Hi everyone,
Not gonna lie, this is one of the hardest entries that I have written till now. I knew that Animecon was struggling, but as I am not affiliated with them, I did not want to cause unneccesary rumors. Seeing it confirmed by them in their Closing ceremony was devastating, to say the least. There is a rise of commercial “pop culture” events with a commercial background in the Netherlands and they have more money to advertise, attract bigger names, etc. You could say “And thus anime conventions are dying, because they aren’t going with the times.” And you’d be wrong. A few of those commercial events like Comic Con Holland and everything Tomo-related (<- They are using a new name to hide their shady business) are purposely making terrible contracts for vendors/artists etc, pick dates that other conventions also have and promote themselves to death on social media, just to “reduce competition and earn more money”.
If Animecon stops, I strongly doubt that there will be prelims for international competitions in the Netherlands apart from the E2C at Abunai!con. Aka, the death of cosplay competitions. Commercial events do not want these prelims, as they are expensive as heck to host. (I know this, even though I haven’t and likely will never be selected to represent the Netherlands in a cosplay competition.) So if you care about the cosmaker community in the Netherlands and support us goofy, crafty geeks, I urge you to donate to Animecon. It doesn’t have to be much, and you should only donate what you can miss without getting in trouble yourself. I immediately donated when the page came online, so I am not only talking, I am also taking action. Please support this lovely event by fans here and make a lot of goofy nerds happy. Thank you.
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With that said, and the heavy thing done, I’d like to take you through this event. My main portion was the Animecon Group competition, so let me take you through how such a competition works at a convention.
This starts on Friday, with the rehearsal at 14:00. Meaning I took a day off to get there on time, build the stage props and talk with the other competitors. Fhant was with me again, as my helper, and we arrived in Rijswijk around noon to eat lunch before getting to work. The trusty foldable cart was very helpful once again, as we could move the most important stuff in one go. Elianzi had a bit of traffic getting to the location, so Fhant and I made sure to have most of the props ready to go. When Elianzi arrived, we picked her and the props up and continued prepping. At 14:00 we were called on stage for the tech rehearsal and it was a bit chaotic, as we were the first rehearsal of the weekend. Luckily, we were kinda used to it, so we were just bummed that we didn’t get a second round, because the audio only kicked in 5 seconds into the skit. Which is difficult to rehearse with.
After the rehearsal, I went to the Pixel Ronin Photobooth to hand a gift to one of the people there and socialize a bit. Then we went to the hotel to check-in and have dinner. The luxury hotel was a nice thing Fhant and I booked to enjoy the weekend more. The room was bigger, we had a bath and the restaurant is such high quality. We enjoyed steak and fish before heading back to the convention and roaming the Dealer Room, Artist Alley and Game Room. We decided to check a lot of the grounds to make plans for Sunday. It was quieter than I hoped, so that felt a little off. We went back to the hotel when we were tired and enjoyed luxury bath in the room. It made it easy to relax the day before the competition.
On Saturday I actually woke up tired. Why? The bed was too soft for me to just turn in my sleep, so I woke up every time I wanted to turn and I had to do it manually. At around 6 AM I decided I was done, so I checked if Fhant was awake as well before getting ready for breakfast. Breakfast buffet started at 7 AM, so we were a few of the earliest birds there. It was nice and quiet and I ate a LOT. Hmmm, breakfast buffets! <3 At around 9:00 we went back to the hotel room to get ready for the convention. As Fern’s default outfit is quite easy to wear and sturdy, there was no struggle getting ready in no time. I just felt silly walking through the hotel lobby in half a cosplay, but it seemed like I was the only one who cared. At the convention, I immediately went backstage to check on the props and get the wig on my head. And then I kinda crashed. The weather and bad nights got to me, so I slept for a bit when I sat in a chair. In almost full cosplay. That is some extreme silliness and not recommended as my dress got a lot of extra wrinkles from that, that I couldn’t iron out at the spot. Oh well, I got some sleep. 
At around 11: 30, Elianzi and I went to the judges and we filled the 10 minutes we had with yapping. Well, Elianzi did the yapping mostly and I was still waking up. Oops. She did it wonderfully and I tried to assist as much as I could. From the judging, we went to the light techs and talked through the plans we had. Our plans went through with one modification, so that’s a win! Then we headed to the photographer for the cosplay competition pictures. We did our best to be serious there and I really hope that I can show you those pictures later. Meanwhile, the cloak was killing me slowly, so I went back to the prop area, dropped off the cloak and sat in the chair for some more sleep. So, uhm, sorry if you missed me. I was probably asleep. 
Next up was the competition, I was awake then. We were the second skit of the entire weekend, so once again, a bit messy. We found out that the helium tank was almost empty when we tried making our last stage prop, so that woke me up and got me panicking. It worked out alright in the end and we had all the props for the skit. Both Elianzi and I struggled with how the crew placed the props this time around. During the rehearsal, they got it all correct and with the show, 3 out of 5 items were placed incorrectly. Elianzi and I did our best to improvise, but we can only do so much. Luckily, we both managed to pull through and the skit was enjoyed by the audience. We hear nothing but our audio and if there is any laughter from the audience. We heard laughter multiple times, so we are pleased.
Sadly, the woolen cloak (aka weighted blanket with pockets) got to me once again. Not too surprising with temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius, but still disappointing. I left the main stage area to dump the cloak and get a drink to get my brain back to working. It worked! So I got back after finishing the drink and talked with the lovely other competitors while cleaning up our props. I was happy to see y’all again and I’d love to see you more often. <3 After chatting some, Fhant and I loaded the props up back in the foldable cart and made sure everything was in the car before we left for the hotel. This time, we got cheap food at a nearby restaurant and rested at the hotel. We did go to the hotel cafe for a drink and a very rusty game of chess. (There was a chess board and we had nothing better to do, so yeah.)
On Sunday I woke up, decently rested. This time I was tired enough to sleep through the slightly too soft beds. Let’s count that as a win. At the breakfast buffet, we met up with Elianzi and Lon cosplay and partner also showed up. It was a nice way of waking up and discussing plans and life with cosplay. After this lovely breakfast, it was time to pack our bags and check out of the hotel. We went back to the convention venue and I got dressed in the dressing rooms, so I could roam for a bit as Star Guardian Seraphine. I got some pictures taken at the Pixel Ronin Studio, visited the Neko Neko Ni maid cafe, changed back to normal clothes, did some more shopping and waited for the Closing Ceremony.
This ceremony left us feeling… Defeated. Like, the entire audience wishes the best for Animecon, but we know it is serious if they ask for help the way they did. I will not repeat what I typed in the first paragraphs. The feeling looms over every fun thing I did this weekend and I don’t want that.
So, keep on crafting, keep on supporting fan events and I want to see all of you again at Animecons in the future.
Amirine