NärCon 2019 report

I'm back from NärCon with sore feet and a tired body, but loads of happy memories.

NärCon is easiest described as a cosplay, gaming and creativitiy festival, and it's the biggest cosplay event in northern Europe. It is on the campus of Linköping University, and it being outside and spread out is the reason for my sore feet, I clocked around 30 km of walking on asphalt, cobblestones and stone floors over 2,5 days.

This is just an overview of the most central part of the campus. The weather decided to go with the hottest days of summer, with temperatures reaching 30+ in the middle of the days. There are worse heatwaves out there, but it was.

Anyway this is my day by day report:

Tom picked me up at 8 on Thursday. It felt strange but I had actually been able to pack and be finished early in the evening on Wednesday, no stressing last minute fixes to be done. We got down to Linköping, had lunch, checked in and managed to be at Närcon at around 2 pm, which is a new early record for us.  I left my bags in the Nordic Legions' changing rooms and then went to see Mathias and Ann-Sofie, they had driven down with their caravan the night before. With my excellent skills in orienteering I managed to go to the wrong camping and got an extra km or so in the sun. Then it was time for me and Ann-Sofie to suit up as Asterix and Obelix.

They were a big sucess! We couldn't move many meters until people came up and wanted to take photos with us and it was so much fun. The menhir worked fine, but for some metal thingies in the back of the metal frame. This first time they weren't too bad, but every time I wore it I felt more and or that they pressed into my back. I also had a bit of moustache problem. I had glued it on with mastix, but it fell off when I tried to drink or talk too much. It got better later, I'm guessing that I built up a layer of mastix on the moustache that made it easier and easier to stick. We walked around until about 11 pm and then it was back to the hotel for a shower and some sleep. Thankfully this year we were in an hotel with AC.

On Friday we arrived at NärCon at around 11 again. NärCon is a festival and goes on 24/7, but there isn't much activity before lunchtime.

Tom as Luigi on Thursday and Friday

The Nordic Legions decided that it was too hot to troop in the afternoon, and we were going to concentrate on the evening instead. So I changed into Melisandre and walked around in that costume. Unfortunately I got some blisters  from my sneakers, the same sneakers that had taken me through Medieval Week in Visby and Star Wars Celebration in Chicago without a problem, so now I started to get some sore feet.

Most of the Cosplay Dalarna gang with Harry Potter costumes on Friday

There was a Game of Thrones meet-up on Friday afternoon. There were some official photos taken at the meet up, but I only have one on my own phone.

William and his family had really great costumes.

After that Tom had told me that there was going to be something called "garbage" cosplay, I told some other people and we went there. Basically it was a competition where you made up teams, had 5 minutes to decide what you should do and then 35 minutes to build it out of a pile of rubbish that they had placed on the floor. It was a manic wrestle for the rubbish, but our team (which was basically a Cosplay Dalarna team) managed to grap two big rolls of bubble wrap as our main loot.

The result

Linus as "Deal with it Gandalf the White". The judges were impressed that I had managed to make two functional garments, bascially a classic chiton held together with pins made from cardboard and a square cloak, out of the bubble wrap, and that we had so many details (pipe, staff, brooch, sword, ring and tobacco pouch). Yes our team won the whole competition. Go Cosplay Dalarna (and Sergio)! This was probably my favorite event of the whole convention, also bcause it was so unexpected and spontaneous.

There was a Star Wars meet-up in the evening as well, and the Nordic Legions decided to join. We surprised everybody else, who apparently thought that the 501st and Rebel Legion is just all about being serious. They were so wrong. We showed our totally unstructured way of organizing photos, and then there were a bunch of photos and films done. The photographer has promised to post the photos from that in the coming days and I'm really looking forward to it. After that we led the whole bunch of Star Wars costumers in a parade all over the festival area, and it was really cool to be around 30 people, with me and the other officers first, followed by stormtroopers, our rebels and then all the other costumers which were mostly dark and light jedi. The timing was so right with it being dusk so that the lightsabres really showed, but still light enough that people could take good photos.

Admiral Daala leading her troops

Overall the Friday evening was just perfect, with a lot of pure fun cosplay events.

Saturday I woke with some really aching feet. I had slept with them high over the night but it was obvious that this was going to be a tough day. I did get some time to go around the Artists' Alley and I found two prints of Ola Art that I just had to buy, it was tough to choose though. He basically takes cheap paintings that he finds in fleamarkets and changes them and add some funny texts to them.

In the afternoon I was responsible for a presentation of the Nordic Legions. It was a simply presentation about who we are, and then we showcased our costumes and what they are made of, including stripping down a biker scout and a stormtrooper to their black undersuits. After 30 minutes we asked the audience to come down and talk with us directly and ask questions. There were actually quite a few in the audience so I was really pleased with it. Since this was about showing what we do behind the scenes we broke our own Nordic Legions' rule and had both our buckets off, I'm wearing my glasses and we had two of the same face character. The important thing was to show that we are humans and fans and that it's not an impossible goal to become a member.

In the evening I skipped parading with the legions, I simply wasn't sure how far I was going to be able to walk. Instead me and Ann-Sofie did another round of Asterix and Obelix, with a lot of breaks, but in the end my body simply said no. It was a combination of sore feet, the metal thingies from the menhir into the back and the heat. The Obelix trousers are really comfy, but then I wear a big foam belt and a fur vest over them, and the menhir is made out of isolation material that reflects heat. When I took the belt off I could wringe out the trousers underneath. So I packed up my stuff and went civil. We met up with Tom and then it was a slow walk, due to talking with people not due to pain, until we left the area at around midnight.

On Sunday we simply had breakfast and got into the car and drove home. It was even hotter on Sunday than on Saturday, and the AC in the car can't handle those temperatures, so we had to take a lot of breaks just to get some air into the car. Still I was home at around 4 pm, which is the earliest that I've been home from NärCon, and it is nice to come home early in the evening from a con.

On the way back I also come up with a new project for next year's NärCon, with a focus on comfortable shoes and cool clothes, we will see what happens.

And finally here are some other cosplayers that I met and took photos of

Närcon report

Or what I did on my vacation. It's been an intense three week period for me, basically going non-stop from NärCon, a roadtrip with my mother and then Medieval week in Visby. I will try and summarize them, and lets start with NärCon.

Närcon this year was hot, the temperatures rarely dropped below 27 degrees, and that definitely affected the costumes. Närcon had actually gone out and ased people not to bring their warm and heavy costumes. As such there were a lot of more casual costumes walking around.

I arrived on Thursday afternoon. I chose to wear my Bellossom cosplay, since it's comfy and easy to wear. We watched Ann-Sofie and Mattias compete in their first cosplay competition (novice level) and Mattias won the "best stage impact"-award. They were cosplaying Tintin and captain Haddock, and they were so popular the whole weekend.

Niklas wore his Zeb Macahan costume for the first time, and of course he chose Texas chili for dinner.

It wasn't uch fun wearing Bellossom without any other pokemon cosplayers, so I switched to my remade Her Universe Endor dress instead.

A lot of Närcon is really cosplayers taking photos of other cosplayers.

 On Friday and Saturday I trooped with the Nordic Legions. It was too warm to be able to do a lot of trooping, but we did march through the area twice a day.

I spent most of Friday and Saturday wearing my Melisandre. It was actually quite comfortable, like walking around in a big bathrobe.

The heat and walking around all day really killed my feet though, despite wearing a pair of extra comfortable walking shoes under Melisandre's gown. I didn't get any blisters, but they were swollen and really tired. I brought them back to life by washing them in cold water every evening and sleeping with them elevated.

This year I had friends in all the levels of cosplay competition, so I made sure to watch them all. On Saturday evening Anna and Henrik were really nice and gave me and Tom backstage passes to the Nordic Championships, where Henrik competed with his Benny the Lego figure.  It was really nice to be able to look at the competing costumes up close, and admire the workmanship that goes into the best cosplay projects in the Nordic Countries.

I was really bad with taking photos this year, but here are some of my favorite costumes of the weekend.

My absolute favorite was Tomtemor from my absolute favorite childhood story Tomtebobarnen. Overall it's evident that some of the most popular costumes at NärCon are the ones that goes back to childhood memories and children's stories, or later TV-shows.

 I stumbled upon a whole group of Les Miserables cosplayers. It is my favorite musical.

 Rincewind from Discworld was there. One of my dream cosplay projects would be Cheery Littlebottom from Discworld, but I don't dare to a big project that is based on literature, and where there are no images. As a Discworld fan I could definitely recognize the worst wizzard in the world.

There weren't a lot of Game of Thrones costumes around, but at least I met a Jaime Lannister.

NärCon is really inspiring though, and since it is a cosplay festival it's possible to play around with the cosplay format. I have a few ideas for fun costumes for next year, so we will see what happens.

Hanging around Tuna Ting

This weekend it was Tuna Ting. Tuna Ting is the small medieval fair outside Borlänge, and two of the members of Cosplay Dalarna are part of the organizers for it. Last year me and Tom were there, and that was when I really discovered how fun it could be to be part of the whole experience of a medieval event, and not only there as a visitor for a few hours.

This year me, Linnea and Tom had planned to borrow a tent and stay overnight, but two of us were down sick just the days before, and we all agreed that it was nicer to sleep in our own beds. It only takes around 30 min to drive to Borlänge.

On Friday it was quite windy and cold, so it was a nice day to wear my green wool dress. I didn't take any photos of myself though.

Saturday and Sunday were warmer though so it was nice to use my new teal undergown. On Saturday we also stayed after closing and had dinner together with the organizers. Then I realized that I need to make a longer gollar or liripipe to wear around my neck and shoulders because it got cold in the evening.

Watching the jousting (which isn't really jousting since the knights are too young, but they show of a lot of the skills needed for a knight, except jousting each other)

Cosplay Dalarna had the best dressed people at the event.

Waiting for some food, I was really happy about this jug that I've found in my glass cabinet.

I had made the dessert for the evening. It's an apple pudding, where you simply cover and apple in dought and boil it for some hours. (I'm cheating and covering the puddings with foil and then bake them in the oven at 100 degrees). When it was time to eat we put the puddings on the grill so that they got hot, and then served them with a hard sauce of butter, honey, cinnamon and ginger. They were delicious!

It was cold, so I was happy to borrow a liripipe from Monica, even if it was a bit hard to get my head through the opening without ruining my turban.

Monica and Niklas had gotten their new tent, and here they are putting Tom to some work in it.

Tom was definitely more on the shady side of character at times.

It was a great weekend, but it's also nice to have an event so close by that I could sleep at home.

June 6th picnic with Cosplay Dalarna

This year again we decided to have a small costume picnic on the 6th of June, Sweden's national day. We decided to be in Borlänge, where Niklas and Monika were helping out with some activities for the kids. Due to some health issues and work we were a bit decimated, but us who were there had a nice relaxing afternoon. We also decided that since most of the activities at the June 6th festivites are geared towards children, next year we should come in our cosplays from films, TV and games that they recognize.

This is the four of us in different eras. Ann-Sofie and her husband really looks great as Tintin and Captain Haddock.

I had a hard time deciding on what to wear. I had planned to wear my 1890's sport outfit, but I only have a blouse and no jacket for it. It would have been ok to wear, if some of the heat from last week had remained, but when I went to the supermarket in the morning it was barely 10 degrees and I was freezing. Then I realised that one of the few warm garments I have is the coat from my 1787 revolutionary. I went up and got it, but when I started to dress I realized that I just didn't want to wear stays today. I skipped the gaulle and I was just wearing my shift and two petticoats under the vest and coat.

 The hair was another issue, since I normally do a lot of pincurls when I try to do 18th century hairstyles, thankfully the late 1780s are bushy and I had my big white cap. I curled the front of the hair with my curling iron and teased it to give it a bit of volume, and hid the rest under the cap, except for two long curls in the back. Not my best hairstyle, but it took me less than 20 minutes to do. I'm also apparently out of hairspray, so the hair started to loose its shape fairly quickly.

On the way home from the picnic I stopped by my mother's house, and while I was in the garden one of her three cuddly cats showed up.

I must say this look with a vest, but no coat was really comfortable and definitely something I can wear more often when I want to do 18th century light.

Leksand's Medieval Market

Ever since the beginning of the winter I had planned to stay over at the medieval market in Leksand. This year the market had made a restart, with new organisers. I must say I liked it better. It felt like there was a lot more to see and a lot more of high quality vendors, all in all Leksand is really great medieval market.

Niklas and Monica from Cosplay Dalarna had promised that me and Linnea could borrow their old tent, since they had bought a new and bigger one. Well after a lot of misfortunes with the tent it was clear that they would not have time to get their new tent up to Leksand in time. Thankfully though the world of cosplayers/costumers is pretty small, and it turned out that Ingeli, one of my best friends in the Nordic Garrison, was also going to Leksand and she could bring her old tent. They were even nice enough to raise it for us so it stood there when we arrived on Friday evening.

Here is our little camp all set up. Me, Linnea and Kristoffer (who we had recruited on the way) shared the huge black and white tent, but we spent most of the time under Monica's and Niklas' pavillion.

Friday night dinner is getting ready. We had planned the dinner so that each of us would prepare a meal and bring it with us so that we only had to heat it, and not cook it from scratch.

Dinner time. Despite the temperature in the day reaching almost 30 degrees it started to get chilly in the evening as you can see by people wearing hoods and caftans. And it turned out that the night would be really, really cold in the night. In fact I didn't sleep at all because it was so cold, and I apparently hadn't brought enough blankets with me. It didn't even help that I had my brand new 14th century night cap. Our huge tent was also to big to be heated up with our body heat.

On Saturday morning the temperature started to rise pretty fast though, still I had decided that I would wear my full 16th century outfit. Us campers were also visited by some other friends from Cosplay Dalarna.

Here is our group photo, and it's taken by Niclas, who was there in modern clothes. I didn't manage to wear two layers of wool for more than a couple of hours, though.

Me, Ann-Sofie and Linnea. I was grateful that I could hike up the skirt, by borrowing a belt from Linnea, in proper trossfrau style.

For most of the market I was only wearing my undergown though, since it's sleeveless. I was also very glad that the location is just by the water, so it was nice to go down there and cool down. In historical clothes we just stood there in the water and wet our headscarves before wrapping them on our heads (my hair dye still bleeds so I now have a pink veil) but I had brought modern swim wear as well so when the market closed in the evening I switched to that and made sure to take a really nice bath.

On Saturday it was even hotter, and I hadn't planned on wearing anything but the undergown. Then me and Linnea offered to take part in the medieval fashion show, they had a landsknecht but no 16th century women. And if I was going to be in the fashion show I sure wanted to show off my best, so I dressed up in all the layers and accessories. Now the temperature was definitely hovering around 30 degrees, and that was too much. I almost got heat exhaustion on the way, and I think my hydration/salt balance still hasn't gotten back into balance a day later.

I'm almost melting here, but at least it looks good.

As you might have seen in this post I have a few pieces of clothing, including my ain green gown, that I haven't posted about. I'm going to talk about that in a future post.

It is pretty fun that everything I'm wearing in this photo has been made as HSM challenges this year.

AvestaCon

The last weekend in October it was the first try with a small convention in Avesta. I was ther both representing Cosplay Dalarna and the Nordic Legions.

The Convention was held in a really fascinating building called "Verket" which is an old iron foundry, all built in wonderful brick. I love these old industrial buildings, and it was a great environment for cosplay.

Verket i Avesta

Cosplay Dalarna had a corner where we showed off some of our props and costume parts, as well as working on some smaller projects.

We had also offered to show visitors how they could work with different materials, so for that reason the organizers had bought a lot of worbla. We decided that the best things to do, that was simple, easily recognizable and quite quick to make were wands. We made wands, and had kids from aroud 8 doing them as well, by wrapping chopsticks in worbla and then create different markings and decorations with more worbla.

wandmaking in progress

On Saturday I held a presentation about Nordic Legions and cosplaying for charity.

Link to a short video from the talk

For Saturday I wore my Mon Mothma, since it's comfortable and I could do crafts in it. On Sunday I premiered my first version Luna Lovegood. It was also a great costue since I had to leave after lunch in order to go to a work-related thing, and it was practical to have a cosplay where I basically just needed to take off the wig and tie and then nobody would guess it's a costume.

Unfortunately I ended the event with dropping my wand on the brick floor and it broke, so I need to get a new one. Well I need to get a lot new things to upgrade Luna to a more accurate version, but I still enjoy this first version.