Yesterday I survived the virtual Hunger Games/Battle Royale/Thunderdome process of buying convention tickets for the 2015 New York Comic Con. I was one of the lucky 141,000 people who managed to secure tickets after sitting through hours of website crashes. Per the NYCC website, “When the ticket queue opened at noon, there were already more individuals ‘in line’ than there were VIP, 3-Day, 4-Day and Saturday tickets combined. This means that by 12:01 demand had already outstripped the supply of tickets.” Hundreds of thousands of fans were unable to buy tickets for this particular convention.
Between the stress of buying tickets and the hours spent standing in line to get into the convention of your choice, lies another rite of passage. Packing for your first (or twentieth) convention can be a trying experience, particularly if you plan to cosplay.
If you intend to dress up as your favorite supervillain (or hero), you will need to pack your costume and a solid repair kit. If you are entering a cosplay competition, the stakes are high. No-one wants to be the only Loki with an unlit staff of power!
I am traveling to the Steampunk World’s Fair this weekend. As I packed my corsets, brass goggles, rayguns and other paraphenelia, it occured to me that a cosplay packing list might be useful. I created a simple travel checklist for comic/sci-fi/steampunk convention goers. Here is the list in Excel format: Convention Packing Checklist 2015 Excel and .pdf format Convention Packing Checklist 2015 pdf.
Bon voyage!