Mericon 2024 - Welcome back to the marine atmosphere!

Hello everyone~!
As the title says, this is my Mericon 2024 summary.
Mericon was held on 3rd of August at Rauma's main library, just like in previous year. And, just like in previous year, I and Shiro Samurai belonged to the group of organizers behind it. But, unlike last year, we both worked now from the north and let me tell you, it wasn't exactly an easy task to work as practically the main coordinator from 700+ km from the actual event venue... x__x 

But let's get down to business to defeat the huns!
(And, once again, all pictures are taken by Shiro Samurai. I really should fix my camera at some point but then again, this was one of those conventions when I wouldn't have had time to take any pics myself anyway.)

The more or less official poster of this year. Next year it just might look a bit different...

 

Fun fact: I actually spent my summer vacation for organizing Mericon - and what I mean by that is that a week before the con I and Shiro Samurai drove to South-Western Finland and spent a few days at my parents' place. During that time we visited Rauma multiple times to help the library staff with organizing the event and decorating the venue, to pick up stuff from our partners etc. It was indeed a very hectic week and tbh I really don't have that many memories of it - I just remember I was busy all the time and didn't really have that much time to spend with my family... But no can do, they knew I was coming to do some volunteer work there so yeah, they didn't mind too much and my father actually visited the con when he came to pick up my brother <3. 
The week went by fast and on Friday it was time to pack our bags and drive to Rauma where we would spend the night before the con. We had agreed to do that since it would be so much easier to be already at the town than to drive 40 km in the Saturday morning - I mean, we would have had to wake up way too early so yeah, we decided to make our lives at least a bit easier. We had booked a room at Haus Anna, a small B&B near the city center. Our main reason for booking a room there was that it was very cheap; 95 €/two people (we took the cheaper option, also known as breakfast wasn't included) and when we got there we knew immediately we had made the right choice, the room was very comfy! 💓

Notice the 'Raum - Rome - Paris' decoration board 💓 'Raum' means Rauma in 'Rauman giäl', the local dialect. The writer called Hj. Nortamo was actually famous in Finland since he wrote books in said dialect (which most Finns don't even understand) and his legacy still shows in the town.

Despite the room being comfy we slept poorly. Even more so than before other cons; I was nervous about the event and couldn't help but think things such as 'What if nobody shows up this year?' and 'What if something happens and this is the last Mericon ever?' etc. Sometimes I would really like to be less pessimistic about things.
We were supposed to put on our costumes and do our make-up (I had a random outfit w/tavern keeper pirate vibes and Shiro Samurai cosplayed Team Aqua Grunt from Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire) at Haus Anna but eventually we decided to do it at the library instead. Main reason for this was the fact that we were already behind our schedule AND we would likely have to do some last minute things at the library which meant possible sweating which would have meant our make-up and costumes getting all ruined and wrinkly before the event even started. So yeah, we just grabbed our stuff, left our room key in the post box meant for it and drove to the library.

This year we had more people organizing Mericon. Of course there was library staff (old and new) but then there were also a couple of volunteers; Oiva, a local student had sent an application for the position of an information man at the lobby and Springdeer had applied for the position of a cosplay competition judge. A big thanks also goes to my little brother Hermanni who agreed to keep watch at the PS4 room when I couldn't (I was also a cosplay contest judge) - I knew I could trust you bro 💓

Said brother - who isn't on any social media platforms and prefers to not show his face - working at the PS4 room which was seemingly empty at the time the pic was taken.

Aaaand a huge thanks also goes to my twin flame dearie Gure and her girlfriend Selja who also came to assist us; Gure was in charge of updating the Instagram stories and taking the event pictures and Selja helped with the escape room. Thank you both so much! 💓
After some last minute stuff it was time to put our costumes on; two hours had went by very fast and it was already time to open the doors for the congoers! This time I didn't have that much to do during the first 40 minutes of the event so I had plenty of time to do my make-up and put on the rest of my costume.

People chilling near the library~

The main lobby. The man in grey is Oiva.

Café Käpälä was open this year too, they sold tasty event themed snacks and drinks!

This year there was more to do and see at the con than last year. There were a couple of dance programs hosted by Opia Dance Crew and More More Hop, a cosplay catwalk, a cosplay competition, a drawing workshop & competition, "I like this - I don't like this" anime character Kahoot game, an escape room and the PS4 and this meant that I didn't have to be a panelist filler this year too lol. I'm under the impression that getting program hosts for conventions is a bit easier than last year in general but still not the easiest task to do. However I'm super happy that we got so many hosts this year - thank you all! 💓

The program schedule! The escape room is missing from this...

 

...but it had its own signs! There were quite many groups participating eventually; this pic was likely taken during the first hour of the event since not many people noticed the sign right away.

Oh, and Mericon had approximately the same amount of visitors than last year; most of them were from nearby but then there were some people from Eastern Finland and even one guy from Germany! I didn't have the chance to meet the guy but Shiro Samurai - who worked as the photographing cosplay competition judge - had chatted him. Apparently he had come to Rauma to meet a friend but said friend had ghosted him and eventually he ended up visiting Mericon. I still feel pretty bad for the guy - I mean traveling for hours and hours and then getting ghosted is not cool - and I sure do hope that he got at least some good experiences at the con...

The guest book was there again! This time it was probably a bit easier to spot than last year :'D

The drawing workshop. Even though there aren't that many people in the picture it was popular this year too. The theme of this year's drawing competition was 'Design a cosplay costume/Halloween costume/etc. for a pet'!

People chilling near the room where the Kahoot game was held. The entrance to the Artists' Alley can be seen in the background.

Since Mericon is held in the library it's pretty obvious that there are theme-related books too.

Visitors chilling at the children's/youngsters' section. That's where I also used to work at when I still lived in the south.

During the day I was mainly in charge of the cosplay competition judging and hosting it obviously I had other duties too but a huge part of my day consisted of the cosplay competition stuff. Like I mentioned before there where three judges; Shiro Samurai judged the competitors when they came to be photographed (how character accurate their poses etc. were) and I and Springdeer did the costume judging in the separate room. Each cosplay competitor had 10 minutes to tell about their costumes and show them to us - and I must say that all of them had done fabulous job! 💓 I stick to what I have said before: no matter if you win a prize or not, you are already a winner if you win yourself and get yourself on that stage. I'm so proud of all our competitors and I sure do hope I will see them in the future too - maybe even on bigger stages!

The stage was pretty easy to find - one could see it from the info desk and vice versa!

The stage from last year was back. This year we had that one added stair that helped a lot. Both dance groups also hosted their programs in the second floor of the library; for dancing this stage is far from optimal.

The competition and the award ceremony were popular this year too!

This year's winners! 💓 2nd place on the left, 1st place in the middle and the 3rd place on the right. Congratulations to you all! 💓

Some of this years prizes were sponsored by Talking to myself jewelry and Pinklazercat - if you ever read this, thank you were much! 💓 The cosplay competition winners also got prize cups; those were ordered from Laatupalkinto, just like in the previous year. 

After the cosplay competition I had some time to walk around and, for example, check out the Artists' Alley! I didn't do much shopping this year though; not because there wouldn't have been stuff to buy but because I didn't have too much money at the time and I wanted to save some up for Matsucon (which was held in the following weekend) too.

This year we actually had a visible map of the Artists' Alley - thanks Janika!

A couple of overview pics from the Artists' Alley.

The Artists' Alley was located in the same place than last year; however, the organization promotion booths were located in the second floor of the library. This year we had two booths!

Suomen Hopeanuoli-fanit ry - they were at Mericon last year too!

 

Rauma Pride!

I have to admit that I don't have that many memories of the event itself this year either (and this also means that I don't really have much more to say); everything was so hectic and it was my duty to be alert all the time - which means I took care of the "behind the scenes" stuff. Luckily there was not much drama or anything; it's just that there was still kind of lot to do (for example answering the feedback we got during the event etc.) and I felt quite exhausted when we finally closed the doors for the day. After the con we did some cleaning up, met once again a security guard since the alarm had gone off even though it shouldn't have done that and... I think after that I and Shiro Samurai drove back to my parents' place since we had a long drive ahead of us on Sunday and I wanted to get a good rest before it.

Mericon 2024 was quite exhausting but still a very positive experience and I owe a huge thank you to everyone making it possible - let's hold the flag high in the coming years too, whatever they may bring! 💙
Next year my job isn't the main coordinator anymore though; I will only take care of cosplay competition and everything related to it (picking cosplay judges and planning + hosting the competition). This decision was made in unison with the Mericon staff and it had nothing to do with my capabilities or anything; it's just that the library staff can use their work time to plan the event meanwhile it's basically impossible for me these days. This is just taking a huge workload off my shoulders and even though I still find it a bit hard to let go I know that this was a necessary decision for both me and them.
But I'm more than happy that they still want to continue this new tradition at Rauma; what started as a school project that got a bit out of hand became an event that attracts hundreds of visitors at Rauma's main library on an annual basis. It's been (and will be) an honor to be a part of something like this. Let's see what kind of cosplay competition we'll have next year then! 👀

Oh, this is how I looked during the day! I kind of want to dye my hair red again...

My next post is going to be my Matsucon 2024 summary and after that I'm finally back on schedule, about time after like 2-3 years x__x After that... A ton of circle lens reviews I suppose. Send help 🆘

Until next time.

-Firith

Kiki photoshoot!

Hello there!

Like I promised, here are my Kiki photoshoot pictures which were taken at Nekocon 2024. I have to admit that it was a bit difficult to figure out poses for Kiki since I didn't have any props etc. with me - however we got quite many good photos~!

I plan to photoshoot Kiki again in a different location, preferably with props which I'm still yet to make but I will get there eventually.

Release the pics!

Character: Kiki
Source: Kiki's Delivery Service (a Ghibli movie)
Cosplayer: yours truly
Photographer: Shiro Samurai (thank you for being so patient with me! 💓)

When you deliver the parcel to a wrong address :'D

And there they are~!

...
...you thought that was it?
Ahahahaha. Nope.
Here come the derps!

I know I'm not Miss Finland but hey camera, you still don't have to censor me! XD

"Wondering how my fist tastes like..?"

"NOM NOM NOM NOM" ft. lazy eye; I tried to cross my eyes but my right eye went "lol nope" x'D

So now, there they are!
Tbh cosplaying Kiki was pretty fun - actually I also cosplayed her at Matsucon 2024 too and even competed with the costume (more about that in the summary when I publish it)! I think this one will become one of my go-to costumes; the costume was comfortable to wear and I actually think I look decent in it even though looking cute isn't something that comes naturally for me.

The next post here will either be my Mericon 2024 summary or a circle lens review since I still have literally at least 20 of those to post soooo... We'll see which one it is! Likely the summary though; I would like to get back on schedule with these con summaries before the next con season starts lol.

Until next time.

-Firith 

"No more tractors, I beg of you!" - Nekocon 2024

Time to drop yet another con summary I swear to god these are never-ending! 

Like the title says, this one is about Nekocon which was once again held in Kuopio (Kuopio Music Centre to be exact) on 13th-14th of July. My traveling companion - and trusted photographer - was, once again, Shiro Samurai. Our journey towards Kuopio begun already on 12th of July - also known as the Friday before the con - buuuut it was a bit of a miracle that we even managed to leave the north. You see...

I mean the situation was 🆘

And to those who don't know what an Earth that means: had there been two more kilometers to drive to the gas station we wouldn't have managed. Oops. In my defense: I had been saving up money for this trip on my part too and had decided to use some of that money to refuel just before leaving so we wouldn't have to worry about it on our way to Kuopio. Well, a wise decision in itself - except that we almost didn't manage to leave point A at all.

Anyway we managed to get on the road a bit before midday. According to Google Maps driving to Kuopio would take approximately 5 hours so yeah, we had a lot of time to just speak and plan what we would do during the evening (invading the spa was our priority number one). After about two hours of driving we saw a tractor in front of us and I remember saying something along the lines "Luckily it's not that fast so I will have plenty of time to pass it" when a cold realization hit me...
It wasn't the only one. Not even close.

DUN DUN DUUUUUNNN

I swear to god there were at least 15 tractors to pass!! I don't know what they were doing there in the first place since they surely hadn't been working on a field or anything but I suppose they were driving to a meeting or something? I mean, it's nice that the farmers have their own meetings - and I totally support farmers, my late grandfather was one too until retirement - but omfg it took ages to pass them since the road was very narrow and I could only pass one or two at a time xD One apparently shall not pass lol. At least my blood pressure shouldn't pass the height of Mt. Everest but I must say it was pretty close.

Zetor seemed to be one of the most popular brands.

After some struggling we finally managed to pass them all and our journey towards Rauhalahti Spa could continue. At Lapinlahti we decided to stop at a very cozy and rustic Matin ja Liisan Asema to eat something; I think I devoured a cheeseburger. The place and food were both 5/5 - I think this might become one of our traveling hangouts.
It didn't take too long to drive from Lapinlahti to Kuopio. We first stopped at the Music Centre to claim our con tickets - and by "our" I also mean the ones that belonged to Sallukka and their boyfriend. They had left a few hours after us because work happened and they managed to get a bit lost along the way but hey that happens, I managed to get lost when we drove from the Music Centre to Rauhalahti Spa and would fetch the tickets from us later in the evening. 

After fetching the tickets we drove to Rauhalahti Spa and dragged our mountain of luggage to the hotel. It didn't take too long until our hotel room sure looked like we had half of our apartments with us...

Boom. The pic was seemingly taken on Saturday or Sunday tho.

Some energy drinks and ~olutta~.

This year we also had a balcony! I'm a bit sad I didn't have time to casually sit there and just read - I mean literally no matter where I go I do have a book with me - but oh well, maybe someday in the future if we manage to get the same or similar room again.
I don't think we did that much during the Friday evening, just relaxed in the spa and quickly met Sallukka and their boyfriend who came to fetch the tickets. Can't remember when we actually went to sleep but this time it didn't matter that much anyway since neither of us had responsibilities at this con - usually at least one of us is working or competing but not this time. 

On Saturday morning we woke up around 8.30, had some breakfast aamukahvi vaan hittaa diffii and then started putting on our costumes. This year I've apparently had my own personal cosplay theme, witch(y) child characters - in Kummacon I cosplayed Alicia from Moominvalley and for Nekocon I had made a new cosplay: Kiki from the Ghibli movie Kiki's Delivery Service! She isn't one of my all-time favorites but still a nice character. I managed to find perfect fabrics for her a few weeks before the con and kind of just... Decided to make the costume lol. And it sure was a good choice; the outside temperature during Nekocon was nearly unbearable to me so yeah, at least I didn't die from a heat stroke or anything.
Shiro Samurai had decided to wear one of the costumes he had worn only once, namely Hotaru from Samurai Deeper Kyo since he wanted to get proper pictures taken of the said costume. I should probably go through some of my older costumes too and see which ones I could still wear; most of them don't fit me now but hopefully will in the future...

It took us about two or three hours to get ready but eventually we begun to drive towards the convention place. It was pretty interesting to drive with Kiki's hair bow; because of the size of it I had to imitate the Hunchback of Notre Dame - also known as I couldn't sit with my back straight.

#doublechinapproves #idonot

The entrance of Kuopio's Music Centre.

At first Shiro Samurai wanted to take the general con photos. That was more than fine with me - until we walked into the building itself and holy shit it was hot in there! I mean, it was hot outside too but inside, once again, the air felt very stiff and I begun to feel sick pretty soon. I have also suffered from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo since the beginning of the year and it sure didn't help when I suddenly started to feel dizzy...

The entrance hall and the info desk.

Stairs leading to the Artesans' Alley which was located in the 2nd floor of the Music Centre.

 

 

A couple of overview pictures from the Artesans' Alley.

And of course there were also promotion booths of different conventions and groups!

Luckily Shiro Samurai was quick and we were able to go outside to take photos of our costumes before our faces melted off make-up was all over the place. First he took some pics of my Kiki costume (link!) and then I took pictures of his Hotaru cosplay; those ones can be seen here. 

And le selfie. As you can see, the sunlight was pretty harsh so yeah, taking the photos was not too simple of a task for either of us.

 

After the photoshoot we left the camera in the car and walked to the Lumit building which was next to the Music Centre - and where Artists' Alley was located. This year we knew to look for it there; last year we would have missed it had Sallukka not told about its existence lol. This year I also had a personal task in mind: meeting Momo, also known as the founder of bunicorn_design. I have bought quite a lot of stuff from them - for example the Ouija necklace I wore at Matsucon in 2023; there's a photo in the summary in which the necklace can be seen. We chatted for a while and I bought a guillotine necklace from them; I mean, I'm a fan of gothic, dark and twisted things so yeah, it caught my attention quite immediately.
We also quickly checked the other tables but as quickly we decided to come back to the building on Sunday when we wouldn't have our cosplays on; Kiki's hair bow was already causing me a headache and Shiro Samurai had some difficulties to keep his costume in place so yeah, not exactly ideal clothing for checking out the Artists' Alley.

The Artists' Alley was crowded basically 90 % of the time, no joke.

The video game room was also in the Lumit building. This year they didn't have the consoles etc. at the entrance hall - nope, they had their very own room (which I think was a gymnastics hall)! The reason for this may have been - at least partly - Nekomättö, also known as a Tekken 8 Tournament, which took place on the stage there. We didn't check it out but Sallukka and their boyfriend did and enjoyed it. I also saw signs that pointed towards a second hand shop but we didn't visit it - mainly because at this point we both begun to be quite fed up with having cosplays on. 

 

There was so much space this year - also a working AC was 6/5!

But... We couldn't take our costumes off just yet. We still had one final mission with them.
"...and that would be..?"
Boba tea.

You see, the Kuopio town square is only a short walk away from the con venue. This year Aina Kesä's boba tea stand was located in there and if you went to buy products with a cosplay on you got a 20 % discount! Of course we wanted to take advantage of this and begun to walk towards the town square. At this point I must admit that I hadn't tasted boba ever before (unless you count those ones who are sold in cans but in this context I don't count that one) and I was pretty excited about going there! When we arrived there the queue wasn't that long and in no time we had boba teas in our hands and a bumblebee took interest in them too lol.
Let's just say that 1) I wasn't disappointed and 2) I may have a new addiction now.

After our boba tea adventure and a quick trip to the Dealers' Hall we decided to go back to the hotel. The day had been warm and both of us were still a bit tired from traveling - and knowing that we would have to drive back on Sunday sure didn't make us feel less tired. I can't help but feel sometimes that I'm getting a bit too old for this; then again, the hype to cosplay and go to conventions is still there and I intend to go on as long as I still have that hype going.
When we got to the hotel we took a few more pics of Shiro Samurai's cosplay and then we went to take our costumes off - mine was almost glued to my back. Ewww. After a quick shower it was time to go to the spa again; I think we just melted there for like two hours again until we decided it was time to go to eat something. This time we went to the hotel's restaurant and, well... The food and dessert were very good. What didn't amuse me was the time we spent waiting for the food - I swear to god it took at least like 30-40 minutes. But oh well, the quality was still good and the staff was friendly so I can't really complain.

After eating we just played some games on PS5 for a bit before going to sleep; after all we would have to get proper rest to be able to sit in the car for those 5 hours again.

Sunday morning came. We thought we woke up early enough but still ended up being in a hurry. The morning wasn't particularly catastrophic though, we were just slow and my make-up skills had decreased since Saturday or at least felt like it since it took ages to get a basic make-up done. Both of us were dressed in alternative outfits - I must point out that I really liked the one Shiro Samurai had - since it would be easier to travel in those than in cosplays.
We checked out of the hotel already looking forward to next year and drove to the Kuopio Music Centre one more time. I think this time we first went to check out the Artists' Alley; you see, there were different sellers there on Sunday than on Saturday so we wanted to check the new ones out too!

The outside of Lumit building. Most times it was near impossible to find a spot to sit down.

And because the Lumit building was closer to the town square than the Music Centre... Oh yes, we decided to go for more boba tea.
After taking a selfie, of course.

Selfie time!

This time I also ordered a croffle - in other words, a croissant waffle. Turns out that it's not only boba that's delicious at Aina Kesä's stand. 

After our quick trip to the boba tea stand we returned to the Music Centre and spent most of the remaining time checking out the Dealers' Hall. We also ran into Sallukka and their boyfriend who were also doing the last round there; after all we all had a long drive ahead so we had to leave pretty early. I think there was still enough time to check out the sellers there.
And I also ran into jansutti who casually just screamed my name across the room to get my attention xD It was so nice to talk to her; we went to school together but I graduated before her and hadn't talked to her since! Fun fact: both of us also worked as cosplay judges in Kitsunecon 2018 of which I never wrote a summary about - mainly because, well, my whole day there consisted of judging the contestants and I didn't really get to see anything but one small room and the stage lol. It was pretty hectic day. Still, nice memories.

Well, these didn't cost anything obviously but could be found literally anywhere, even in the Dealers' Hall.

Some overview pictures of the Dealers' Hall.

After the last round in the Dealers' Hall it was time to leave Kuopio behind and drive back home. I can't even describe in words how much fun I actually had there and next Nekocon couldn't come any sooner! <3 Like Shiro Samurai mentioned in his Nekocon 2024 summary we both have been stressed out and in more or less dark places for a while now so the Nekocon weekend was very welcomed - and we actually managed to relax there and just have fun. Can't wait for next year! 💓

Oh, my con loot!

I won't make many purchases, he said. I'm on a budget here, he said. Still no regrets.

I still have a couple of con summaries to write so stay tuned! The next post, however, will be the Kiki photoshoot - and after that I just might drop another circle lens review. Literally might, don't know yet - either that or my Mericon 2024 summary. We'll see which one it is~!

Until next time.

-Firith