The First Halifax Official Anime Con

On the 5th and 6th of July 2014, the first ever Halifax Official anime convention was set to get underway. Arriving somewhat early, I found myself a little lost at the station as I tried to browse on my phone the location of the convention site (stupid phone was not browsing the net properly at the time so I ended up just waiting till I found someone to help me). Still, having finally found the convention while following Misty and an Akatsuki cosplayer, I entered the Dean Clough Gallery and made my way to the desk for registration. Meeting up with the official staff at the event, I bought my ticket and made my way into the convention halls games room. Having been to a few conventions by now, I was happy to see that the games room was a large room with a large number and range of games, from old classic consoles to brand new consoles. As such, I spent a large portion of my day here, speaking with the staff members as well as observing the others playing their games.

In the afternoon I joined the pokemon league competition, unfortunately to be knocked out in the second round, but it was fun all the same. After the events of the league competition, I went on to explore the remainder of the convention. Among the other rooms, there was a large stage room where people could dance with the Wii, and later was held a few presentations and the dances by the Maids of England, those cute young girls in their maid outfits who I had met at a previous convention in Huddersfield.

Sadly, at the time they appeared on stage, I had long since moved on to browse the many stalls that had gathered in the other building. Once again, I came across some people I had met in Huddersfield, selling their wares at the store, and now I think back on it, I believe that I only bought products from the ones I knew. This wasn't on purpose everyone else, sorry...I just love manga and plushies.

For a first convention, it was nice to see a reasonable number of people turn out. They probably had a couple of hundred by my reconing, and considering that they had to compete with Le Tour which was running both days of the convention nearby, I think that the turn out was very good.

Overall, I had a fun day at the convention, though I would have liked to go both days. Unlike with the previous conventions I went to, I didn't get the same feeling of crampness. Their rooms were all large and each individual section had its own place. If I was to make any criticism, it would have to be that the stores section of the site was in another building hidden around the back of the gallery. However, once I got there, I could see why they used the hall. It was a wonderful place for the stalls and much better than the other places in the main gallery for stores, other than maybe the stage area which was already being used for other things.

I believe I will probably attend HAMcon again next year, and I hope that next years will be more successful than the this year. Yorkshire could really do with its own large specifically anime/manga related convention, and I think HAMcon is off to a good start. Keep up the good work guys.