Running Around Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo: 2015 Con Report
written by Britany Quinn (@BritanyQuinn)
Throughout my years of going to conventions, this was the first time going to Edmonton Expo. This made me very excited, since it's what I do when I go to a new convention. I didn't know what to expect when entering the doors. I knew the Expo Centre was big, but when I walked through the doors I wasn't expecting it to be this big. The Edmonton Expo consisted of 5 huge rooms: Admissions, Photo Op, Media Guest, Main Events, and Artist Alley / Vendors.
This was it's 4th year running Edmonton Expo with hitting over 50,000 attendees. Each year topping the next. You can see the excitement in everyone's eyes when waiting in line for the official doors to be opened; the volunteers hyping up the crowd as we stood waiting. As the doors opened the lines rushed in smoothly. Attendees and vendors filling up the halls with comic books, jewelry, board games, cosplays, and of course food. OH! the smell of mini donuts...
Edmonton Expo had quite the variety of guests attending this year. Creators, Actors, Voice Actors, Childhood Favourites, and even Cosplayers. Number one guest attending would definitely have to be Mr. Stan Lee. Actors such as Billy Boyd, Jenna Coleman, Cary Elwes, James Marsters, Brian O' Halloran, Michael Rooker, and Natalia Tena to name a few, joined the huge list of guests. Voice actors Will Friedle and Mark Meer were a hit with many. The Cosplay guests had a very good turn out, with fan favourite Jessica Nigri. Nathan Deluca had many fans crowded around his booth every time I walked by the Cosplay Corner. Riddle L, Monika Lee, and Lianne Moseley (a cosplay body painter) were also guests creating an amazing atmosphere.
With the many vendors I made sure I had to buy at least one item for myself. In which I chose to be supportive to my mates / local artists and I purchased STAR WARS oven mitts, hand made by Melissa of Monster Kitty. She finds geeky and cute fabrics and turns it into gnarly kitchen apparel for everyone.
Food trucks, and vendor style eatables were spread throughout the Edmonton Expo. Dead center of the convention laid the food court of Pizzas, Burgers, Soups, Sandwiches and Gluten Free options. Just outside some of the main doors had multiple food trucks parked with even more options. But of course my FAVOURITE would be mini donuts. Dangerously they were selling them in the form of a mini bucket.
Since it was my first year attending Edmonton Expo I didn't expect too much from it, but I have to say the staff and volunteers really out did themselves and kept everything going. Even with the attendees being wall to wall it barely felt congested. Which I think is a big accomplishment, not many conventions can do that with these kind of numbers.
The event schedule was set up as if it was a local newspaper. It was a cool idea having each section for something different but I disliked how big it was I don't know if it was because I am used to small booklets with the events but this was too big for my liking. I chose not to carry it around. I am not one for panels or contests, since I find them to be all the same. Lately nothing grabs my attention. They had a huge variety of different events which seemed like there was a bit of everything. Even the first night (Friday) Billy Boyd and his band played a concert for all of his fans ( for an additional fee... of course).
Edmonton Expo overall was extremely fun. I have a lot of mates who attended that I met at previous conventions, as well as meeting new people this year. I attended Edmonton Expo alone but ended up knowing a lot more people, which made the experience so much better. Starting without expectations and ending with fond memories I couldn't ask for anything better. Thank you Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo, and all my mates who attended this year who made it possible to have an amazing time and I hope to see you again in 2016.
