Post-con thoughts

Hello guys! I hope you've had an excellent start to the week!

Anifest is finally over,  and I have arrived back home safely! I have so much to share with you, but I will try to keep it short.

So let's start with the good points - we had tremendous success with our shops! We were almost completely sold out by the end of the second day! We went there with no expectations, and we were hoping to at least make enough to cover our expenses for the trip.

I kid you not, we were in shock once we got home and counted the total amount we made during the con! This brought tears to my eyes as I finally got that inner affirmation, that I so desperately needed. At last, I can feel that I am doing something useful for our community!

I also managed to finish my casual Killjoy from Valorant, and I was happy to see that many people were able to recognize the character, while I was wearing it.

There were many new cosplayers who I got to meet and cheer for. I am really happy to see that there are so many newcomers and all of them are eager to learn and cosplay their favorite characters.

So the cons were mainly because of the event's staff. There was a huge miscommunication between the management, and this caused many problems for us as guests, and for the contestants.

I am no newbie when it comes to competition judging, and I can't express how disappointed I am in my fellow judges. I had this bitter aftertaste after the "points" were calculated and the winners were selected. I was the only person that actually submitted any points and calculated the results to make it as fair as possible for the contestants. I do not wish to badmouth people, but the whole thing just came as unprofessional, and we were choosing a winner based on impression. One of the judges didn't even remember half of the performances on stage, and neither scored them when it was due ..so there is that.

I also had to argue with the organizers as we were not given any of the rules for the competition, we didn't have the event schedule, and we were left with no information on some really important topics. No one from the staff wanted to talk to us and provide us with any sort of guidance. TBH, this attitude was a bit offensive - all of us took the time to come to this event and help out, but all we got was an unfriendly pat on the back.

There was even a point where the main organizer started yelling at one of the event sponsors (with no real reason) and this left quite a rude impression on everyone. 

Although the whole experience was quite stressful, and I was super tired by the end of it - I can't deny that I had a blast, thanks to our kind community.

I hope I will have another opportunity like this one - so I can gain even more expertise in the judging field, promote my crafts and motivate people to cosplay.

As for now - I am catching up with the last few commissions that I could not finish before the trip.

I also need to improve our competitive costumes by Thursday as we finally received our tickets for SA.

I will have another long post on the SA topic and how the page will be managed, while I am away for the competition!

I wish you a wonderful evening for now <3

xoxo