Hello all fellow nerds! :D
I'm back home from Nerdcon in Umeå and I must say that this was one of my funniest con experiences this year! I really had a blast!
Nerdcon may be small and rather new, but that doesn't mean that it can't be a great convention!
So, before I kick this summary up I'll just say some basic information about Nerdcon first – it's a convention in Umeå, Sweden, that was held on 14-15th August. Nerdcon is a mixed convention in the sense that it's not solely about anime and manga; Nerdcon puts focus on board games, video gamers and Western fandoms too. There is a little bit of everything!
I traveled to Nerdcon with my fellow company Sacchan, Jäätynyt Enkeli, Hasakitsuki and with our good friend Marcus! Marcus hadn't been to any conventions in, like, forever, but we managed to get him to tag along after some preparations and planning! :')
We left for Umeå super early on Friday morning, aka the same day Nerdcon would start. I think we woke up around 4 in the morning and everyone were in Sacchan's white Renault before the clock had struck five. Yes, Sacchan was a sweetheart and decided to drive us all to Nerdcon (she fairly recently got her driving license) instead of everyone taking the bus together, which would have been more expensive for everyone and, especially, to Marcus
The drive to Nerdcon went fine; I slept, we talked a lot of shit and pulled silly jokes and such, it was fun lol.
We got to Umeå a little bit before eleven I think, which was a good time because the con would open its doors at twelve, but those who were volunteers could get in one hour earlier. Everyone of us except Sacchan were volunteers and two of us had their shifts starting at twelve, so it was a good thing that
The entrance to Nerdcon! Note: the black sign reads "Umeå's music school". |
We all went inside and, yes, did it look like a school building inside – a very fresh, lit up and inviting one!
Nerdcon entrance/information counter. |
I had printed out my volunteer paper proof thingy and showed it. I then got a pastel pink & blue fabric con ticket on my wrist and a volunteer badge to hang from my neck, woop!
Nerdcon con ticket. It's cute! |
The volunteer badge. Inside the plastic holder were also 4 food tickets, to the cafeteria, with a worth of 50 SEK each. |
My first impression of the con building was really positive and I instantly found myself hoping that Nerdcon would stay here the coming years!
The view you were met with right after you had passed the entrance/info desk. The stairs led to the second floor, aka where the merchandise room, video game rooms and board game rooms were. |
The cafeteria area. |
The Ginga corner (for fans of the Ginga Nagareboshi Gin series) was present, just next to the cafeteria. |
Just the cafeteria's price list, in case anyone wonders what food options there were. x) |
Oh and yeah! The Friday was really warm, especially outside. I was sweating like a sinner in church... or something.
I hadn't quite expected it to be this steaming hot in mid-August. OTL
Nerdcon outside area. Such a comfy school surrounding! |
Nerdcon offered sumo wrestling fun for everyone! :'D And this was were I later ended up spending most of my time working... |
Schedule of everything that happened during the con. Open in full-size to read! |
One of the sellers in the merchandise rooms also carried Ramune (cheaper than the cafeteria had but not cold) along with Pocky and some other sweets. |
Random con merchandise. All along I wondered what that Monster Hunter thingy was.. I couldn't figure it out. |
This seller had some stuff I hadn't seen before, including a shitlot of wigs. |
T-shirts and figurines. |
The "sword guy". He was at Skecon and I'm pretty sure he was at Närcon too... |
At one point the arranger guy had to go somewhere and so I was left alone in charge of the sumo. I rolled it like a boss until he came back. It was very entertaining to watch people's reactions and comments when they put on the sumo outfits; some of them said some outright hilarious things. xD
I found that the Nerdcon arrangers were really cool in the sense that even during my shift they told me it was okay to go fetch food from centrum, if I was hungry and wanted something that they didn't offer at the con. So yeah, my company went a quickie run
My sushi plate! Om nom nom nom ~ |
When we got back to the con I went to watch over the sumo wrestling again. I think about one hour or so before my shift was to end the arranger who was responsible for me just came up to me, while I was sitting and fanning myself on the bench, looked into my eyes all serious and started doing the religious bless-you-draw-a-cross-over-his-chest moves and said "I free you from your duties, you are a free man now", in a serious and borderline epic voice. I hadn't seen it coming at all and it was just awesome! XD I went all "Woohoo! o/" and then he continued by saying stuff in a dreamy, wise man way. "Go and live life now, go do all the things you always wanted to do... GO BUY A CAR ~"
"FUCK YEAH, GONNA BUY A MERCEDES!" was said by me and then I derped my way back inside.
OMG Mario Kart: Double Dash!! in LAN mode. ♡ |
The second video game room. Yes, there were two. The smaller one (the one on this pic) was driven by Nerdcon itself, the bigger room by some other groups. |
Just an example of what most of the corridors looked like. |
The board game room. |
There was a lot to choose from! |
Some board game put on the table for play. |
The Fantasia room. They sold some merchandise and also seemed to act like some kind of gathering point for Western fandom fans? I don't know. |
Oh and guess what? Of course when I opened the Ramune it had to go fountain mode on me and spill all over my clothes! Grrrrrrrrreat...
This was like... my night meal?? The cupcake was awesome, by the way. |
And Hitsu didn't answer the cellphone.
And the cellphone(s) died.
But somehow, through a miracle, we found our way to her. It felt so nice to be able to lie down after all those hours of sitting in a car and being sleep deprived. It was also very nice to see her again! ^_^
We ended up talking a lot of shit and then eventually falling asleep.
When Saturday morning dawned we all (except Marcus, who was sleeping somewhere in the con's sleeping hall dormitories) dragged our asses up from the beds
Nerdcon had a "pysselhörna" upstairs, aka crafts corner. You could draw, do origami and "pärlplattor", whatever the latter is called in English. I honestly have no idea. |
I didn't want any pies and none of the warm foods were tempting so I ended up just buying a bakery, a banana and a bottle of pineapple flavored Ramune.
Oh and guess what?
The Ramune exploded on me.
Again.
I'm not even kidding!
Nutritious breakfast. 10/10 |
I just felt a lot of discomfort being in costume (and the wig was being a bitch) so I didn't stay in cosplay for more than a couple hours at most. I just basically went outside with Sacchan as
For some weird reason *surprise surprise* we still managed to get a couple shots I appeared decent in, so here you go. :S
Cosplayer: Shiro Samurai (Jushiro Ukitake)
Photographer: Sacchan
Photo editor: Shiro Samurai
It was actually super hard to stay serious during the photoshoot because me and Sacchan ended up pulling so many shitty jokes and references from the Finnish Donald Duck animations by SilliS. :'DD "Hyi vittu paskea!"
In the end I suddenly learned how to talk like Goofy... and all hell was loose. XD Oh my gosh, the laughs we had!
Bonus pic!
This sums up so well how I felt about cosplaying lol. xD |
I borrowed a shorter silvery wig from Jäätynyt Enkeli and omg, it was so smooth and tangle-free. It was short enough to not get stuck in my bags' shoulder straps and so I could work without being annoyed out of my mind.
When my working shift started I went to the entrance again and suggested that I could go and be in charge of the sumo wrestling again, as I had noticed earlier that there was no one watching over it and it worried me. I got the thumbs up from the arrangers and off I went to act as a judge and watch over the thing!
Photo by Jäätynyt Enkeli. |
Photo by Jäätynyt Enkeli. |
It was funny though because while I was in charge of the sumo a person came up to me and told me that "if only your wig was a bit longer you could cosplay Ukitake". I just straight-faced it but in my mind I was all "if you only knew that I cosplayed Ukitake a few hours ago..." XD
We went to fetch take-away sushi from Shogun for lunch/dinner again! o/ |
Marcus (with the long hair), two other guys and Hasakitsuki playing the samurai Kirby mini-game. I joined in afterwards! |
In the bigger gaming room's white board someone had drawn a beautiful cup and there were also the names of all the Mario Kart tournament teams. |
Buuuuuuut.
We didn't, because it got too late and we were tired.
We left for home on Sunday morning instead, now that everyone had gotten to rest properly. On the early afternoon we spent our last hours with Hitsu listening to music and watching hilarious shit from Youtube.. on her television.
"AKUN KAKKA ONKLEMA" :'D |
Tyhäm! ♡ |
Gotta go fast! |
If you don't know what this is then shame on you, you're missing out on one of the best misheard lyrics videos. XD |
I just don't get tired of it and hey, there is no sushi place remotely near my home town so it's a luxury for me to even get sushi in the first place!
~~~~~
I think that's all. I'm probably forgetting to mention a craplot of stuff (like how many times we got lost in Umeå centrum and all the rage that followed) but oh well, can't remember everything. xD And can't be bothered to write every little detail either because lazyyyyyy.
But all in all Nerdcon was a great experience and I'm definitely coming back next year too! I had more fun than I thought I would and the con building exceeded my expectations as well. :) The only thing I was missing was the lack of the old gaming consoles in the video game rooms but oh well, I managed without so it's not the end of the world.
Thanks to all the people who came and talked to me and to all the people who make Nerdcon happen! You deserve medals!
Shiro Samurai waves bye!