Antwerp Convention 2014
We’re halfway through the year and it was time for another event and Antwerp Convention was the next in line. Time sure flies these days, seeing it’s already the 4th edition of Antwerp Convention. Progress surely has been made, with a few minor hiccups.
Antwerp Convention 2014 was held in the Antwerp Expo in …Antwerp (duh :p) in Belgium. This year, the event was a lot bigger with its two halls, compared to the original one hall set-up. Growth does not always mean things will go just as smoothly than the previous editions. This is something you could definitely tell by waiting time in the queue. This could be because there was another event held in the city, which is something the organization could have foreseen. Sadly, no initiative was taken to smoothen things up.
Antwerp Convention was split in two halls. The first hall had several dealers, giving you the opportunity to browse through the several wares. There was quite some science fiction, anime, fluffy merchandise and a whole lot of comic books for you to buy. Some of them had some games as well, making it a nice shopping place for everyone. This room housed some famous artists giving autographs. There were some waiting lines and you had to pay a small fee, but these were just small obstacles to obtain an autograph of the man that gives his voice to Mario and Luigi. You could watch the wrestling while waiting, as the organisation invited the ‘Westside Xtreme Wrestling’ to show off some nice moves.
The second hall had several clubs, activities and indie developers. You could play several retro games on numerous old consoles or arcade cabinets, giving you a nostalgic feeling and taking you back to those good old days. There were some small shops as well, containing more specific items or merchandise, giving you enough information of their shop by taking time to talk to you. The indie developers showed their new games by providing demo’s or gameplay trailers of their ‘babies’. Everyone took their time to give you extra information if necessary. Movie lovers were happy as well, as this room contained several movie props and you had the chance to talk of one of the creators. (Of course, the first hall had plenty of movie merchandise as well.)
There were quite some cosplayers present, as there were several events being held. There was a nice stage in the biggest room, giving cosplayers the chance to show off their costume and present the audience a small show of their character representation. As there was also a group picture and prize, it was a nice event for cosplayers.
Antwerp Convention seemed quite popular and a lot of people showed up. The event had enough food and drink stands, but you could bring your own nomnoms as well. A downside is that the available seats were quite limited and it was hard to eat or relax for a bit. Next to that, the aisles were big enough, but quite crowded. This was a small bummer but it didn’t spoil the fun!
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