Kemin Mangapäivä 2026 - My voice almost called it quits

 Hello y'all!

Okay, okay, I admit: this post has been in my drafts for like over three months now, so it's finally time to actually write this. I have a few reasons for postponing this though: work has been incredibly busy for the last couple of months and on top of that I was preparing for entrance exams (or well, rather an entrance exercise in a form of an essay) so I could get into a Master School - and I did! ❤
But well, that's not the topic of this summary - Kemin Mangapäivä (Kemi's Manga Day) 2026 is, so let's get into the topic! 👀

(Note: it's been quite a while since the con so I don't remember everything clearly at this point. These days I'm also on SSRI meds and while they do a fantastic job (also known as have a good neutralizing effect on my mood etc.) they also cause me fatigue, brain fog and difficulties with writing. I'm slowly getting used to them but I apologize in advance if there are weird things in this summary, such as non-functioning sentences etc. This post was also written in many parts and the first parts might be more detailed than the later ones - and that's simply because I just wanted to get this summary finally out and couldn't remember much anymore. It's not like there would have been that much going on with this event since it was so small though, but... Anyway, you have been warned that this might not be the most pleasant reading experience. And truly, I am sorry for that.)

Once again, pictures for this blog post were taken by Shiro Samurai, thank you~!

Event poster ft. mascot Fuyumi! The mascot was designed and drawn by Nette Nikula 💚

I woke up in the morning around 7 am, completed my morning routine and drove to library where I was supposed to complete the final preparations. The first task in line was to put some signs up - well, that was already partly done since I was able to put on some signs up already on Friday so it didn't take that much time. When I was basically ready it was time to let the artists' in to set up their tables; we wanted to provide them as much time as possible before the con would open its doors to the visitors. Unfortunately a couple of artists had fallen sick with a very short notice but that couldn't be helped, Mangapäivä was held in the middle of a winter flu season. Heck, me, myself and I barely got any voice out of me! D:

When I was checking that everything went smoothly I noticed I had gotten a text from Shiro Samurai. His mother had picked him up in the morning and he would soon arrive at the library - and with him would also arrive a mountain of stuff we were planning to sell at the con's flea market! You see, a couple of months before the event people from Matsucon's flea market, namely Matsukirppis, reached out to me and asked if they could have a Matsucon promotion booth AND the flea market this year. After a discussion with Sanna, one of the main organizers of Mangapäivä, we gave them a green light. I'm still more than happy about this collaboration! ❤

Matsucon's flea market and promotion booth.

After dumping all that stuff into my office we went upstairs where the library staff's break room is. For me it was time to drink my morning coffee, for Shiro Samurai it was a time to become a jedi - or, well, change into a cosplay costume, which happened to be a random jedi. The dressing room upstairs is the only one with a full-body mirror so I guided him there. I had texted Johanna, one of my coworkers that would be working at the children and young people's department during the event, beforehand and told her that there would other people sharing the dressing room with us and made sure that she was okay with it (she was). The other library staff members working that day were Olli and Antti, the former being a veteran with Mangapäivä stuff.
When I had poured that dark elixir of life down my throat it was also time for me to put on my cosplay costume. I had decided to cosplay Marigold again - her costume is comfortable to wear (even when you need to run back and forth in a big building) and since she is my own character whose make-up changes depending on her eye color aka mood aka which circle lenses I have available lol I don't really feel any pressure about doing my make-up. When I was putting on my costume Johanna showed up and put on her own whimsy outfit - it's always nice to see colleagues getting genuinely interested in your hobby ❤

I had asked Shiro Samurai to put the price tags on our flea market stuff meanwhile and when I went to my office I saw that he was basically ready, so we went to drop our stuff at Matsukirppis. The pin workshop would be hosted in the same room since it was spacious enough and since the doors weren't open for visitors yet it was a perfect time to ask Sanna to teach Shiro Samurai how to use the pin machine. 

There were also coloring pages! The pin workshop table is the one on the right.

Soon after that it was time to get the show on the road! As everyone probably knows by now, I tend to be quite anxious in the event mornings and even more so if I have been one of the people organizing it. This time made no difference but I was soon proved wrong: the event venue started to fill with congoers in no time! 

I had also been in contact with Sallukka who would act as a cosplay judge with me again. They texted me that they would arrive soon and so we went to wait for her near the entrance. The Artists' Alley was already getting pretty crowded - always a good sign!

People hanging out near the entrance.

An overview pic of the Artists' Alley.

An overview pic of the smaller part of the Artists' Alley.

Pretty soon Sallukka arrived at the con venue - with Joni in tow - and it was time to start the pre-judging for the cosplay competition! 
This year we ended up having 7 people participate to the competition, but I must tell you: things weren't looking too bright just a couple of days before the event. It's not that easy to get people to participate in cosplay competitions anymore, especially not in smaller events, and this year a few smaller cons have had to cancel their cosplay competitions altogether because there were simply not enough people to take part in those. I totally get it if competing feels like it's too much - I seriously do. It's not that easy to go to the stage and be observed by people, and on top of that compete against other cosplayers. That's why I quite often say that people going to that stage have already won - if not the 1st place, then at least they have overcome their fears and gained stage experience, and that's a win in itself ❤

The pre-judging went well and after that it was time for me and Sallukka have a short break, during which I ate my lunch Saarioisten roiskeläppä ftw and checked how Shiro Samurai was doing. The pin workshop sure seemed busy! I also did a round in the lobby, taking in the con atmosphere... And corrected an oopsie since the stuff needed for the competition had been accidentally set up in a wrong auditorium D: Luckily that was easy to correct; it's not like we would have had any fancy set-ups in the first place. 
Oh, and I also checked how the café and MiSu Boba's pop-up stand were doing! The café, unfortunately, wasn't as crowded as we had hoped for, but each batch of the bubble teas sure sold out quick!

If you ever visit Kemi, you absolutely need to get their bubble tea, it's so good!!

The café.

The café area. It wasn't this empty all the time though!

When I was in the lobby I spotted Nina, the event coordinator of the city. She had a day off but had promised me that she would help with stuff if needed - and an urgent need had popped up just a few moments before that. This year we had background music during the cosplay competition and I desperately needed someone to be the DJ so I asked her and got a green light immediately. She basically saved me there; it would have been nothing short of a nightmare to try to do that myself and host the competition at the same time. Like, thanks but no thanks.

Soon it was time for the competition to actually begin. We gathered the contestants together and headed upstairs to the corridor leading to the stage of the big auditorium. Or, well, we also checked out the stage after which the contestants queued up in the corridor to wait for their turn. I asked Sallukka to stay with them and send them to the stage when their turn was up - after all, I was going to be on the stage and host the whole thing, and even though I consider myself to be quite efficient worker I can't be at two different places at the same time lol.

Because a video tells a lot more than my words, let me just link it here! The credits of the video and editing it go to Iiro Väyrynen, thanks a lot!

...there is something that you can't hear from the video though and that's my voice trying to call it quits. I don't know what was going on, probably allergies or so, but my throat had been itchy and my voice down for the good half of the day hence why I had tried to avoid speaking in the morning as much as possible so I could host the competition. Never again anything like this, please - it wasn't a pleasant experience since I was very afraid that I'd lose my voice before the competition was over! D: 

The honorary mention on the left and the winner on the right.

After the competition there wasn't that much con time left so I decided to do two things: check out the Artists' Alley since I really hadn't had time to do that before (didn't end up buying anything tho #mywalletwasonadiet) and take a picture with friends~! You see, Johanna was still a bit sad that we didn't get to take a group picture at Kemin Mangapäivä 2025 so this year I had promised her that we would make that happen. And it did! ❤

Friends <3

After the photo it was time to start cleaning up the event venue and pick our unsold stuff up from the flea market. Unfortunately we didn't sell much, but hey, at least a couple of movies got sold! From what I heard many other people were luckier than we were, so I sure do hope that this collaboration will continue in the future too - seemingly the flea market found its target audience 👀
When this was done it was time to change to an ordinary outfit and go home. I must admit that I felt pretty tired so I slept for a while before going out for a couple of drinks with Sallukka - those were well deserved.

Personally I feel that this year's Mangapäivä was better than last year's. Of course now I have a bit more experience about organizing a cosplay event at the culture center of Kemi so that likely plays a part, but in my honest opinion this year felt a bit more... Relaxed in a way. That might be because we decided to make the program as simple as possible - for example there were no panels at all, thus less scheduling and technique stuff. 
Next year the event date will be later in the year, likely in autumn, because in March we are going to host a big cosplay event at Kemi Areena. Right now we are trying to decide a new date for that though; we accidentally put ourself on a collision course with Tampere Kuplii. Oops ^^"

But yeah, that's all I have to say about Kemin Mangapäivä 2026~!
Next up will be my Kummacon summary - about time since the next convention I'll attend, also known as Mericon, will be held in a couple of weeks and Kummacon was held in May... Yeah, I should be a bit more efficient with writing these blog posts too lol.

Until next time.

-Firith