I don’t plan on giving a full con report on Southern
GeekFest, but just cover the highlights.
The main reason for this blog entry is to post some of the photos we
took that Saturday. I attended with the
photographer Michael W. Moses and we just wanted to share the beautiful work
fans have created with their costumes.
We attended only on Saturday, between 10 and 5, so this is just a small
sample of what was available for the whole weekend.
Southern GeekFest 2017, a comic con is also a Science Fiction, cosplay, and LARP convention was held on May 20 through the 21st at Hattiesburg MS at the Forrest County Multipurpose Center. It’s actually a sport arena, with a huge pit in the middle, surrounded by tiered seating. The floor was covered with gray plastic decking concealing the red clay under the arena floor. Now all this might sound terrible, but it wasn’t. Southern GeekFest 2017 was a blast for the fans and a chance to mingle in a large central venue.
The arena allowed for a huge central area to set up the convention. The lighting was fairly good and the hundreds of spare arena seats gave a great place to set down for a while, which is something that this older fan appreciates greatly. The only real lack I noted in this facility was in meeting rooms for panels. Since there wasn’t a hotel attached to the con, costumers had to do a little planning for changes, but the capacious restroom areas were no doubt a great help in donning or doffing their costumes. There was a small gaming contingent near the entrance, but I didn’t visit that area much. The costume contest was a modest affair, given the huge percentage of costumes, LARPers, and costumed fan groups. But most of the small audience was in costume itself.
Overall it was an outstanding small convention in an out of the way venue, but it shows thinking out of the box on the convention organizer’s part in using what was available. I had a great time and it looked like a lot of other fans appreciated having a convention close to home. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to visit the film room, located in an adjacent building, to see some of the interesting films they were showing, but I was too busy with the attendees and the costumers. I’m looking forward to their next convention.
These photos are not supposed to be completely representative of attendees; we only took photos of those we caught in the short time we were there. There were quite a number of costumed fans that we missed, which is a pity, because Southern GeekFest had a high percentage of costumers among the cons I have attended. Some of the costumes were assembled store-bought items and very professional, but many were made by the fans themselves and several were original, clever creations. The attending fan groups had some impressive set-ups and their costumes and camaraderie was excellent. I was glad to see whole families and people of all ages in attendance at Southern GeekFest.
CoastConFan
UPDATE 30 May 2017: Southern GeekFest updated their official website with a 2017 gallery
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