We set off for Bristol at 6.30am, it was light! I can’t remember much else about it!
We’ve been in COVID hibernation for so long and to be honest before that we didn’t get up early unless we had to for a show. The life of an artist is quite leisurely, or at least I don’t have to wake up early, there doesn’t seem to be a massive amount of leisure any other time.
Travelling along misty morning roads we arrived at the show in the Ashton Gate Stadium in good time and set about loading the Brambledown travelling show into the venue. It’s times like this you realise you shouldn’t have spent the last 18 months on your backside…
The stadium is a cracking venue and quite massive. I’m pretty sure I didn’t see all that the Con had to offer. After traipsing through most of the Con floor we located Lisa, who runs UKCGF, to find our pitch, then traipsed all the way back to where we entered the building. The upside was we didn’t have much distance at all to lug our gear. The journey was quite useful as we got to see what else was there, the cosplayers, the displays and the other traders.
We set up and settled in for the day with a strong and steady stream of visitors strolling past in masks and cosplay. It seems quite handy that the cosplays often lend themselves to having a mask as part of the costume. One fantastic example of this was Dick Dastardly in his Mean Machine. It was one of the first Cosplays to roll past our stall and it set the tone for the day!
There were plenty of quality costumes in attendance including a massive Bumblebee and a great dragon handler, though I have a soft spot for home made stuff, particularly when it’s as awesome as the little Bender.
We met plenty of people including Sam from Mum’s Makery who took us at our word and brought us a mountain of cakes, which was gert lush! Then there was Lloyd Lewis, an extremely talented portrait artist, who popped up to meet us. He really did look like his self portraits! It was lovely to catch up with trader friends like "Stagman" Phil who is the most talented leatherworker I've ever met, his stuff is gorgeous.
All in all as an event we enjoyed it from a trader point of view.Things were well-organised and we felt supported and safe at the venue. We had plenty of contact before the event which meant the day ran very smoothly from our point of view. From a public point of view there was a good variety of stalls to keep you interested which were well-spaced so things didn’t get too crowded. There were a lot of professional cosplayers in attendance which makes for great photo ops and creates a great atmosphere, particularly when they were as approachable as these guys were. Finally there was a good selection of activities, from dinosaur displays and movie cars to a firing range with bb guns.
After a very long day of trading it was time to load up the wagon and head back home to Brambledown Towers, we had a cracking day and we will definitely be going back again.