Sunday, July 17, 2011

SFU Summer Festival Recap 2011
The Summer Festival at SFU started out with winter-like weather conditions and remained so, for the entire day.

My mini-tour continues with The Summer Festival at Simon Fraser University.

The Summer Festival at SFU is a Japanese themed event, that celebrates anime/manga and videogame otaku culture. Featuring live music, games, and contests, with vendors selling various art, food, and related wares, the festival took place on Saturday July 16 at the university campus in Burnaby, on a cold, rainy, foggy, summer day.

The day started out bleak, with some morning showers. The commute up Burnaby mountain though while pretty light on traffic, was a bit unappealing, as the fog cast over the hill was pretty thick around noon. As someone who is unfamiliar with the school, trying to navigate in the fog, was especially frustrating. With no signs indicating where the Festival was located, or where the best parking would be, I ended up parking on the other side of campus and had haul my stuff to the main mall area.

The turnout was quite good, with lots of families, kids, and teens dressed in cosplay. I did find however that the crowds did not necessarily convert to as many sales, as the majority of people were students, who were more interested in FREE, rather than spending money. Also given the location far atop a hill in Burnaby, the regular foot traffic of curious people was non-existent. Unlike at the Vancouver Comic-Con where you have people coming in and out, because the event is easily accessible.

Letterman Skelanimals Qee peaked the interest of many passing by, but it was The Homeless Quatchi Project that stole the spotlight. A few wanted to take their pictures with Homeless Quatchi. My videogame themed postcard sized prints, sold quite well, even though the majority of people were not familiar with Slimes, or Bonk, mostly because they were too young to know about those videogames. Overall it was an okay experience, despite the bad weather.

Here are some pictures from the event.

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