Comic Con Brussels 2020
It was a crowded weekend with two conventions, one being 1UP in Kortrijk, and the other was Comic Con Brussels, obviously held in Brussels. One focused more on gaming and new releases, while CC placed its focus on famous guests, geeky fandoms and a hefty amount of merchandise you could buy. The venue has been the same for five years now, but even so, a lot has changed. While we still had to traverse through the garbage dump that is ‘Brussels-North’, we were rewarded with a great convention.
When entering the event it was quite clear where the entrance(s) were, where the exit was, and where you could have staff tend to your jacket and bags (for a small fee). We were then already greeted by the first hall with a lot of shops, demo-stands with LEGO builders, a small stage and a few other fun sightseeing options. This was the main corridor, which eventually provided access to the hall with many famous guests and the option to have your picture taken with one of said guests (also, for a price).
If you’re more into merchandise and artists, you would probably opt to walk to the other side, where you could find two more halls that had a plethora of different merchandise. POP! Figures were pretty much everywhere, a lot of anime-based figurines were also plentiful and there were also comics, movies and other collectibles available. You could also find imported foods, beverages and even dried meat and homemade items. We can conclude that the items on offer were quite diverse, and this is probably one of the last conventions in Belgium where shops were often actually cheaper than internet stores. We reckon this has to do with the CC crew asking fair prices, compared to conventions such as FACTS.
While things could get crowded at certain points of the day, the pathways were quite wide, making sure you never had a cramped feeling throughout the day. Some intersections were jammed at times, but this was more due to people stopping at the worst possible place to talk to each other, than actually having issues with the layout and the organization.
We were quite impressed with the progress the convention had made, until we tried to have ourselves lunch at noon. The food hall was total chaos, and this is mostly due to poor organization of the booths in the hall. Many booths were on opposite sides of one another spread across the length of the hall, with picnic benches in the middle. The latter also organized in an extremely poor fashion. It would have been better to have food stands on each side of the hall, but instead spread over the length, they should be spread over the width. This allows for better queuing options, without shutting off the access to the other halls, and even the limited toiletry options available on the convention. Due to one of the biggest queuing lines in the food hall, we didn’t even notice where the lavatories were. The benches were put next to each other, almost never with a passage in-between, making it so people could not reach the middle seats, or were stuck when other convention-goers didn’t allow other people to pass. While in theory everyone is supposed to be a good neighbor, people tend to be selfish and lazy, thus either not choose to take place on the middle seats, or block access to them.
Sentiments about the food hall aside, we were quite pleased with what we saw and with the available guests walking the floor. There were more than enough impressive guests to sign your memorabilia or to have your picture taken with. The website does need a bit of work to clarify some of the options, as some of the menus don’t properly connect with one another. This is only a minor inconvenience, especially for an organization that hasn’t been around as long as many of the other conventions in Belgium.
Conclusion
While some remarks were negative, we can wholeheartedly recommend the Comic Con (Brussels) experience if you love seeing famous guests, want to purchase a hefty amount of content, or simply want to see some cosplay. The ticket prices are fair, the merchandise is affordable and the venue is decent. We hope to see slight improvements when it comes to the layout of the food hall and perhaps the website, and when these are done, we see ourselves enjoying the events of this organizer more than we would roam the halls of FACTS, which has been turning into an overpriced garage sale for years now.
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