GalaxyCon landed at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center this past weekend for their 3-day fandom festival which celebrated all things, celebrities, voice actors, artists, writers, entertainers, gaming and our personal favorite, cosplayers! The list of activities and events was almost endless.
Initial Thoughts
For this being our first GalaxyCon event and it being the first GalaxyCon event in the Bay Area, we had a great experience. Logistically, there was plenty of parking options, going through security was smooth and quick, we had zero issues picking up our badges, there were plenty of food options available inside the convention and it's surrounding area and surprisingly it wasn't too crowded.
The Convention Floor
Navigating through the main convention floor was smooth. As you enter the main entrance, the left side of the convention included all of the celebrity meet and greets where guests could receive autographs and take selfies with their favorite celebrity for a flat fee. Just to name a few, some celebrities included the voice actors from One Piece such as Colleen Clinkenbeard, Luci Christian and Stephanie Young, Ashley Eckstein who voice Ahsoka, WWE wrestlers Trish Stratus, Lita and Mick Foley, Jeff Ward who played Captain Buggy in the live action One Piece series, and because we're fans of the rap and hip-hop world, we can't forget to mention, X-Zibit!
The center of the convention was where most of the action was happening but not too bad where guests were shoulder to shoulder like some other conventions. This area included all the vendors selling fan related products and the artist alley. Guests could find both digital and hand created fan art work, custom clothing, collectible toys, comics and cards, upcoming comic books from local artists, cosplay props, cosplay related gear and more.
The right side of the convention center included a gaming lounge from Alienware for PC games, Star Wars cosplay groups such as the Wolves of Mandalore and the 501st Legion where fans could take pictures with Star Wars characters such as Darth Vader and Darth Maul in addition to the cosplay lounge which included the cosplay repair center that provided repair support for cosplayers.
Events, Panels and Activities
While navigating around the convention to hunt down cosplayers, we took some time to see and experience what GalaxyCon had to offer. The main floor included panels such as a Q&A with Jeff Ward from One Piece and Q&A with the One Piece crew, educational talks such as how to create amazing costumes and the business of writing for animation, entertainment such as the cosplay contest and wrestling trivia and finally, workshops from foamsmithing, drawing, to cosplay filmmaking 101.
To our surprise, GalaxyCon had a separate room where visitors could get tattoos and piercings. As tattoo lovers ourselves, we thought this was a perfect way to include a different type of art in the fandom community and introduce tattoos to those who are too nervous to enter a standalone tattoo shop.
The bottom floor included a large space that we believe still has a lot of potential for future events. This space included tables for multiple console games, arcade games, gaming tournaments such as Drunk Mario Kart racing and tabletop games. Majority of the space was taken up by long tables that had a variety of gaming consoles. We would have loved to see more retro arcade machines on this floor to bring back some of the nostalgia!
Cosplay Hunt
Although majority of the cosplay we capture include anime inspired cosplays, we still love to capture cosplays that catches our eyes! This time around, it was a bit difficult to find anime inspired cosplayers and we had to do a little hunting however, that doesn't mean there weren't other amazing cosplays we couldn't find! We still came across a variety of cosplays from anime, Star Wars, Marvel and gaming.
Final Thoughts
Overall, GalaxyCon's debut was a success in our eyes. Everyone was a vibe to connect with and there was plenty to see and plenty to do for the entire family. There may not have been large crowds compared to other events we have attended at this convention, but we do see this event becoming one of the more popular fandom events in the Bay Area that will fill both the outside and inside of the convention center with fans from all around the country.
Cosplays from our GalaxyCon San Jose Hunt
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