The event ended up being a mixed bag, it seems. Cosplay Mania 2017 was alright, as far as my experience is concerned. However, plenty of reports suggest they had plenty of problems during those two days. Perhaps it was bound to happen when they tried to do just a bit more than in previous years, or maybe something in their planning went down the drain sometime during the event. Whatever went wrong there, I may have circumvented most of them through both opting for a silver ticket (I bought a gold ticket last year) and just sheer luck.
It wasn’t necessarily a eureka moment, but being able to figure out the gist of how I should cover events—beginning with GameCon PH 2017—gave me the confidence to tackle an anime/cosplay convention. I skipped over the likes of ToyCon, History Con, and AsiaPop Comicon this year, so I had to get one in. Getting one of the last major ones of the year is not bad for a dry run, so I guess I can’t be too disappointed.
NOTE: Opinions expressed in this post were made mostly from my first-hand experience while attending the event. Additional information comes from reports from other publications and social media posts by others who attended the event. If I get anything factually wrong, it wasn’t on purpose and I’m open to corrections. Reader discretion is advised.
Cosplay Mania 2017 Day 1 Coverage
I was there on the first day, and I was lucky as I got there just when the worst of the lines going into the event had already come to pass. Apparently, there were people who arrived at 11AM and only got in by 3PM. I’m not entirely sure of how big the problem really was, but it had more than enough people complaining in social media to be an issue.
This was easily the biggest Cosplay Mania yet. While that’s a good problem to have, it was still a problem as far as crowd control goes.They only had the second floor for both the event floor and main stage. While it was indeed crowded when I was there, I thought it wasn’t bad on the first day. However, it apparently was even more crowded on the second day.
There were reports of people arriving in the morning who only got in much later in the afternoon. I’m sure they had reasons for their system, but already having a ticket and still have to line up—it’s not ideal. Reportedly, even Early Bird, Gold, and VIP ticket holders had to line up. If true, so much for paying extra.
While security isn’t meant to be convenient and it looked like manpower was getting spread thin, there were a lot of attendees who were still inconvenienced. There may be other variables involved as well, but the main focus here is the crowd control and how they were able to
Many have said events like ACX and ToyCon were able to address similar concerns this year. Having gone to ToyCon 2017, I’m somewhat inclined to agree. Then again, with that ticket price (PhP600), they better had figured it out. Meanwhile, Cosmania organizers now have a whole year to figure things out.
(Take what I just said with a grain of salt. All I have to go on with the things I’ve just pointed out are second-hand testimonies, which can be unreliable. As I’ve said, I’m willing to take critique and I can edit as necessary.)
However, the most consistent thing I’ve noticed from them is poor treatment by staff. The most likely explanation for this is indeed their manpower being spread too thin. With an overstretched staff, you can expect them to be a lot more stressed, thus poorer treatment of attendees who came in larger droves than expected.
Most of the really bad stuff were for people who wanted to watch the concert, which took on much of the problem. For instance, here’s a rant from a disgruntled con-goer on that. (Take it with a grain of salt since it’s all from her perspective.)
Other than the crowd situation, it was a pretty good experience, as far as I’m concerned. For a silver ticket that cost me PhP400, I had a lot more fun than I did in more expensive cons this year. Then again, perhaps that’s also because I was actually able to finally churn a vlog out this time, thus adding to the enjoyment.
Other Comments
Am I the only one who had both good and bad things to say about Cosplay Mania 2017? That is likely as the blog posts and social media rants I’ve seen throughout the week on the event have been either glowing, apologetic, or downright negative with nothing much in between.
Am I patting myself on the back for being mostly neutral? Not really since I don’t think I’ve done my homework well enough in both the vlog and this blog post. I’ll have to do better next time.
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