It’s a three cons down, so many to go deal!
Hi again - it’s Meghan, back with another
Convention Review! This time, I attended Calgary Expo, in Calgary, Alberta,
Canada from April 27-30; 4 days of merch, art, celebrities, and most important
- cosplay! I (@maplesugarcosplay) was in attendance with two other members of
Daily Cosplay Net - Arthur (@brightest_day_cosplay) and Keara (@Pynkpyro).
Arthur, Keara, and I would like to bring you a
review from our perspectives; who we were cosplaying, what we were excited to
see, our experiences and final thoughts at the end.
Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge that
Calgary is situated on the ancestral territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy
(Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis
Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region
of Southern Alberta. It is on these unceded and stolen lands that we meet,
gather, and (cos)play.
Day 1: Thursday
Evening
Meghan:
I arrived in Calgary in the early afternoon. I made my way
to the Stampede Park via Uber. The Con opened at 2 pm for VIP, and 4 pm for all
other pass holders. I was very lucky that a friend was working in a booth, and
had a spare exhibitor pass for me so I was able to come inside and hang out
before the Con opened.
The Con was spread out between two buildings. Ticket pick
up was in a smaller building called the ‘Big Four’. They had quite a number of
booths set up to give folks their badges, though the first day it was bustling
with folks picking up their VIP passes and their 4 day passes. The badges
themselves had to be activated, and con-goers had to scan in when entering a
building, and scan out if they left the building.
The upper level of the Big Four is where Artists Alley
was, alongside the tattoo area.
The outside of Big Four was lined with all different food
trucks - at least 20 or so by my count!
The main con was held in the BMO Centre, a short walk from
the Big Four. This was comprised of two adjoining buildings - one of the
buildings was taken up with the Main stage, a few vendors, the Kids area,
Cosplay Red Carpet, and a large 501st Garrison booth; the other room was
merchants with a wide variety of items to get and the celebrity photo
op/autograph area. Most of the internal food options were in the larger
merchant hall - the con itself serving items like hot dogs, fries and chicken
strips; independent food vendors had nerdy cookies, cotton candy, Ukrainian fare, lemonade, coffee and Albertan beef jerky.
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| The calm before the storm |
I took my time to walk the hall early on; I tried on some
corsets at my fav booths, investigated some cool laser-cut art, and the first
round of cosplays. It was very quiet this evening; I heard from the locals a
lot of VIPs use this time to look at everything, and do their major purchasing
on the Friday/Saturday, which are busier days.
My cousin is part of the local 501st - the Badlands Garrison. Her husband was
just accepted into the 501st as Darth Vader, and Friday evening was his first
‘shift’ in his suit. I got a lovely introduction to the Badlands Garrison, who
were extremely welcoming to me while I was there. I stayed with my cousin while
her husband ‘Vadered’ for an hour, then we packed up and headed home for the
evening.
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| Darth Vader wants you to join the Dark Side |
Day 2: Friday
Meghan:
Friday was my first day in cosplay - I went as my Grey Warden
from the Dragon Age video game series.
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Meghan as Warden Commander Tabris
from Dragon Age |
I used my Exhibitors pass to get in again, though this
time I went to the Big 4 to pick up Saturday passes for my nieces and nephews.
I did go a little later in the day, so I was able to walk in, grab the passes,
and head upstairs to check out the art in Artist’s Alley.
I was really pleased with the variety of art I saw - some
local folks who I’d never seen, and also some folks who I’ve seen in Vancouver
before. There was a lot of art of the current popular characters - Genshin
Impact, Demon Hunter, Arcane, Spy X Family, Critical Role/Vox Machina - to name
a few. There was also a good mix of traditional superhero and Star Wars in
there, plus some completely independent stuff that wasn’t fandom related at
all. I usually try to pick up a piece of art from every show I go to, but I had
zero space in my pack to bring something home!
I swung by the 501st booth again and got a picture with a
friend, who was in her Mando armour.
I attended two panels today: one on how to become a
mermaid, as I joined the mermaid community in 2010 and wanted to make
connections with some Alberta mermaids, and another about getting started in
competitive cosplay, which was hosted by cosplay guest Austyn Larkham. Both
panels were held in small, independent rooms just off of the main con room in
the BMO Centre. The Competitive Cosplay panel was especially well run; Austyn
was professional and so funny. It made me feel really inspired to try and
document a larger cosplay build and maybe try my hand at competition!!
I met quite a number of the cosplay guests - one of them, Lucky Grim, was also dressed
as a Grey Warden!
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| Warden Commanders Cousland and Tabris |
I met another Grey Warden - Cathartic Creation - who had a gorgeous cosplay. It was so nice to
see all the Dragon Age cosplays!
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Warden Commander Tabris with
a more different Cousland |
The quality of cosplay at the Expo was phenomenal. I was
so impressed not only with more mainstream cosplays, but the whimsical ones as
well. I saw a Star Trek Commander in a cowboy hat, a couple Weird Als, and my
fav of this day, a Nardwaur The Human Serviette.
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| Nardwaur! |
I was able to walk the cosplay red carpet on this day, and
I also got to meet Sirnotsir Cosplay, who I had met via
TikTok - which was so awesome! It’s pretty wonderful meeting fellow cosplayers
that you’ve known for a while in the flesh.
Near the end of the day, I ran into fellow Daily Cosplay
Net writer Arthur! Once again, it’s so nice to meet people you interact with
online in real life!
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| Tristan and Cyclops! |
At the end of the day, I headed home with extremely sore
feet but a very happy heart.
Arthur:
It was my first day at the Expo and the first time in a long time at a
comic con without a cosplay. I landed in Calgary around 3:30 and checked into my
AirBnB to get some rest and charge my phone before heading out to the Stampede
Park at 6 PM. My original plan was to just go on Saturday and Sunday. However,
since I had never been to this Expo before, I had to familiarize myself with
the venue’s layout in order to be prepared for the next 2 days in cosplay so
that no time was wasted in looking for celebrity autograph tables, photo op
booths, main stage and red carpet. My decision to go on Friday even though I
was exhausted from the lack of sleep from previous night’s birthday celebration
(yep, I am 30 now and still feel like I'm 21) and traveling, was the right move
as it also helped me get my free weekend pass from my Vancouver FAN EXPO’s VIP
badge.
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| Nica Stone |
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| Sailor Banana Cosplayer |
It was a warm evening and there were only a couple of
hours left for the Expo that day. I was on the clock so I got cracking once I
received my weekend general pass and filmed sufficient videos of the artist
alley area whilst connecting with new cosplayers to promote them on our
instagram page. It was at this moment when I met @missnicastone and
@sailorbananacosplay at their table selling their prints, stickers and other
merch. After a brief chat with them I noticed right opposite to their table was
artist @sheldonbueckertart’s booth, who I had purchased a beautiful Batman
artwork from at FAN EXPO Vancouver earlier this year. It was a delight to also
see some tattoo artists in the same building with some incredible works on
their tables while also tattooing some of the patrons.
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| Sheldon Bueckert booth |
I embarked to the BMO Center building where the main
stage, celebrity autograph tables and photo op booths were located. It was a
massive space with multiple halls housing a variety of merchants. As I found
the photo op booth and autograph tables for the celebs, I decided to spend the
remaining hour interacting with more cosplayers and was fortunate to finally
run into @higher_function who is from northern British Columbia and had
followed me on Insta earlier this year. He sported an immaculate Sam Wilson
Captain America costume. Right after that I ran into @lydiasteelecosplay_ who
was dressed up as the wrestler, Orange Cassidy from the major promotion All
Elite Wrestling. She helped me find @kidremington who owns @cancosplaycards who
I had the pleasure to meet earlier this year at FAN EXPO Vancouver. Our love
for pro wrestling made us good friends on Instagram since then and I was very
excited to join him and his other friends at the Hitman Bar, a new
establishment right next to Stampede Park in the Cowboys Casino building, built
in tribute to the Canadian wrestling legend, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart. As a long
time wrestling and Bret Hart fan, this was a real gift for me.
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| Hitman Bar |
Day 3: Saturday
Meghan:
Saturday was an early day for us, as my cousin-in-law had
the first Vader shift of the day. So after an early wake up and breakfast, I
put on my Tristan Thorn cosplay, from the movie Stardust, and the whole family
(3 adults and 3 kids) piled into the car and we made our way to the Con.
I was told by multiple people that Saturday would be the
most busy day and they were right! Even early on, the Expo filled up. There was
a huge line outside the Big Four for ticket pick up - I was very glad I picked
up our passes the day before!
I picked Tristan Thorn as my cosplay as I was intending on
meeting Charlie Cox. Sadly, a couple days before the Con, Charlie had to cancel
- maybe because of a scheduling conflict with filming Daredevil: Born Again? I
loved Charlie in Stardust - his breakout role - so even without him being in
attendance, I decided to wear the cosplay that I had worked hard on! I ended up
being recognized by a few other attendees, which made my day.
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| Meghan as Tristan Thorn |
The Con did attract some awesome celebs: Andy Serkis,
Bonnie Wright, James MacAvoy, Vincent D’Onofrio, Emily Swallow, and Jonathan
Frakes, to name a few. Plus lots of VA’s, like Peter Cullen (Transformers),
Sarah Natochenny (Pokemon), Melendy Britt (She-Ra, Princess of Power), to name
a few.
By the afternoon, the family and I toured the Con, and it
was very crowded. Lineups were very long at every food station and outside at
the food trucks. Moving through the con was hard at this point! However, I did
have a wonderful moment - another cosplayer was having difficulty with her
costume, and myself and a friend were able to safety pin her back into her
costume - which she went on to display at the Cosplay Competition! She didn’t
win, but it was wholesome participating in the spirit of ‘cosplayers helping
cosplayers’.
The day ended with Andy Serkis wanting to meet the 501st
Garrison. After his panel, Andy came back to where the Garrison’s change tent
was, and met many of the members in their costumes. The Garrison then paraded
to the booth for a photo - the whole Garrison crowding in. It was quite the
spectacle, with many fans recording the procession and photo taking session. It
was so cool to see a celebrity interested in their fandom, and being so
gracious as to interact with them!
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| Can you spot Andy? |
After Andy’s visit, and 6 hours on my feet without
sitting, myself and my family headed home just after 3 pm. On my way out
though, I met another cosplayer whom I’ve followed for forever - BlaqueWidowe in her Ahsoka Tano
cosplay - I love that cosplay brings us together!
Keara:
Arriving around 10.30am I met with Arthur to stand in line
to get our split second photo taken with James McAvoy.
Arthur and I got talking to many cosplayers all around us
and where Meghan our other writer for dailycosplaynet found us in line and
where we were able to catch up and share our experiences so far far.
Waiting for James McAvoy as Jean Grey I thought I would be
more nervous but there was a time when I caught a glimpse of him and noticed
his build was strong but he stood close to my height.
We walked swiftly into the photo booth Arthur on the left
and I was on the right. I felt a slight squeeze and I held my breath as the
photo was taken. I breathed out a thank you and with his strong accent he
replied "My pleasure."
We walked out of the booth and proceeded in a well
designed line to receive our photos.
Arthur and I walked to a booth nearby to quickly get
protective screens to protect our new treasure. Once our treasure was secure
Arthur and I had chatted up a few cosplayers to have a small photo shoot with.
I quickly ran to the car to do a costume change to meet
with my friend Erich who is a great photographer. We met near the train tracks
and enjoyed meeting these wonderful people and creating new memories!
Photographer 📸 (erich3d)
Wolverine (sheldonious)
Scarlet witch (rescuekitteh)
Polaris (Proudmoore3377)
Cyclops (brightest_day_cosplay)
Resurrection of Jean Grey (Pynkpyro)
X 23 (uvebeenaddled)
Soon it was 1pm, The James McAvoy panel was happening at
the main hall. Arthur and I made our way as close as we could to the front but
also so we could video Arthur asking James McAvoy a question. During this time we went Live for his panel so
others could see Arthur talk to James.
After the panel we headed straight to the James McAvoy
Meet and Greet. The line was always 5 rows deep but we waited patiently until
it was our turn to move forward and to stay as close to the table as possible
and this is where Danny Trejo accidentally bumped me trying to get back into
his booth and bumped my rear and turned to me flushed and apologized.. stopped
his line to genuinely say sorry and that he would get in trouble with his
girlfriend if he continued talking to me. And gave me a hug and handshake and
then I moved quickly forward to meet James McAvoy with Arthur.
Meeting James McAvoy was very humbling because he really
is just like everyone else. His reaction to Arthur's comment to the earlier
Q&A from his panel was humbling and James reached over to give Arthur a
hug!. Overall all my experience with James McAvoy was very a humbled kind man.
But if he is with his children.. just leave him alone respectfully.
After this I did decide to get back to the air bnb I was staying
at and become a civilian but with vaporeon ears. And a few hours later I
returned to the convention to take photos of some amazing cosplayers and makes
some new connections with some new friends!
My friend dani (Saltinecosplay) was dressed as Ash Ketchum
and my group of ladies with (missjessbennet) Jolteon, (uvebeenaddled) umbreon,
(pynkpyro) vaporeon and (axxiecos) eevee ear we all walked by the voice of Ash
Ketchum herself Sarah Natochenny stopped us herself to take photos and a live
video! We stopped for at least half-hour to legit hang out with an amazing
funny woman!
Arthur:
I had been waiting for this day for around 2 months. It
was finally here, the day I am going to meet James McAvoy, whose performance in
X-Men: Days of Future Past helped me through some of the hardest times in my
life from 2014. Since I spent the first half of my day with Keara, I won’t
repeat what she just wrote. I will however, say thank you to her for agreeing
to split the James McAvoy meet & greet with me and also being my con buddy.
After parting ways with Keara, I was able to finally meet
up with a close friend of mine from Regina, @spidermark82. I had met Mark at
the Vancouver FAN EXPO in 2020 when he was cosplaying Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman
while I suited up as Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man. Ever since then, we
developed a bond on Instagram and kept in touch until we met again earlier this
year at FAN EXPO Vancouver for the first time in 3 years. He was my con buddy
for the 2nd half of that day going forward.
I cosplayed Cyclops last year only a couple of times but
Keara was the only other X-Men cosplayer in Vancouver who had collaborated with
me. It was a real treat to run into multiple X-Men cosplayers at Calgary Expo
this year to get some photos for my social media profiles along with my Cyclops
cosplay. I had the great fortune of running into a couple of Mystique and
Magneto cosplayers who did a great job with their costumes and makeup. If only
Keara was still around in her Phoenix costume to snap photos with them too.
Mark and I made our way towards the Cowboys Casino around
6:30 with @analog__android who sported a great Two-Face makeup and costume, for
a drag show where we watched the performances for an hour and then made our way
to Hitman’s Bar for dinner.
Day 4: Sunday
Meghan:
Sunday was a chill day for me. I wasn’t going to be at the
Con very long, as I had to be at the airport at 12 pm. Before I hit the floor,
I helped my cousin-in-law bring his Darth Vader kit into the Con so he could
work the Garrison’s booth, and then be Darth Vader later on in the day.
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Circus Baby from Five Nights
At Freddy’s: Sister Location |
I was only at Con for about an hour and a half; my
highlight was running into another fan who had just seen Jonathan Frakes. I met
Jonathan at Fan Expo Vancouver, and we both gushed about what a wonderful
person he was.
I left the con with slightly damaged cosplays, swollen
feet covered in blister tape from 3 days of Con where I hardly sat down, but a happy
heart full of wonderful experiences, new friends, and old friends. I can’t wait
to attend again next year.
Arthur:
Today was the day I was going to meet the man who made me
fall in love with Spiderman when I was 8 years old, Sam Raimi. Hence, I suited
up as the Ultimate Spider-man for the day and I headed to the Expo at 10:30 AM
to be there on time for my 11 AM photo op with the legendary director. I made
sure to take off my mask and wear a jacket over my costume for the photo op.
When it was finally my turn to walk into the booth, I was met with a “WOW!”
reaction by Mr. Raimi, who complimented my cosplay and reached his hand out for
a shake with a big smile.
After the photo op, I met up with my friend from Regina,
Mark again who was dressed up as the Insomniac Spider-Man and made our way to
the artist alley building to meet @missnicastone and @sailorbananacosplay who were
cosplaying as two different versions of Spider-Gwen. Luckily we also ran into a
really cool Sandman cosplayer by their table at the building followed by a Silk
cosplayer.
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| Spiderverse |
Mark and I then embarked to the BMO Center building again
for Sam Raimi’s Q&A session but we were early and joined Shameik Moore’s
panel for the last 20 minutes. I wanted to get there before Raimi’s session
began so that I could be first in line for the questions. This panel felt very
educational as Sam shared a lot of useful tips to young aspiring directors and
moviemakers on how to begin their careers. After attending this Expo, I learned
that attending Q&A panels is better than autograph sessions as you get to
have a brief conversation with the celebrities and not have to pay for it. You
could also get a con buddy to film the experience for you to look back on in
the future during a Q&A.
I then made my way to the red carpet with Mark where we
walked down individually after being announced. That was my last goal for the
day as I had to head back to the AirBnB and get ready to check out and head to
the airport.
Local 501: Badlands
Garrison
I would like to give a special shout out to the Badlands
501st Garrison for this particular trip. I ended up spending a fair amount of
time in the Garrison’s back area, where they would kit up or relax between time
in their booth. Since my cousin-in-law was a Vader, if I wanted to spend time
with my family, it was around the Garrison.
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| R5-D4 and R2-D2 |
They are an amazing group of people, and were immediately
welcoming to me. They learned my name, chatted with me, and generally made it a
safe/quiet place to go during the Con. I was extremely lucky to be related to
someone attached to the Garrison, and they were willing to let me in their
space.
The Garrison does a lot of fundraising for charity - so if
you’re ever at a Con, make a donation and have your picture taken. I am all for
supporting your local Garrison - I sincerely hope next year, I can help out at
their booth for a couple hours as a thank-you.
Impressions on the
Con
Meghan:
I was blown away with the Calgary Expo. I was really
pleased to see wide hallways between the booths - which did make it easier to
move around on the most crowded days. I was also really pleased with the food
systems - the con itself gave out buzzers to folks, that would light up and
beep when their meals were ready for pick up. They weren’t priced too badly as
well, and the quality of what I ate there wasn’t bad for the price point
either.
The independent food vendors also had a great variety - in
the main room, there was a wide assortment of foods to choose from, and even
more so from the food trucks outside. Including pizza, tacos, burgers, mini
donuts and other sweet treats, there was a little something for everyone. The
line ups were only bad on the Saturday - I spent about 30-45 minutes in line for
lemonade that day.
The Con seemed well-run and organized as well. The ticket
line ups seemed to move quickly, however the badges had to be activated so you
could scan in-and-out of each building. No matter the building you went to, you
had to scan your pass to enter or exit. This did make for some choke points
where it was difficult to move or had long lines. Having an exhibitor pass was
really handy during these times.
Artist Alley had some extremely talented artists this
year, not just traditional art, but also 3D printed items, hand-crocheted
critters and dolls, glasswork, dice, leather-wrapped books and bags, and I saw
quite a number of laser-cut art as well.
The merchant hall had a lot of variety as well - some
folks I knew from my local Cons and a lot of new vendors as well. Everything
was well spaced, and was fairly navigable. The celebrity area was quite large
as well, and never felt overcrowded.
I really enjoyed my first experience at Calgary Expo, and
I hope to come back next year!
Arthur:
The Calgary Expo is the best FAN EXPO I attended in Canada
since 2016 in Toronto considering the star power of the celebrities and the
other festive activities such as the parade, and massive spider-verse meetups.
I also loved the plethora of food trucks outside with lots of options for food.
My favorite thing about this Expo was the space utilization. Unlike Vancouver,
the majority of Stampede Park’s area was well occupied by the expo in order to
give the patrons enough breathing room and have more exhibits instead of just
local vendors selling their goods and services. FAN EXPO Vancouver Convention
only uses up the lower level space of the convention center and oversold
tickets this year which made it very crowded. I hope to come back next year for
the Calgary Expo with more friends from Vancouver and other parts of Canada.
Calgary Expo is scheduled to run
again April 25-28, 2024; get your tickets and we’ll see you there!
By Meghan Charles, Arthur Kaz, and Keara Gowan, staff writers at Daily Cosplaynet
Meghan Charles
Writer
Keara Gowan
Writer
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