FACTS 2023
The convention season is well underway again, and we are always looking forward to quite a few of them. This time we were invited to visit one of our personal favorites, FACTS, and we were curious to see what the 2023 edition had in store for us. This means that once again we found ourselves at Flanders Expo in Ghent to see the famous celebrity guests, browse the wares, and perhaps go home with a few new items for our collections.
As always, when walking the convention floor it was clear that we would have our pick of the litter. The merchandise on offer was very varied, but we did notice there were fewer Sci-Fi offerings, as the Star Wars merchandise has clearly waned over the last few years. We did see a lot of card game stores, many POP! figures, but also comics, manga, Blu-rays, games, and many other items. There were also a lot of artists present selling their homemade items, and we even found a few booths with moonshine and mead. We do hope that a bit more Sci-Fi and movie-related content is offered again in the future. We do see another evolution of the merchandise, as more and more mystery box booths were present, as well as those selling anime figurines and body pillows. This felt like it would have been more suitable for events such as Made in Asia.
As a whole, the lineup of guests was fairly good. This does add a lot of value to the overall price of admission, even though you will still have to pay extra for an autograph or picture. While a few of these prices were a bit steep, FACTS did offer a lot of fair prices to have a small chance of meeting your favorite celebrities. The guests could be found in a separate hall. We did find the layout here to be quite good.
FACTS was again divided into different halls, with the main one being the dealer hall. Other halls included bouncy castles, cosplay activities, different fandoms and their communities, gaming-oriented booths, and so on. There was a lot of diversity in these halls, and they offered a nice change of pace from the more traditional sales booths. We did notice an increase in food stalls in one of these halls, with a seating area as well. This did help with the main issue we often had with FACTS. Thanks to the increase in food stalls outside of the main hall, we did notice a lot less congestion when people started queuing for food in the main hall. Don’t get us wrong, we did still encounter a fair few awkwardly placed stalls in the main hall that would then block passageways or simply block entire sales booths. That being said, the positive evolution here already did wonders and you didn’t feel stuck in certain places anymore. The prices for certain food items, however, were still a bit high.
Other facilities were easily accessible and as a whole, the convention is fairly clean. This is also quite important when a large group of people is roaming the same convention hall. Even though a few guests were also on the list for very young visitors, we didn’t notice a difference in the convention’s atmosphere or appeal for more adult convention goers.
Conclusion
FACTS 2023 was certainly a blast, and we did very much enjoy ourselves from start to finish. The convention offered a wide variety of merchandise and activities to keep us entertained throughout the day. The guests were interesting and we saw less congestion than last year when roaming the hall(s). We still find certain food items a bit overpriced, but nobody is stopping you from bringing a sandwich or two when you’re feeling peckish.
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