Everfree Northwest 2013 Highlights
Written by Riri (@lillyums)
This was my second attendance to Everfree Northwest but only this year we at Lifted Geek got to attend as invited press/media! And let me tell you how much it has grown. The fandom expanded towards the younger crowd – we got to see more
females (recall my first Everfree, it was a 1:20 female:male ratio), more
children, and overall more people. It
was a huge success and better organized this year, taking place at one hotel
location (Hilton Seattle Airport and Conference Center) instead of two. The only problem I had was that the
registration line was in fact just one line for everything: pre-registration, registration… I’m sure this will be
improved next year, after all this is only their 2nd Everfree convention!
Other than that, onward to our Everfree Northwest 2013 Highlights!
Interview with the Voice Actors
This year, we were missing quite a few of the Mane 6 voice actors. Only Andrea Libman (Fluttershy/Pinkie Pie)
was present among them. The other female pony VA in attendance was Michelle
Creber (Apple Bloom), and then the male pony VA’s Andrew Francis (Shining Armor)
and Peter New (Big Mac).
Our biggest highlight for the whole weekend as Lifted Geek was our chance to interview some of these voice actors! We wanted to initially schedule interviews with voice actors Peter New and Michelle Creber, and storyboard artist, Sabrina Alberghetti, but due to scheduling conflicts, we were unable to meet with Michelle and Sabrina. However, we were still able to interview Peter New! In addition, two voice actors were scheduled with us last minute: Andrea Libman and Andrew Francis!! This was absolutely exciting for us to get this chance to interview them all. Honestly, we didn’t think we would land an interview with Andrea Libman since she was the only Mane 6 voice actor there. We didn’t request her initially but in the end, luck was on our side. These interviews will be posted on our website soon, so stay tuned for these!!
Artist Alley
I plan to have a separate post in our G33kP&G segment
featuring video footage and mini-interviews of several amazing artists this
year. Mostly new vendors and a few that have sold before, but all in all, we
had much more yarn crafting (crochet/knit) this year and much, much more
plushies!! GYAHH!! Plushie overload!!
But pretty much almost everypony at Everfree got one of the plushies at the Cutie Corral. Check out my Everfree Artist Alley Highlights for my favorite artists there!
Costume Contest
We actually have a whole article devoted to Everfree's cosplay contest; head on over there to check out the footage! Otherwise here's a brief overview:
Everfree hosted its first cosplay contest with 3 divisions: Foal (under
13), Pony Commission (13 & over with costume commissioned ), and Pony
Handmade Division (13 & over with 80% of costume handmade). There were so
many wonderful cosplays of everypony! Because of this costume contest, more
attendees came in cosplay, even some random ones like… Man Li (male Chun Li)
and Justin Bieber (cosplay, not the real dude).
Introducing a cosplay contest made the community much more tightly knit.
The costume contest was well organized, and hosted by a very entertaining
Rarity cosplayer. The children were
adorable, and everyone did a great job putting together their costume and sewing
their own as well! My favorite was this cosplayer who made her variation of Princess
Celestia’s Crystal Empire dress; she is in the above photo on the far left. I saw her last year in the dress but this year
she had made significant changes and improvements, including embellishments in her hair, and the crown and other pieces on her dress which she had hand made as well.
Charity Auction
This year’s charity auction raised $21,009.44 befitting Seattle Children’s
Hospital! The items donated were just out of this world! Chaotic Brony’s “Princess
Twilight” pendant sold for $2,100 and Cosmic Unicorn’s “Sunrise in Equestria”
sold of $2,750!
image from Chaotic Brony
image from Cosmic Unicorn DA
These were two of many beautiful items auctioned off to two very
generous bronies! One thing I did realize was that people didn’t just bid
because they really wanted the item.
They were bidding high and mighty for a great cause, and it was so
intense when we saw how high the bid of these items were. Even a broken Hungry
Hungry Hippo was auctioned off for $50 (though it was signed by Andrea Libman
and Peter New) – it was VERY broken…
Anyway, a very successful charity auction, there were many items left after an
hour and a half. The charity auction continued on the next day as a silent
auction.
Panels
Some panels we attended:
- Meet the Writers
Amy Keating Rogers described her experience writing for MLP and Care Bears, played a beautiful My Little Pony (her version of the MLP theme song) ukulele duet with her daughter, and ended the panel with Q&A from the fans.
- Pinkie Pie’s Party Hour
The most entertaining panel of all: watching Peter New and Andrea Libman play a half hour of Jenga, Operation, and 2 seconds of Hungry Hungry Hippo. Peter broke the HHH game and threw the balls off the stage; it was hilarious.
- Meet the Voice Actors
Andrea Libman, Peter New, Michelle Creber, and Andrew Francis appeared and answered several questions from the fans including how to become a voice actor, how hard it is to switch between Pinkie Pie/Fluttershy, who is your favorite pony, and my favorite of all questions: whether or not Big Mac’s “Eeyups” were recorded in bulk or if he “Eeyup”ed it every time. The answer to that? He “Eeyup”ed it every time.
- Guys of MLP
Dusty Katt hosted the Guys of MLP with Andrew Francis and Peter New. These guys are charming on their own, but together it was an absolute delight. Peter New is a powerhouse of random awesome anyway, but Andrew Francis was feeding off that energy. Andrew had to use the restroom mid way through the panel and I swear, he has to be the fastest pee-er in existence, guy was back before most even knew he was gone!
- Closing Ceremonies
Time to break out your hankies Bronies! After a lively little skit with some cosplayers, it was time to close down our visit to Equestria. It was all about expressing the theme of this weekend: "Friendship" really is the purest form of "Magic" (see what I did there?).
Overall, I felt like the convention had more diversity this year and I didn’t feel as left out as I did last year! The brony community is very close and it isn’t like other communities you could compare with. I hope that next year, I can see even more creative cosplays and more voice actors and guests!
