Matsucon 2025 - Trying a new thing and succeeding

 Hello everyone!

It's time for my Matsucon 2025 summary! About time since the con was held 9th-10th of August, also known as it's been about three months since then... Oops. But, as you will learn later in this post, I actually had a good reason for postponing this post no, I don't mean the Mericon summary which for some reason is always a bit hard for me to write lol - just keep reading~!

One of this year's Matsucon posters.

As per usual, I and Shiro Samurai (who kindly took the pics for this summary too, thank you!) traveled to Oulu on Friday, also known as the day before the con. Since I was still on my summer vacation we arrived at Oulu in the afternoon instead of the usual evening arrival - which meant we had plenty of time to go to eat and all that. This year's Matsucon weekend didn't start all that well for me though - the moment I stepped out of the train I felt my body acting up (and unfortunately it stayed like that for the whole weekend). No, I wasn't sick or anything, but the symptoms of one of my chronic disorders... Made themselves known, let's put it that way. Luckily I managed to take my pain killers in time and even eat something - which can't always be guaranteed with this one - but when the pain finally subsided I was so tired that I practically slept for the whole evening. Well, luckily Sokos Hotel Arina, our trusty accommodation at Oulu has very comfortable beds so at least I got a good sleep :'D 

Saturday morning came. Our morning routine was basically the same as always; we woke up, went to eat some breakfast and after that it was time to start putting our costumes on. In Shiro Samurai's case that meant Kisuke Urahara from Bleach while I cosplayed an OC. You see, this pirate-ish outfit I wore at Mericon 2024 kind of grew to be an outfit for a bartender lady called Marigold. I will tell more about her in the future - also known as half of her lore is still unwritten and I don't want to tell too much about a work in progress character lol. 
Well, it didn't take us long to get ready and a bit before 11 we took a taxi to the con. The heatwave was still going on strong and neither of us wanted to sweat our faces makeup off before arriving at the con venue. I mean, it wasn't just warm; the air felt somewhat thick, just like before thunderstorms (which, as far as I know, didn't occur in the end).

The con entrance.

The lobby during a surprisingly quiet moment.

When we arrived at the con we fetched our badges and tickets. Shiro Samurai was working as a green room volunteer this year too while I hosted a program about Star Stable Online. What I truly do appreciate is that Matsucon actually gave a free weekend ticket for program hosts too! ❤ Not sure if this is to motivate more people to host panels, workshops etc. but for me it sure worked - that was one of the reasons why I even applied in the first place the bigger one being that I actually like hosting panels because, well, my car definitely makes sure that I don't really have any extra money to go around lol. 

We checked the time and realized that we had approximately 45 minutes before Shiro Samurai's shift would begin so we decided to check the artisans and merchants downstairs. 

The obligatory Miku products. As a VOCALOID fan I highly appreciate seeing these.

The artisan/merchant area view from upstairs.

On the third picture you might spot me in red wig talking to a few people. Well, that was The Surprise Encounter of Matsucon 2025. You see, we had been walking around - and checking the time every two minutes lol - and stopped to discuss "where should we go next". I happened to turn mid-sentence and realized that I was face to face with my colleague Jossu and her (adult) children! :'D Turned out that the children - let's call them M & E - had gotten interested in anime/cosplay conventions during Kemin Mangapäivä this year and now they had decided to make a one-day trip to Matsucon ❤ Jossu actually said that she had hoped to meet me there but hadn't dared to message me since I was still on vacation ;__; I, of course, told her that in the future it would be more than okay to reach out - the more, the merrier!

With the little time we had left before a certain someone would have to go to brew some coffee for caffeine addicts - also known as to work at the green room - we decided to check out the board game room hosted by CRYO ry. We were interested in Maracon, a board game/tabletop game event hosted by them and had some questions about it, such as "Do people cosplay there?", "Do you need to be a member of CRYO to attend it?" etc. The CRYO guys were so nice to talk to; they made us feel welcome right from the start ❤

There were a lot of games to choose from!

Not long after that Shiro Samurai had to go to the green room - his shift was about to start. I, on the other hand, decided to go check out the matsuri themed panel, hosted by minnalabanana. I'm not too familiar with Japanese festivities even though they are presented pretty often in video games and anime series, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't be interested. And, well, I found the panel very interesting; unfortunately I don't have any pictures from it but basically everything mentioned was new information to me. This panel was also very popular, there wasn't a single empty seat!

After the panel I decided to go downstairs since I was waiting for Sallukka and their little brother Joni to arrive at the venue. We had been texting each other basically the whole morning - thanks Snapchat for existing - and I knew that they were in Oulu already so all I had to do was basically sit and wait.

This year's Matsucon was kind of special for Sallukka and I (oh yeah and Matsucon itself turned 10). You see, we had photoshooted their Melina cosplay (Elden Ring) earlier this year - if I remember correctly it was around May since there were no mosquitoes yet lol. Of course our main interest was getting good pictures of said cosplay... But we also had something else in mind too. And this is where the title of this post comes from since neither of us had done this before with anyone: we took part in Matsucon's cosplay photoshoot competition! 

I have had interest in photography for years now and occasionally have photoshooted my friends' costumes, be it cosplay or alternative style. This year there also wasn't any other competition at Matsucon that we could have entered; cosplay catwalk isn't exactly a competition and the only actual cosplay competition was the qualifying round of Tournament of Champions. Which is... Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Not with my costume-making skills lol. 

Also: I'm still not over the fact that our contestant number was 13 this year - exactly the same I had last year when I competed with my Kiki costume xD 

The lobby area where I waited for them to arrive.

I was so happy to see this!! ❤ The rules sure were easy to check out!

I sat in the lobby for a while until I realized that I was actually quite thirsty and needed some water. I made my way to the cafeteria - and spotted Jossu, E and M having a coffee break. I kept them company for a while and told them more about Matsucon and cosplay/convention scene in general. I was in the middle of explaining when I spotted a familiar-looking princess Aurora buying a cup of coffee - in other words, Sallukka and Joni had arrived!

...and it turned out that they had already checked out the Artists' Alley, I had just been too blind to see them or they had arrived at the venue just when I was in the bathroom lol. Sallukka showed us an A5 print of Ismo Laitela and Seppo Taalasmaa as nuns - "Siunausta!" x'D All of us had a good laugh over that, the idea was genius! I tried to spot the print later when I checked out the Artists' Alley myself but didn't see it anywhere, I guess it sold out before I managed to buy one :c 

Eventually E and M decided they wanted to check out the Artists' Alley and the merchants once more and then go see the the guest of honor's show. I waited for Sallukka and Joni finish their coffees so we could discuss what we'd do next - and to the video game room it was.

Even though I didn't really feel up to gaming - like I mentioned, my body tried to make me miserable for the whole weekend - I enjoyed watching the siblings play, it was very fun and entertaining! xD At some point I checked my phone and noticed that Shiro Samurai's shift would soon be over. I decided to head to the green room but I told Sallukka that if we didn't run into each other any earlier I would go watch the cosplay competition. The results of the photoshoot competition would be announced then too so yeah, needless to say that I was getting more and more nervous but I sure af wanted to go to check out all the wonderful pics and costumes. 

I made my way to the green room, waited for Shiro Samurai to finish his shift and then we headed downstairs. We wanted to go check out a program at Iso Kirsikka; there was not much information about what was going to happen but the program names were "Dragon art & Samurai Dance", "Bon odori: Japanese dances" and "J-Pop Idol Performance". The first in order was the one we wanted to attend to - too bad that a few others had had similar thoughts and the room was practically full! D: Shiro Samurai managed to get a seat meanwhile I decided to stay at the cafeteria and watch from there - the door was open so yeah, I didn't exactly miss anything out. Or at least not much.

For more details about the program, check out Shiro Samurai's summary since he had a better view of it - literally. 

When I was sitting at the cafeteria I noticed a familiar face, namely FreakyAngel, approaching me. I had texted her that I would also attend Matsucon but I hadn't bumped into her earlier. She joined me and we chatted quietly while we watched the program - didn't want to disturb it by making any loud noises, not even by accident. Even though we had met just a week earlier at Mericon we still had a lot to talk about!

When the painting part of the program was finished Shiro Samurai joined us too. It didn't take long before it was just us two - FreakyAngel had spotted another acquaintance and went to greet them - and I think that at that point we decided to go outside for a while before checking out the Artists' Alley. Just like last year the AC was basically non-existent... Which, in the middle of the heatwave, felt like being grilled alive.

Outside we bumped into this. Back then we didn't figure it out but I've been thinking about this and wondered if the answer was 'a fishing net' - then again it usually has more eyes than just 21...

After we had stopped melting cooled down we decided to go check the Artists' Alley - we hadn't had the time to go there before and we were already kind of running out of time since Shiro Samurai would have to go back to the green room soon. So, to the Artists' Alley we went! 

A general view of the Artists' Alley.

This year I didn't buy that much stuff; I was running on kind of a low budget at this point and knew that I'd need some money for going out later. You see, my bestie Gure and her girlfriend Selja were at Oulu (they were visiting a friend) and we had decided to meet up later - and as we all know, drinks aren't exactly cheap lol. But I finally bought one print I had already been eyeing at Kummacon, namely a Wriothesley x Neuvillette pairing one. Yeah, still a BL fan lol.

I think that at this point I checked the clock and realized that the cosplay competition would start soon. I had told Sallukka that I would try to reserve seats for us since someone had mentioned me that photoshoot contestants could reserve seats from the front rows. Apparently that was some sort of misinformation - not badly though, the seats just didn't need to be reserved, we could just walk in and take the seats we wanted. This, however, is something I learnt very close to the beginning of the competition and eventually Sallukka and Joni didn't come back to Pohjankartano in time (they had decided to hit the town). 
I told Shiro Samurai I would come to the green room after the competition and then practically ran to get myself a seat. I did get one near the stage - I was actually sitting right behind the ToC judges. I was there a few minutes early and it's a good thing I was: there weren't many empty seats in the audience! I suspect this had a lot to do with ToC qualifying round which was now held for the first time in Matsucon and actually in whole Finland.

The opening act of the competition was so nice - the hosts are very talented singers! ❤

The first part of the competition was the qualifying round. I had no idea what to expect but I had expected to see some acting etc. Guess if I was surprised when I realized that it was a "lavajuoksu" of very talented people? :'D I mean, that's not bad, just not what I expected! All the costumes were so awesome and well-made, the judges must have had a hard time deciding who qualifies. Oh, and speaking of the pre-judging, there were five different categories to judge: needlework, armor, wig & makeup, craftmanship and propmaking. When I said in the beginning that "not with my skills"... Yeah, DEFINITELY not with my skills. At least not yet but likely never, I'm not THAT passionate about competing.
After the qualifying round was the cosplay catwalk which isn't actually a competition at all. The purpose of cosplay catwalk is to give people a chance to show off their costumes without the pressure of a competition. This has become more and more popular (and common) and I think these are great - not everybody wants to compete, at least not without experiencing being on the stage at least once before! 

And after the cosplay catwalk... Was the photoshoot competition.

The photo we competed with. And yes, that's my left hand. I was holding the camera with my right hand.

I must say: I was nervous as fuck.
Never before had I competed anywhere with my photography skills.
I didn't - and still don't - have a better editing program than the one by Windows. I would like to get a license for Adobe Lightroom at some point; when I studied to become a media assistant I absolutely fell in love with it, it's awesome. But, of course, it costs money.

And when I saw the pics taken by other photographers taking part in the competition... Let's just say that I had my guesses about the top 3. Which, mostly, turned out right. Oh, and if I remember correctly there were 8 photos in total. 
We had decided to not to compete for the theme prize - the theme this year was 'a party' and there's definitely no party hard in our picture lol. The other prizes were placements 1-3 and 'the best storytelling' nomination. 

When all the pictures had been shown to the audience it was time for the award ceremony. To my surprise the photoshoot competition prizes were the first in row - at this point I felt like I was going to throw up. Luckily didn't lol. 
The theme prize went to the group photo I had expected it to go to; it was clearly taken with the theme in mind and I actually liked it a lot! The photographer definitely knew how to work with multiple models at the same time - a skill hard to master - and his editing skills were awesome! 
After this the hosts begun to announce who got the 3rd place; at this moment I realized that 'the best storytelling' nomination - which we had aimed for - would go to somebody else, also known as to the one who'd place 2nd or 1st. My brain went into some sort of an offline mode momentarily so I didn't really hear what the hosts were saying (except for something about the colors lol)... And then the number 13.

Wait. What?
My brain went from offline mode into full error 404 mode: did I hear correctly? Did they really announce our number? Did we actually place? I remember needing a few seconds to take a few breaths before I could go to the stage to get the prize or well, there was some chaos going on and I got the prize after the competition ended. 

Found one stage pic of this very moment. Photographer: mitrrx  

When I got back to my seat my hands were actually shaking so badly I could barely text Sallukka that we actually succeeded - managed to do that anyway but almost dropped my phone to the floor lol. 
It soon turned out that I had guessed the 2nd and 1st places right - and the one who one the 1st place also won the nomination mentioned before. And not just that: she also won the ToC qualifying round, congratulations ArLea for these AND winning the best armor prize in the finals! ❤

After the award ceremony I headed out to look for Sallukka - I wanted to chat with them a bit before heading for the green room. At this point I noticed it was raining cats and dogs outside; I sure hoped it wouldn't rain after 6 pm or a taxi would be needed again. I found Sallukka and Joni from the video game room and chatted with them for a while; they were about to leave soon but before that we decided to split the prize stuff we had gotten, it was only fair to do so. There were stickers, some Japanese candy and a bronze cup. The cup, two of the four candy bags and some stickers stayed with me. 

After the two had left I headed for the green room - my body was screaming for caffeine and pain killers. And bread. I was hungry.
When I went to the green room there was less than 30 minutes left of Shiro Samurai's last shift so I decided to hang out there, after all there weren't other programs to see that day since the con would close soon after that. When he was done with work we discussed about how we'd go back to the hotel; I was voting for the taxi in case it would rain again but I lost. And, well, to be honest the walk was okay, the hotel isn't that far away and it was refreshing to walk after being so many hours indoors. At the nearby park we took some "hey we had costumes on" proof photos.

Ft. the bronze cup and a curious honk.

Oh!
I mentioned earlier that I had a reason to postpone this summary. Well, this has been postponed more than I intended - I've been busy with work - but the reason for the original postponing was that I was waiting for the feedback from the judges! It took a while to get it, after all there were many contestants to give feedback to, but my wait was awarded a few weeks after the con.

The judges liked the atmosphere of the picture; some of them actually said that it took them right back to the world of Elden Ring. They liked the colors a lot and the editing I had done complimented the photo even more. I didn't actually edit the picture that much - we aimed for a "publishing ready" photo when we took the pics so yes, not a lot of editing was needed because we succeeded in that. And, of course, my wonderful model also got a lot of compliments~  

The feedback I got was very positive and there were also a lot of useful tips I'm definitely going to make use of in the future! ❤ I'm not posting all the feedback here since there was a lot of it, but every word of praise and advice was much appreciated and actually made me tear up eventually.

After taking the proof pictures it was time to fetch some ResQ sushi and some bubble tea before heading to the hotel to change out of costume and relax for a while before we'd meet with Gure and Selja. We had agreed to meet at Venn, the hotel bar, but when the others got there I got a phone call in which it was made very clear that there were absolutely no seats left. I asked them to search for a bar within a walking distance and without entrance fee. After a short while I got a notification; Gure had shared her location with me and said location pointed to Bar 1.
After a while we managed to drag ourselves to the bar - and were instantly quite anxious because it was very loud inside. People were already quite drunk even though it wasn't really that late yet and the bartenders were blasting the music so loud I thought my ears would call it quits. Luckily, after five minutes or so I noticed that one bigger group had left the outdoor area and we decided to move there - well, there we had to deal with a couple of smokers for a while, but it was still better than staying inside. We enjoyed a couple of drinks or well, my gin & tonic really couldn't be called an enjoyment in any way since it was way too sweet and then walked back to the hotel; the others wanted to go to another, LGBTQIA+ friendly bar since it was the Oulu Pride weekend, but we were way too tired to do anything else than watch National Geographic and binge a bag of Doritos.

Which wasn't a good idea. Felt way too nauseous after a while.

Sunday morning. Time to get some breakfast and finish packing. 
I was going to host a panel about SSO but that wouldn't take place until 12.30 pm so yeah, I had plenty of time to just hang out.

Except that my body decided to call it quits. I felt awful from the moment I woke up. For a couple of hours I tried to think "this will pass, it will get better during the day" but no; the brainfog and pains never subsided. I was so happy that I hadn't planned on cosplaying during Sunday, I most likely couldn't have done that. 

An outdoors pic to cut the wall of text.

When we got to the con we decided to check out the Japan themed room on the 2nd floor. I had read online that there would be a chance to dress up in a kimono, try out calligraphy etc. so yes, I had been looking forward to it a lot. 

But. First of all: we didn't really have time to try out the calligraphy.

Second: I know I'm not thin by any possible standards and that caused me some anxiety; there's literally no way I could wear a woman's kimono right now because it for sure won't fit. The ladies offered to bring me a man's kimono but at this point I also started feeling kind of bloated and physically awful too so I declined, which was a bummer but couldn't really be helped. And, to be honest, the latter was more of a reason why I turned down the offer.

Well, at least Shiro Samurai got his moment in the spotlight - more of that in his Matsucon summary if you're interested~!

A general view of the Japan themed room.

After our quick visit to the room Shiro Samurai's first shift of the day was about to start and he headed to the green room. I, on the other hand, headed downstairs to wait for Sallukka; they had told me that they would be there in time for my panel, and they were!

My panel wasn't exactly popular; I had, what, three people to attend it? Then again, my panel was about the actual costs of SSO so yeah, probably not that interesting topic, at least not to younger people. However, this was a perfect chance to test out this concept and it worked structurally etc. fine, which means I'll probably host this somewhere else in the future! 

I didn't feel as much like the deer in the headlights as I look. But hey, I'm happy this got photographed too! ❤ Picture: mitrrx

The rest of the day went in "a pain haze" as I like to call it; it's what happens when your body is just ready to call it quits for the day and all you can feel is pain and exhaustion - and, of course, there is brain fog as well and you barely register what is going on around you. I remember hanging out with Shiro Samurai and Sallukka at one point but I think we all went our separate ways after a while (and I think Sallukka and I went to fetch takeaway boba for all of us at some point)? Or at least Sallukka went to check out "Cosplay Thö Musical" (written how Finnish people with rally English would pronounce "the" lol), that much I remember.

Eventually Shiro Samurai and I went to the green room, after all he still had work stuff to do.

The most important part of green room: coffee station.

The coffee maker on the left sums up my condition on Sunday. Weak.

When Shiro Samurai's shift ended it was also time for Matsucon to close its doors - and time for us to grab some leftover food and head to the railway station since we had a train to catch. And that was pretty much the end of our trip to Matsucon. 

And this, my dear readers, is the end of my Matsucon summary. Even though I had some, err, physical limitations during the weekend I sure enjoyed the con a lot! Special thanks to Sallukka for taking this new step with me, literally couldn't have done it without you ❤
Next up - Maracon summary! 👀

Until next time.

-Firith