed for the hotel breakfast, which was conveniently on the same floor we had our room in. I'm surprised I didn't trip on my own feet during the walk there lol.

My Karelian pastry streak continues. #ainahimottaa

I couldn't find the tuorepuuro this time sadge ;'( but instead there was this munajuusto (lit. 'egg cheese') on the dessert table. I've honestly never seen it before and it looked fascinating enough so I took a piece of it and, well, let me just say that it was hella weird. xD It had a somewhat firm, spongy texture and it tasted quite literally like egg and cheese combined. Somehow it was both peculiarly tasty and lowkey disgusting at the same time?

After the breakfast I had perked up enough to function (it took like 5 dl of ginger shots lol) and so we went back to our room to start putting on our cosplays for the day. I was so excited to wear Ukitake again after 12 years since the last outing! I managed to get the captain's coat fixed in time for Kummacon and I'm so relieved that it was salvageable after all these years without proper care. ;_;
I don't know how we succeeded at it again but despite alotting more time for the morning preparations we still managed to end up in a rush at the end?? Like we booked our breakfast an hour earlier than Firith had originally estimated we would need lol. It's always so lovely to be wrong about how much time you need to get into cosplay. :'D Oh and I realized while doing my makeup that there was something else I had forgotten – namely my matte eyeshadow palette that I always bring with me. Needless to say I had to make do with what I had with me and thus I wasn't entirely pleased with my makeup for Ukitake but ehh, I figured it'd suffice. I mean.. I've done way worse in my first year of wearing him when I legitimately was a newbie and horseshit at makeup. xD

Bonus wtf moment: eyeshadow applicator's foam exploded open.

We arrived at the con roughly 11:30 something, meaning we had just enough time to drop off our bags at the green's backroom and then I had to go get briefed about my work tasks. I worked as what we call yleisvänkäri in Finnish, so basically a generalist volunteer doing odd small jobs like refilling the drinking water spots, emptying trash bags and helping out wherever other stations are short on hands. This basically means that I was patrolling the con area both indoors and outdoors making sure that everything was tidy and functioning. It's a relatively relaxed volunteer gig to have and suits my limited capacities at the moment.

Kummacon outdoor area.

Something I noticed quite immediately at the con was how crowded it was everywhere. I don't know if it's just me misremembering or not but it felt like there were more people around than on the previous years? It was nearly impossible to not stand in the way of someone or have someone stand in your way lol.

View just next to the entrance. Info desk at the right corner.

My first shift was just one hour, running from 12:00 to 13:00. I mainly went around filling the water tanks because they were depleting fast. The weather outside was surprisingly warm (spring arrived with a bang, it was literally near zero degrees still a few days ago) and because there were so many visitors indoors it quickly got warm there too, especially on the second floor.
I was in fact worried that picking Ukitake might have been a slight mistake in terms of the sudden onset of warm weather – I mean the costume has multiple layers and quite heavy fabrics to boot. I'm past that age of suffering unnecessarily (weather-appropriate cosplays are so important to me nowadays lol) but luckily it never got uncomfortably hot indoors. Besides, I could just quickly go and cool down outside if needed because I wasn't tied to being in any particular work station.

Once my first shift was done I met up with Firith and we headed outside to go and take some quick proof photos that we had cosplays on at the nearby park. Or well.. it was supposed to be just that buuuuuut it ballooned into a photoshoot that ate up my whole 2h break. xD We both ended up missing the guest of honor's panel because of this but oh well, classic us at this point lol.

Aaah I loved being Ukitake again..! ToT
(photographer: Firith)

I got a few more shots I'm happy with but I'll post them separately after this summary! The photo session was fun and relaxed but we had some difficulties with the sun being harsh and limiting us a lot. We tried to shoot near the rocks by the water at first but due to the bright sunlight we couldn't get any photos that had the feel we were going for and so we had to abandon that location and take the photos under a big hanging spruce – it was the only suitable place in our immediate vicinity that provided cover from the sun. :')

Once we were done we went back inside and took a speedrun through the Artist Alleys (both the one on the main floor and the one on the second floor) before I had to get ready for my second work shift of the day.

View of the start of AA, upstairs.

Also AA on the second floor, just in the middle of it.

As you can see it's quite busy. It was a bit challenging at times to browse the booths at times so you had to be a bit opportunistic and take your chances during popular programs like the cosplay competition, aka when most visitors were watching and away from free-roaming lol.

My second shift of Saturday was from 15-18 so basically the remainder of the con day. I walked around emptying trash bags, refilling more drinking water tanks (with a jug borrowed from the cafeteria lol), picking up stray trash from the ground and I also took it as my unofficial duty to grab any soda cans etc I found in random bins and collect them in one place to be recycled later by the Kummacon team because yeah, the Nordic countries (along with at least Germany afaik) have this 'pantti' or 'pant' system in place since forever so you get a small sum of money for each aluminum can or plastic bottle you recycle that has a certain mark on it. It's basically a way to encourage people to recycle because you get a bit of money back, usually like 15 cents or 1 SEK if you're in Sweden. Because Kummacon is a non-profit any monetary aid is welcome and goes towards making the next event so yeah, I thought I'd do my part while I'm checking the trashcans anyway lol.

Ukitake making sure people are hydrated. :DD

Someone with sharp eyes might notice that I'm actually wearing black slippers on the photo (and not the waraji I should be wearing to be accurate) and that's because I wanted comfortable shoes to work and roam the con in. I have learnt that I have some structural faults with my feet and have since a couple years back been intentionally wearing comfy shoes with my cosplays and only changing into the proper character shoes for photos.

One thing I also did was go and pick up trash in the immediate vicinity outside the con building, especially because a lot of people were hanging out outside and thus it was bound to get messy. I was technically not told to also clean outdoors but to me it's a no-brainer due to the reason mentioned above. I also noticed quite early that a certain trashcan near the entrance was overflowing and, while I can sigh and roll my eyes at the stupidity of forcing one's trash in when it's clearly gonna fall out, I felt like something had to be done about it. Unfortunately said trashcan required some kind of tool or lock to open and when I asked at the info desk no one was the wiser at the moment and so we just agreed on putting up a sign to redirect people to dispose of their trash indoors instead. Thankfully it worked except for one instance of someone unknown pressing their garbage through the sign, disrespecting our efforts to keep the con environment clean. That kinda grinded my gears ngl.

The Monster can on top is a mood. Everyone's a caffeine junkie lmao

I'm not gonna give anyone shade for consuming energy drinks lol, I do too. And it's kinda funny in a way but I've noticed a trend in the green rooms of cons – everything from breads to fruits and juices and even cookies deplete rather slowly but the moment energy drinks or anything with caffeine becomes available that's gonna be gone in a matter of a couple hours at best lmao. I swear it's part of con culture at this point that no one functions properly without obscene amounts of pärr pärr. Is everyone compensating for their burnouts, dysfunctional sleep patterns and neurospicy struggles? xD *raises hand*

I took the risk.. and it didn't blow up. :'D

Once my shift ended at 18:00 I went to meet up with Firith and then we walked back to the hotel. The weather was still nice and breezy when we walked and a weird pikkuernu throwback hit me – it's been ages since I last walked across a town in full cosplay! I used to travel in full cosplay gear a lot when younger, be it in trains or buses or walking several kilometers to get from my accommodation to the con every day; I frequently went to restaurants in full costume too. But I guess at some point when my anxiety got worse I started avoiding being in full cosplay at public places, like I'd change before going to eat after a con etc. There's been a few exceptions over the years (like the Kotipizza raid in Rovaniemi last year) but I realized now, while strolling through Oulu's streets, that it can still be rather fun if you just don't overthink too much. It definitely helped that there were other colorful con people also on the move at the same time so me and Firith weren't sticking out as obnoxiously. :')

Anyways, once we got back to the hotel we peeled ourselves out of our cosplays lord almighty did it feel good to go from technically four layers of clothes to just one and then I took a shower to get rid of all the makeup residues etc. I just know that had it been any warmer I wouldn't have been able to wear Ukitake for the full day.
Once we had freshed ourselves up we went out to grab some more boba, because the addiction needs to be fulfilled, and we also went to the nearby foodstore to grab a couple ciders for the Eurovision finals later in the night. We had some leftover Chinese food from the restaurant trip yesterday so we microwaved those at the hotel (thankfully there was a micro and we even got to borrow plates and utensils from the hotel's restaurant!) once we got back. I gotta admit that I'm kinda relieved no one came into the elevator at the same time as we were microing our foods because that China food smell was very stonks. xD
With full stomachs we settled down for the night and started watching the Eurovision final. It's not every day you get an anime convention and Eurovision on the same trip haha.

Norway was first out. There were so many LARP style outfits this year!

Austria was amazing, peak atmosphere. This was in my top 3 favs.

Iceland was hilariously goofy and grossly overlooked, as always. Poor Iceland. :c

BARA BADA BASTU. PERKELE!

The Käärijä versus Baby Lasagna battle was the highlight of the whole show!!

I'm so relieved that Austria won, for real. I was kinda expecting Sweden's KAJ to win based on the buzz and popularity lists but I'm very happy with this outcome as well – JJ was amazing and it was a well-deserved victory.
If there's anything I hope though it's that the battle mashup version of Cha Cha Cha and Rim Tim Tagi Dim gets officially released because that was such a godtier banger! I absolutely adore how Käärijä just tripled down on his iconic neon green look, it's epic proportions of poofy. xD #niinmuhkea

Sunday morning. I've slept like, I dunno... 3 hours at most? Yet somehow I'm more alive than I was on Saturday morning, make it make sense lol. Anyways, it was time for breakfast once again more Karelian pastries om nom and then we packed all our stuff and took a taxi to Kummacon. I had no cosplay for Sunday because I didn't want to deal with all the extra hassle when we'd be traveling back home immediately after the con.

General view of the main area on the first floor.

For once we were a bit ahead of schedule upon arriving so we actually had 1 hour to explore before my work shift would start at 12:00. We decided to do a proper Artist Alley stroll because the one we did yesterday was so rushed. I ended up buying a wolf keychain I had somehow missed despite buying from the same seller an Amaterasu fridge magnet yesterday. Firith bought some adorable snake stickers from another seller downstairs.

Cryo hosted a board game and tabletop room.

There was also a room dedicated to showcasing Lego builds.

Once my shift started I strolled around the con again, doing roughly the same tasks as on Saturday. But, unlike yesterday, today I actually didn't forget to eat the warm food served to all volunteers in the green room. Yes, I completely forgot about it the day before lololol oops.
One funny thing with having access to the green room is that when you enter or just spend time there you usually won't be alone and, more often than not, there's some sort of discussion going on – sometimes said discussions are serious but other times they're silly nonsense cranked to eleven because half of us have unhinged humor and are running on fumes. I ended up partaking in some silly conversations about northern congoers versus southern congoers etc but the most hilarious moment was when I briefly entered the green room to grab something and when I was making my exit I hear two words that made my brain functions come to a screeching halt – "kakkaa jääkaapissa". For those not understanding Finnish that translates to "[there's] poop in the fridge". I turned around and asked what the heck the context was and it turns out that, at some point, this random box with something dark brown and irregularly shaped appeared in the fridge and there was apparently no signs on it of what it was or for who. No one had taken a closer look nor asked around to clear up the confusion and thus the mysterious 'shit in the fridge' was born. xD I asked why not inspect it and then these other two volunteer workers pulled the box out of the fridge and after staring at the lump for some seconds we came to the conclusion that it was two rather thick seemingly homebaked chocolate chip cookies that had gotten stuck together lmao!

Kummacon cafeteria. Possibly where the "poop cookies" came from. :'D

My first shift conveniently ended at 14:00, meaning I had a break just when Firith's classic book talk was. I figured I could go listen because I didn't have anything else to do and two of the books mentioned might have been my suggestions in the first place lol.

Walking through the corridors where most panel rooms were.

Know thy classics! Yes, I've read that one in school.

There were a decent amount of listeners so I wasn't just pity filler and everything went well. Finished a tiny bit ahead of time but that's not uncommon. After the book talk was over I took some creative liberties and doodled a hattivatti (aka hattifattener in English, from Moomin) on the whiteboard just for shits and giggles. I intentionally made it a bit cross-eyed for extra lulz. A hilarious sidenote is that I was completely unaware that the program after Firith's book talk was actually a panel about the Moomins and the sea, meaning that I had unknowingly drawn a relevant character on the whiteboard that ended up being sneakily featured on Kummacon's instagram stories. XD I lowkey wish I would have participated in that panel just to know if there were any funny reactions lmao.

Hattivatti was here.

My second work shift started at 15:00 and this last shift was pretty slow-moving because there weren't many hours of con time left. You could tell some people had already left because there was no need to fill the water tanks as often and besides, Sundays are always less busy than Saturdays anyway.

At some point when I was heading outdoors to get some fresh air I saw a cosplayer in front of me whose outfit looked weirdly familiar. I stopped him and asked if he was perchance cosplaying Scar from Wuthering Waves, an action RPG game I've lately been getting more invested in. The way he bounced up in the air with excitement was too precious! He told me that no one before me had recognized who he was dressed up as (not said to his face at least) and that he was worried that no one knew the character because WuWa isn't as well-known as the Hoyoverse games. We ended up bonding over a lot of relatable anecdotes like both of us sucking majorly at math and missing the good old times when people interacted more with cosplayers at conventions. He also revealed himself to be a total Scar fanboy and honestly it made me so happy that there's still people out there who are so wholeheartedly indulging in their important fandoms no matter how cringe it might seem to others. Never stop being passionate about what brings your geeky heart joy!

Miocosplay_ as Scar, the antagonist from Wuthering Waves.

I was so excited to see Wuthering Waves cosplays in real life for the first time – up until Kummacon I hadn't seen anyone except for a Shorekeeper briefly on Saturday (I wasn't 100% sure because it was very crowded and I was busy working so couldn't go look for them). I just got like the biggest motivation boost to get Calzone Calcharo started for next year, I've been entertaining the thought ever since I started playing WuWa and pulled him on the novice banner – dude's the reason I kept playing because his character design and combat moves were so damn cool. I powered through the first story chapters despite them being outright poor but yeah, once Scar showed up I started getting seriously interested. Currently it's one of my favorite games so yeah, this encounter was such a blast for me too!

There was a video game room. So nice with the retro options!

At some point during the con I found the video game room in the far end of the corridor and I happened to come by it just when the Super Nintendo was available. I checked through the games but couldn't find any of my childhood favorites – there were Lemmings (which I had) but that game takes too long when you have limited free time and so I played a few stages of Donkey Kong Country instead. I still keep misjudging the attack roll frames and distances and die in noobish ways lol.

My shift ended at 17:00 and so did Firith's; the con closed at 18:00 officially but our train would leave at that time so we had to depart a bit earlier to make it. As soon as we were free we went to reclaim our unsold kirppis items and then we grabbed all our belongings from the back of the green room and headed out.

Blåhaj is the true main organizer.

Due to how much luggage we had we took a taxi to the train station to make life easier. The train arrived on time and the journey home went smoothly. In fact the whole con went rather smoothly from my point of view. Of course there's always some small hiccups here and there because we're all human but as far as I'm concerned nothing catastrophic happened and the days flowed well? I did enjoy my time and I'm happy with my work effort, although I had some struggles with lower back pain during Saturday which made me need to sit down every now and then to limit the pain temporarily.

It's fulfilling to be a part of this little event that strives to build community and a sanctuary for all of those who are more or less shunned by the rest of society like the nerds, the queers, the neurodivergents, the daydreamers, the adults who nurture their inner children and basically anyone who struggles to find acceptance in the outside world. Stifling norms and expectations aren't norms at Kummacon – here it's possible to unmask and breathe a bit easier as our truest selves. This is a space where we can come together and own our unique weirdnesses safely.

I hope Kummacon won't disappear from the list of annually occuring events. My greatest appreciations go out to all the organizers for the hard work they put in – I've seen how challenging and exhausting it can be to make it all come together. Not all heroes wear capes~

Bonus pic of my AA purchases. I have a theme. x)

I think that's all I had to say about this year's Kummacon journey. Next up will be the Ukitake mini photoshoot I promised!
~ Shiro Samurai out.