First Event in Two Years
On the 22nd and 23rd of May I attended my first event in two years and it felt amazing. I have been in a bit of a slump lately, feeling quite flat and attending this event and seeing my amazing con family. It gave me the boost I so desperately needed. I feel so rejuvenated and reminded of how much love, fun, friendship and memories I have with these people. Given everything that has happened over the last year or so it felt strangely normal to be at this event. Occasionally there was the awkwardness of whether that person was up for hugs or not but most of us were hugging and it was like old times and felt so good.
The people I spend time with at these events are family and they always will be. This family has so much importance to me because they have been there for so long. I was never good at making friends, I was good at making them and not good at keeping them. So to say that I have known and been friends with them for close to 16 years is incredible. When I think back to my pre-convention days, I could never imagine I’d be where I am now. Being apart of such amazing community is beautiful. I still feel so lucky to be a part of such an amazing community. I share so many memories with people and they will always hold a special place in my heart. Without those people, these memories wouldn’t exist.
Outfits and Purchases
First day of the event I wore my Happy Little Vegemite shirt for nostalgia reasons. The next day I just wore another fandom shirt. I didn’t really buy anything over the weekend, least until on the Sunday. Which is when I found my mate Jase at Gateworld Collectables. He had an awesome signed cast photo from Agents of SHIELD. This being the show that helped me a lot over the last 18 months, I had to buy it.
Event Review
I arrived at the venue and was directed to parking, at the opposite end of the area to the building entrance. A bit of a nuisance given it was a long walk to the buildings. There was also a massive queue to enter the show, even with pre-purchased tickets. I walked the length of the queue before a staff member told me I needed to queue at the end. They needed some better signage or more staff assistance in their queues.
I had only purchased a day ticket and wasn’t really in a hurry to get into the event. I decided to hang around where I was, couldn’t be bothered walking back to the end. Eventually as the queue shortened I just jumped on the end and got inside. The hardest part of often working these events, is that when you attend, there’s queues. I would have volunteered for this event, but I didn’t have the okay from my doctor.
Once you got past the entrance queue there was another queue to enter the main building. Due to restricted numbers because of Covid they had to stagger entry into the building. This of course made sense, there’s only so much they can do with restrictions in place. There was definitely an annoyance from the crowd though.
Unfortunately, the queue was like that most of the day. If you left the building for any reason, you would have queue to get back in. This is why I did by best to avoid having to leave the building. I only did so once before realising the process. Lucky for me I was with friends who had the Supa Q pass and they let me back in with them. The saying “Sometimes it’s not what you know it’s who you know” always important. The queuing was the only really negative thing about the event and the reason for it was understandable.
Great Community
I just really enjoyed spending time with my con family, it was great catching up with everyone. Talking about things that had happened and even having a little cry with friends. Sometimes things get too much and I don’t always talk to the friends closest to me about them. I think the last few years, between medical issues and COVID lockdowns I’ve kept a lot to myself. In some ways I let myself open up with these friends and it happened to be at this event. Which isn’t necessarily unordinary but maybe it was just that there was more to talk about this time.
I think COVID and the lockdowns really made it feel hard to talk to people. Because everyone is going through the same thing, but differently. So you don’t feel like you can talk about your issues when those around you have their own. It was good to talk about it with these friends who I hadn’t seen in ages. And learnt that maybe I had been through a little more than most in the last 18 months. It took me a while to get this post out because straight after that weekend. Only three days after the event Melbourne went back into lockdown. It feels like it has been two week lockdown, two weeks open since then. It is so hard to do things when there is no consistency anymore.
COMPLETE GUEST LIST |
Zack Snyder, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Radha Mitchell, Liam McIntyre, Elizabeth Blackmore, Nicholas Hamilton, Luke Arnold, Lincoln Lewis, John Jarratt, Spike Spencer, Aimee Smith, Joe Brumm, David McCormack, Nicola Scott, Tom Taylor, Stewart McKenny, Anthony Christou, Queenie Chan, Jamie Johnson, Dean Rankine, Al Barrionuevo, David Yardin, Darren Close, Gary Proudley, Christopher Sequeira, Steve Proposch, Jack Dann, Steve Paulsen, Janeen Webb, Tracie McBride, Charles Spiteri, Maurice Zanthos, Rebecca Fraser, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Jay Kistoff, Maria Lewis, Amanda Bridgeman, Jodi McAlister, and Astrid Scholte. |
Comments