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