#derpycon 2014

I was absolutely in love with the setup at the front of the hotel where they had a gigantic Christmas tree with presents scattered all around. It was a favourite spot for a whole bunch of cosplayers the entire convention day (Saturday) that I was there. I managed to get a few cute photos in myself as well as take some of the lovely cosplayers around that area. I still have to edit the majority of the shots I took, but I think that they're going to turn out great since the shots I've reviewed so far are excelled imo.

It was raining out during the entire con, so pretty much everything was limited to stuff inside of the hotel. It was a little annoying getting back to the car to retrieve some things as well as drop off others and myself as well as my buddy got marginally wet. However, the con staff did give us a voucher for free parking so I was pretty stoked about that. All in all the con was very affordable, and since it was about a 30-40 min drive the gas cost was negligible. I would definitely come back if I had free time next year for the con.

The panels that we attended were all very enjoyable and not very crowded. My favourite of the day had to be the last one I went to with my cosplay buddy in which we listened to a sound clip of either an opening or ending song from and anime and we had to guess which one based on our knowledge from watching the series and the genre which was provided for us. Since there weren't too many people in the panel we go to participate in the game numerous times and had an all around fabulous time at that panel.

The masquerade which included performances as well as cosplay contest entrants was very well put together and super enjoyable. My friend ended up singing in the competition after a last-minute sign up and I couldn't be more proud of her. The skits that were performed were very entertaining, and the staff even had a little dance show they did for us. In my opinion, it was more enjoyable than the masquerade at AnimeNEXT even though it was smaller. However, I still preferred the performances at Zenkaikon (from both 2013 and 2014) more, which is probably only because Zenkaikon is a more well-known convention so there are more applicants and they have a longer time to prepare their skits. I can say though that everyone gave it their all at DerpyCon and it came through in their performances.

The smallness of the convention made it very intimate and I had the chance to catch up with a few good friends. It was nice being in a con environment that was more relaxed than the bigger conventions, and it gave me a lot of opportunity to just take it easy and enjoy my surroundings. Bigger conventions also have their good aspects, but I generally get lost in all of the happenings so it's always nice to have a bit of a change of pace. Even though it was a small convention, I always had something to do, so it went by pretty fast for me. I might end up going more than one day in the coming year if DerpyCon happens again.