Next weekend I'll be selling at UK Ponycon, which is a convention that has been going since its debut in 2004 and is dedicated to all things My Little Pony! The con started as purely a collector's con, way before My Little Pony had its viral resurgence in the form of the new cartoon, Friendship is Magic. There, collectors would trade and sell their extras and generally use the weekend as a chance to meet other like-minded fans. In 2010, the new cartoon would bring a whole new group of people to the convention, fans of the show who called themselves 'Bronies' and who shared our passion for silly colourful horses.

Since then, UK Ponycon has grown into a mid-sized convention that collectors and new fans alike flock to from all corners of the globe. People dress up in pony cosplay, sell sell handmade art and customised ponies and take part in all the fun events Ponycon annually has to offer. I have attended nine of the thirteen (!) Ponycons so far, and I'd like to think I've got a pretty good handle on what to expect from the event, so I thought I'd write up a little guide detailing the sort of thing you might expect to experience if you attend UK Ponycon!

• Lots and lots of stalls!
  Ponycon started life as a collector's convention, so originally the vendors were primarily people selling original 1980s (and 1990s) My Little Pony products. As Ponycon is a multi-generation convention (meaning that it celebrates every edition of My Little Pony that has been released since the 1980s), the variety of vendors has expanded alongside the convention itself. Now you can expect to find people selling ponies and merchandise from all generations, as well as fanart and crafts featuring My Little Pony characters, customised ponies and one-of-a-kind, hand-made plushies, too!
  
  
• Cosplay!
  Where there's a convention, there's cosplay, and you'll find lots of it at Ponycon! Usually people like to dress up as ponies that represent the theme of the convention, though a lot of people just plain dress up as anything they fancy. We've even had Stormtroopers at Ponycon! This year the theme is the Wild West, so expect to find lots of cowboy themed cosplays roaming around.
  
  
• Events!
  With such a large fandom and such a long history, My Little Pony offers a lot of variety when it comes to panels and events to attend! Whether you're and old school pony crony like myself or a newbie who just started watching 'Friendship is Magic', you're bound to find something to suit your interests! In the past, panels have included topics such as how best to restore your childhood toys, the impact 'Friendship is Magic' has had on the fandom, feminism in My Little Pony, silly bloopers in the old cartoons and cosplay tutorials, tips and tricks. There are regular events like 'Mr & Mrs', 'Room 101' and, of course, the annual Ponycon Pub Quiz!
  
  
• The Ponycon Ninjas!
  I don't really remember when this Ponycon tradition started, but somewhere along the line, the convention seems to have picked up some 'Ninjas'! Every year, the 'Pony Ninjas' come out to play and leave goodies for attendees and offer things up for the auction, doing their part for charity. They've never asked for payment for their good deeds and are completely anonymous - nobody has any idea who they are, or where they came from!
  
  
• Pinch a Parcel!
  Pinch the Parcel is a fun event that has been at Ponycon since the early days! Similar to the familiar game 'Pass the Parcel', Pinch the Parcel is a lot more fun, and a lot more chaotic! Guests who want to enter must bring an item, wrapped, with a value of no less than £5. They're then all collected together and entered into a pile that everyone sits in a circle around. Two six sided dice are then handed around the circle, and as folks pass them around, they attempt to roll a 6 or a 1. On doing so, they're allowed to grab a parcel from the pile. This part of the game is pretty calm and laid back, with the dice being passed around until eventually there are no more parcels left to be taken. This is when the madness begins! The second part of the game is timed, and again on a roll of 6 or 1, people are now allowed to 'pinch' a parcel from anybody else in the circle. It becomes utter madness, especially as the timer runs down and people scramble to snag a few last minute parcels! Some people end the game with a whole pile of winnings, while others may go home with nothing! Such is the cruel fate of 'Pinch a Parcel'. Ponycon is a very friendly event, though, and it's rare for people to leave this event completely empty handed - sometimes they'll be offered a pity parcel from a kind soul who maybe got really lucky on their dice rolls during the game.
  
  

UK Ponycon travels around the country, and this year it's being held on the 21st and the 22nd of October, at The Exhibition and Conference Centre at the University of the West of England, Bristol. I'll be there on table D3 selling art as usual, though I've also found out a bunch of my extra My Little Pony toys to sell as well! I'm really looking forward to being there as I missed last year and it'll be so much fun to see all my old friends again!

Friday was our last day of the holiday, and because we had a painfully early flight the next day, we decided to spend our last day locally, in the gorgeous little seaside spot of Saltburn by the Sea. Saltburn has a historic cliff lift that takes you down to the beach and it was a wonderful little thing to experience! We all bundled into the old carriage, which had beautiful stained glass windows (not original, sadly, but reinstated in 1991) and headed down to the beach. Of course, the one time we decided to spend the day at our local beach was our first bad day, weather wise! It was drizzly and rainy the whole day, but fortunately Saltburn by the Sea has a little arcade by the pier so we took refuge in there while we waited for the rain to ease a little.

We decided to grab something to eat at a very appealing looking restaurant pub overlooking the sea called Vista Mar. It was very cosy and comfortable and the food was delicious, the perfect way to enjoy a grizzly grey sea view.

With full bellies, it was time to head home. We had a slow stroll across the beach before returning to the cliff lift, and spent the evening cleaning and tidying the house, packing and getting ready for the unearthly 3am start we had the next morning (our flight was at 7am, at an airport two hours away, yeech.)

This trip to Yorkshire was absolutely phenomenal. We all had the most wonderful time. I loved returning to the comfort of such a gorgeous holiday home and chilling out in the games room. Eden Camp was incredible, Beamish was just as fun as I remembered from my childhood, and York is a beautiful old city I'd love to return to someday. We haven't had a group holiday this year, and finally finishing this trip report has made me so ready for one!

On that note, I'm sorry it's taken over a year to compile this report - I've been a terrible blogger lately but I'm determined to make a change to that now. There's something about Autumn that makes me really love blogging, cosied up in comfortable slouchy clothes with a cup of hot chocolate at hand. I spend so much of my creative time these days drawing, I've been missing my writing side lately, so it's nice to flex my, erm, fingers a little here on the blog. Thanks for sticking with me, guys! I'll be back more often now, I promise.

Today was the first day to divide our group! Moose, Luke, Sarah and I wanted to explore Flamingo Land, a theme park and zoo resort in North Yorkshire, while Pash, Joe and DC decided they'd rather go back to York.

I'm a sucker for theme parks (obviously). I adore roller-coasters and I heard there were some pretty unique ones at Flamingo Land, so I was super excited to check them out. I'm also crazy about animals (again, obviously) so I was really excited to visit the zoo part of the resort, too.

One of the very first things we did was rode was the log flume, Lost River Ride. Fortunately, it was a gorgeously sunny day, because we got absolutely soaked! We then made our way around the various roller-coasters, including Hero, which you sort of stood up into and it leaned you forwards with a really weird sensation of free flight! The sensation was... weird. It was really the oddest coaster I've ever been on, and I'm not sure I'd be in a rush to return to it!

We took a break at a cute American style diner there, before checking out the zoo section of the park. We managed to catch a sea lion show and a bird display, both handled very professionally and by people you could tell cared for the animals and their well-being.

Honestly, the resort was a lot better than I'd been expecting! I'd not really heard much about Flamingo Land before we looked into places to visit in Yorkshire, and I'm so glad we discovered it. Some really great and unique rides for roller-coaster enthusiasts, plus the nice zoo gardens, made it a really busy and tiring day out for us! I'd definitely go back if we were 'up North' again!