Armadacon 25!

A few months ago I was invited to deal at Armadacon, a small long running science fiction convention down in Plymouth, and I jumped at the chance! I absolutely love old school fan conventions. They've got a really different feel to comic expos, which have generally consist of a large dealer's room and a few industry panels. Fannish conventions are made by the fans, for the fans, and they're more personal and silly and fun.

Even though Armadacon is open to all science fiction, Doctor Who was the primary subject (and what with the big 50th around the corner, I wouldn't expect any different!) There were some amazing costumes, including a lady dressed as every Doctor which is actually a concept I've never seen before, despite being a really fun, obvious one.

The highlight for me was meeting Mitch Benn, a comedy song writer who has done a lot of work for the BBC, and is famous for numbers such as 'Proud of the BBC' and 'Doctor Who Girl'. He had a panel discussing his love of sci fi and his new book Terra, and later he performed a couple of songs for us. He seems like a lovely chap and I was pumped he made it to the con!

We attended a panel on physics, listened to some terrible science fiction in their 'turkey reading' session, watched a little anime, played some Magic the Gathering and witnessed the tail end of a very rousing Tea Duel. The masquerade and skits were really fun and generally the whole convention was just lovely.

Sales were low, as I expected them to be. I went to Armadacon for community and fun, to meet local fellow fans and dork out at panels and games. Most of my merchandise that sold was Who related of course and the weekend paid for itself, essentially.

Armadacon was really fun and I'm so glad I had the chance to attend and see what it was all about. I wish I'd actually taken some photos because this blog post doesn't really do it much justice. I'll certainly be back next year!