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.

Kummacon 2025 cosplans!

 Hello geeks!

 

Kummacon is inching closer and I'm not gonna lie, I've had tons of trouble coming up with who to cosplay. It's almost funny because I've had this "preliminary cosplay plans" list on my phone since the end of last year and I've already lost count of how many times I've changed it. :'D

But anyways, I've been running through my possible options for a while now and I think I've decided. You see, during these past couple years I've had this scratch to slowly repair and rewear some of my older costumes – nostalgy is quite a formidable force and, to motivate me further, I actually lack proper photos of most of my old cosplays. Now I haven't kept up with this particular series in years (shame on me, I know!) but I harbor massive nostalgy towards it and especially to this one character who ended up becoming my signature cosplay back in the days.

Character: Jushiro Ukitake
Series: Bleach

Yes, of course I'm talking about namusetä Ukitake from Bleach! I'll admit to being quite excited to bring Ukitake back, it's been roughly 12 years since I last wore him! Sure doesn't feel like it. I'll be repairing the damage done to the captain's haori soon but I won't be fixing the twin swords for this outing; they would just be in the way because I will be volunteer working at the con and thus can't have my hands occupied. Sallukka was the greatest cosplay savior friend and helped me revive the old wig (which had been neglected for years due to my non-existant wig handling skills back then), thank yooou! ;o;
I haven't fully decided yet if I will do the standard version or the Turn back the Pendulum version in which his outfit is the same, except for that he wears his hair in a low ponytail. I'm leaning towards the latter to keep the wig easier to manage as I will in all likelihood be moving around a lot. 

I have so many fond memories of cosplaying Ukitake and although the convention culture has changed drastically since 2011 I still try to hold on to that sense of community and fandom joy. I really need to get back into Bleach and catch up so yeah, please no spoilers lmao because I'm very far behind in the story. xD

I think that's all I have to say for now, stay nerdy out there~

Kummacon 2024 – I got mad gamer respects from the organizer

 Hello geeks of all flavors!

I'm sorry about the radio silence on this here blog, my life has regrettably been really exhausting lately and I didn't mean to just disappear. The truth is that I'm still struggling with mental health and blogging just hasn't been a priority, not to mention that I haven't had any new content to post as I haven't done anything cosplay-related for several months. I do have tons of ideas of what I want to do but finding the motivation and energy to do the thing is on an entirely different plane of existence lol.

I've had a lot of time blindness and whatnot and I had been living in that bubble of "Kummacon is months away" until Firith woke me up one day (figuratively, not literally) by stating that Kummacon is next weekend. Honest to god, I had completely forgotten! Luckily my original plan hadn't involved cosplaying anyway so I didn't have to rush to finish anything and could just rewire my brain directly into preparation mode. And preparation mode meant packing all the stuff for the con weekend and that included my PS5 and the smallest TV I owned. Yes, we took the train and yes, I sat the whole train trip with a straight face and a fucking TV on my lap and yes, other passengers stared at me weirdly. :'D *sighs and shakes head* What won't a gamer endure to secure the completion of their dailies?~

Oh well, so Kummacon is an annual free-entrance anime and literature focused convention that's held in Oulu, Finland. This year it was held during 18-19 May 2024 and that also means Kummacon got the honors to start my con year, woop woop! And just like the previous years I volunteered to be part of the work force.

Kummacon entrance.

Kummacon was held once again in Oulu's International School and that means it's very much in the heart of Oulu's centrum and thus it's very easy to find and close to everything (train station, bus station, food markets etc) so it's a very convenient location. I do like the building itself, it's decently roomy and well-lit for an event of modest size. Kummacon is extremely visibly pro-LGBTQ+ (I'd say it's the gayest convention in all of Finland ngl) with various queer flags plastered everywhere. The organizers are working very hard to make sure that the event is safe and welcoming for all attendants and that means there's a zero tolerance policy towards any kind of discrimination or otherwise bigoted behavior like racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, bodyshaming etc. I think this is very important because events like this are one of the few public spaces where gender-diverse and questioning teens, youths and adults are free to explore and express themselves as their most authentic selves with minimal risk of harm being done to them. So thank you Kummacon for providing a safe space to those who need it the most in this increasingly hostile world.

Anygays, back on track. So me and Firith headed for Oulu on Friday night by train and our accommodation was the same trusty Sokos Hotels that we stayed at during last year's Matsucon. This time we got the salmon-themed room instead of the tar-themed one. Honestly I preferred the tar theme but that might be a me thing with my general love of anything with tar in it, be it sweets or boats. xD

Comfy hotel corridors provided a vacation feeling!

Before the con I asked to change my volunteer work station from the cafeteria to something more relaxed like the green room. Some might remember that I was a cafeteria worker last year but because my mental health and general tolerance of stressors has taken a nosedive lately I decided to play it safe. I ended up being relocated as a green room worker for the whole weekend and I don't regret swapping stations because this was the right choice for me.

Towards the end of Friday me and Firith were really hungry and so we went to eat at pizzeria Cantina because we were lazy and it was literally on the opposite side of the road seen from our hotel. It was one of these kinda expensive fancy-schmancy pizza places where my economically distressed ass had to settle for a margharita pizza (which I normally never take) because everything else was outside my budget lmao. But honestly I don't regret that choice and this one at least came with mozzarella – I mean look at this circular disc of deliciousness!

 

Ei ollut mikään kusinen klähmäkiekko tämä. #ökypitsa

 

I'm sorry but I have a massive brainfog and don't really remember much of this weekend, just bits and pieces here and there but no coherent memory of what I did during any given time or day, it's all just floating together into this mushy blob of "I know I was at a con and it was fun but I have no idea what I've been doing all weekend". :'D In my defense I had the worst con hungover I've had in years so that probably explains the partial amnesia lol – I was sooo spent when I got home it took me several days to even somewhat recover. What I do know is that I was working for a majority of the con's duration and that means I spent most of my time in, you guessed it, the green room.

On my way through the corrido o' depressio...

... to find the light at the end of the tunnel green room.

 

The green room was located on the basement floor and it was quite hard to find and very... small. You had to enter a door downstairs that was barely held open by a few stones (there were no signs the green was there) and then walk along an unlit corridor until you reached the coffee break room, aka the green room. It's far away from all the happening and con vibes, very isolated and although the work tasks were simple and easy to complete (refilling coffee and tea, running to and fro' between green and the cafeteria upstairs to bring food items over etc) I often felt like I was missing out on the con because sitting there for roughly 6 out of the con's 8 hours a day honestly felt very unbalanced in terms of work versus free time. I know Kummacon was understaffed (just like almost all cons nowadays it feels, it's a struggle to get enough volunteers) and so the organizers were in a pinch to have all the necessary stations running and I know it was hard to make it work because some volunteers ghosted and never showed up. I was the only official green room worker for the whole weekend and that does explain why my work hours weren't optimal and, although my personal con experience suffered due to the isolation and lack of time to explore, I still feel proud that I managed to row my tasks and responsibilities to shore despite my difficulties while also providing all the other workers with a place to relax, refuel, chat and bond with others of the Kummacon work force – olette kaikki ihania!

The highlight of working at the green room was of course hearing the best gossip of the con along with constant access to snacks and refreshments lol. Oh and green room was the coolest place in the con so there was also the perk of not overheating nor suffering from the, at times, dip in air quality upstairs because of how crowded it could get.

I might have been left unsupervised at one point and I might have decided to do something about the fact that most green room users didn't know where the fridge was. This is my level of humor, I have no regrets!

During my free time on Saturday I went to listen to a panel about time-travelling and after that I scurried along to quickly snap some general con photos for posterity. I did have time (when combining Saturday and Sunday free hours) to do my number one important con thing and that's checking out the Artist's Alley and the Artisan's Alley for loot to bring home. There were a lot of familiar faces but also a couple new ones I didn't recognize from before, which is always nice. I ended up buying a few pins from different sellers for my ita bag I finally have one and a Neuvillette Genshin Impact charm because he's my new obsession and I can't help it.

View near the entrance, info desk to the left.

Of course there was the obligatory snacks and sweets shop.

Artist's Alley was located in the room behind the info desk.

The Artist's Alley seemed a bit quiet during the times I visited and especially when compared to the Artisan's Alley upstairs that had constant traffic due to the cafeteria, secondhand shop, anime karaoke etc being on the second floor and thus most congoers spent a lot of time walking past those tables upstairs so yeah, those who were upstairs most surely got a lot more repeated exposure due to the placement. I'm not sure though if the few tables just next to the info desk were artists or artisans but that was, in my eyes, the most optimal location to have a table at because you were literally just next to the entrance and thus highly visible; I even overheard one of those two sellers saying during the middle half of Saturday that they had already sold more than they did last year on both days combined when they were upstairs. :O

View of the main floor while standing on the staircase.

View just next to the staircase upstairs (blocked by the pillar). :D

View of the Artisan's Alley upstairs.

 

Sunday was mostly the same as Saturday except for the sadness that meant checking out of the hotel room and bringing our mountain of luggage to the con for safekeeping. Yes, carrying a TV and a console around got heavy really fast. We ended up storing our belongings in the green room and this is also where one of the main organizers gave me stonks gamer respects because you have to be some level of hardcore to carry your gaming setup 100 km away from home just so you can do your daily streaks in a few live-service games. :') 

Sunday also was slightly different because Firith upgraded to be an unofficial Kummacon green room worker to help me out and so that I didn't have to be so lonely down there all day lol. Otherwise he would probably have been barred from entering the green room as both his panel and his work task as a cosplay competition judge were both slotted on Saturday. 

Once the con was over we made use of our con worker perks (free leftovers including matcha waffles!) and helped clean up the green room before it was time for us to leave. Sadly our train was very delayed due to "personal injury" which, as far as I know, usually is a nicer way to say that someone attempted suicide by jumping in front of the tracks. Of course it could have been something else too but if it was like a stroke or something I think another Finnish word would have been used. :/ It makes one very sad nonetheless, especially because I've heard that spring and autumn is the most common seasons for this to happen and that each train conductor witnesses on average about 4 attempts during their service and yeah, I can't even begin to think how traumatizing that must be for the train crew because often the only thing you can do is to hit the emergency brake and wait for the train to stop a mile later; even though it's not their fault I can imagine the haunting guilt must be incredibly difficult to bear...
In the end our train ended up being roughly two hours late but we got home safe and sound. Firith drove me back home from Kemi and that was the end of our Kummacon journey.

I know this summary is messy, all over the place and kinda brief on details and whatnot but I just want to get it out of the way and I don't think there's a lot of interesting tidbits to bring up because let's be real – a majority of my con time was spent sitting in the green room and waddling up and down the stairs to refill the warm food of the day, it's not a particularly exhilarating read. And no misfortunes happened either like me somersaulting in the stairs with a heavy-ass rice cooker in my arms lolol. Of course a lot of shenanigans, fun and educational conversations happened in the green room etc but what happens in the green room stays in the green room heheh..~

All in all I'm happy I attended Kummacon once again, it's such a chill and safe event and I hope it stays that way too. Sure I can't claim that everything went perfectly this time but overall I felt appreciated and the camaraderie among the workers was great. I also really liked what one of the main organizers told me about the reason why she created Kummacon in the first place and keeps organizing it each year – I don't remember it word for word but she said something along the lines of that she's creating the event for her inner child who didn't have anywhere to go and feel a sense of belonging and safety. Her wish is that today's outlier youth and children won't have to experience that same sadness of feeling excluded and not acceptable enough because of being "too weird", aka simply being yourself. That's such a noble and wholesome cause, to make sure that those after us don't suffer as much as we did.

And yes, the word 'kumma' actually means weird/odd in Finnish and it's something I think the Kummacon crew is intentionally reclaiming to be a positive trait. Embrace the weirdness!

Thanks for reading and see you at the next con,

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Kummacon 2023 – Stop, working time!

Hello geeks!

This year's rendition of Kummacon was held this past weekend in Oulu again, during 20-21.5.2023 and yes, this effectively means that I've attended Kummacon back-to-back with no other con inbetween. :'D That's because last year's Kummacon was held so late and this year's was pushed forward to be on the first half of the year! Anyways, as most people probably know by now Kummacon is a small, low threshold anime and literature convention held annually in Oulu and it's one of the few popular culture events with a free entrance.

Let's dive in!

Kummacon host building, aka Oulu's International School.

Kummacon is one of those cons that change host building almost every iteration and where it ends up comes down to things like budget and such. This is the second time (I think?) that it's held in Oulu's international school – last time was back in 2018. And I gotta say that this is one of my favorite locations because of how well-lit it is and it's very close to the train station and centrum as well, which means it's easy to find and to get to and from.

Kummacon info desk. Very visibly pro-LGBTQ+ vibes.

Already by the end of last year's Kummacon I had signed up for to return as a con worker this year. I figured why not as it gives me something fulfilling to do and well, non-profit free events like these need all the extra hands they can get to be able to go around; no people willing to donate their time equals no con and that is big sad. :'( And I knew from last year that Kummacon struggled with last-minute worker cancellations and I have plenty con worker experience under my belt by now so I didn't need to think twice before applying for round two. Except this year I ended up at the Kumma Kahvila (cafeteria) and not as a general con worker.

Entrance viewed from inside.

As I mentioned above Kummacon has been in the international school before and I felt instantly familiar when I stepped in. I think most of the layout were used similarly to 2018 – the Artist's Alley was split in two halves with one half downstairs and the other half upstairs on the second floor. There were quite a lot of artists and some I had not seen before, which is always nice! Sadly I am quite poor at the moment so the only thing I ended up buying at the whole con was a Diluc (Genshin Impact) keychain from one of the sellers upstairs for myself and two other characters as gifts.

 

Half of Artist's Alley was on the main floor.

And the other half was up the stairs. (sorry no pic)

On Saturday I worked from 13-17 local time at the cafeteria upstairs. We sold some sweet and salty treats like vegan 'härkis' burgers and sandwiches, homebaked buns and peanut butter cookies, coffee, Japanese snacks, homemade 'sima' (a traditional Finnish Easter drink similar to mead) and some few others. 

I gotta admit I was quite nervous at first when I arrived at my work station. I had slept poorly and tried to mask my growing anxiety as good as I could but luckily I was fretting for nothing as it was a pretty chill job and there were never any rushes or massive customer flows. My workmates were also friendly and there were no weird situations that cropped up, except for the obligatory technology hiccups with the card reader refusing to connect with the app and such. But we also took cash so when it did act up there was always a plan B to fall back on. And apparently the card reader hated my phone more than the other phones cuz no one else had it act up as much as I did lol.

Kumma Kahvila looked like this on Sunday.

As I spent the majority of my time at the con behind bars at the cafeteria working I gotta admit that I don't actually have so much to say about the convention itself. I saw some friends briefly but as I was the only one who worked I couldn't join them for some juicy shenanigans and thus I don't have any fun stories to share as, well, nothing out of the ordinary had a chance to happen. So I'm sorry but this summary might come across as a bit more dull than what I usually write. :')

 

Selfie with Firith! Yes I was in alt casual gear.

I did meet the lovely Firith in some Hatsune Miku inspired setup and we shared our sleeping accomodation as he and I have a mutual friend who so happens to have a study apartment in Oulu where we could crash over the weekend. Saved my ass because yeah, as I said I'm poor right now and on sick leave so the money ain't saying clinkety clink right now.

 

One of the staple vendors, Manga Cafe.

Some other geeky merch seller.

 

On Sunday my work shift were from 10-14 and it went by much the same as on Saturday, except a bit calmer still. I have no idea how much leftovers there were as I didn't stay until the closure of the con (I had to leave earlier) but I do assume that whatever were left from the cafeteria were handed out to the Green Room and to con workers to take home. 

Next year I will most likely apply to be a con worker again as I find it quite an important and delightful little side hustle and well, I do appreciate Kummacon staying as a free entrance event and for them to be able to stay that way they need volunteers to make the con happen year after year. :)

The obligatory art wall. Notice the 'poorly drawn Sasuke' meme. xD

 

I found this year's Kummacon experience to be a pleasant one. I did not attend any panels or programs or the like and spent like 90% of my time at the con working but I don't really feel like I missed out on much either as I'm a very lazy goer on any kind of activities and I'm trying to refrain from buying stuff as I feel like I own so much shit by now that I don't even know what to do with it lol. 

It doesn't take that long to traverse the building and see what the con has to offer and aside from the occasional crowding and the building being packed with people in lines waiting for popular programs to start (like the cosplay competition and cosplay date) then it was easy to navigate and move around in. I did feel some slight annoyance because upstairs there were a few cases when people would randomly sit or just stand next to the stairs for a longer time and clog up the passage, which wasn't that wide to begin with. Maybe there was a lack of chairs to sit on, I'm not sure? I didn't check every corner of the con but I know there were chairs in the same corridor where the Kumma Kirppis (second-hand store) was, although I'll admit I didn't step my foot in there.

Upstairs also had pretty crummy air flow/quality, I felt a bit nauseated several times while working and had to take breaks to go outdoors to get some fresh air; I heard that the windows upstairs couldn't be opened and that was one of the main reasons it was like that – luckily on Sunday someone brought a portable air conditioner to the cafeteria so it was a bit more manageable. Air quality was fine downstairs.

All in all Kummacon is a worthwhile con to visit if you happen to live in the north. It boasts a welcoming and safe atmosphere, a decent amount of activities to keep you entertained and it's just a breath of fun to liven up a dull week. We need to hold on tight to what few cons we have left with free entrance because yeah, I personally believe that low-threshold cons like this are a great way to get new and young hobbyists into the scene – it's a great first step to gauge if it's where you feel a sense of belonging. 

Thanks for reading and stay fresh out there!

~ Shiro Samurai out.