Whew, it's been a little while since I've written one of these, but good day all you lovely site folks! Octavia here to once again bring you a little retrospective on a convention I recently had the privilege to attend for the first time. That convention being Whinny City Pony Con which took place in Schaumburg, IL from March 31st to April 2nd.
Head on down below the break for my thoughts and recap of it!
As a side note to those using older computers or phones, or with slower internet connections, this post does include a lot of images (30+) so it may take a little time to load. And I apologize in advance for the terrible quality of the pictures.
Friday:
This was the cute promotional video played during the Opening Ceremonies.
A picture of all the Guests of Honor and Community Guests on stage.
Upon the conclusion of the Opening Ceremonies and a good fun start to the weekend, I wandered around and chatted randomly with folks for a little while.
Before wandering into the next panel, I believe this is when I decided to try on my new Pinkie Pie suit for the first time. If you happened to see her wandering around that weekend, that was me.
Gabriel is making a pretty good face in this one.
My next panel was the Bronies React panel. I will admit I've only watched a little bit of the series, but they are certainly quite funny and entertaining and I've enjoyed the videos of theirs I have watched. Keep being awesome, guys.
Plus I captured this image right here. OTP? OTP.
The next event that piqued my interest was the Friday Guests of Honor panel. I typically try and attend as many of these as I can, as you will see later on in this retrospective. They're always rather fun and really informative. You learn more about the aspects of voice acting and more about what the voice actors have been apart of, who else they've worked with, and some of their experiences in the field. If you're curious about voice acting or have questions for the voice actors, these are definitely good panels to attend.
Guests of Honor this year included Cathy Weseluck, Rebecca Shoichet, Ian Corlett, Claire Corlett, Lee Tockar, G.M. Berrow, Tony Fleecs, and Gabriel Brown (Black Gryph0n).
After the Guest of Honor panel I merely wandered around checking out various panels, browsing the vendor's hall looking at things I couldn't afford, and chatting randomly with folks while just chilling.
The next panel I recall fully attending that evening was ToonKriticY2K's "Ow the Edge: An Hour with ToonKriticY2K". Really cool and entertaining guy. I certainly recommend his panels.
Later that night I attended a couple other panels such as "Katt, Foal, and Chill" which was hosted by DustyKatt and Foal Papers where they spoke about their experiences at conventions and gave out some good convention wisdom and tips, and "Fanfic Gone Wild" which was a panel where they read through and reenacted out bad fanfics. It was an incredibly entertaining and fun panel with folks from the audience acting out scenes from the fics.
Saturday:
I ended up unfortunately missing some early panels I wanted to attend on Saturday morning such as the "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and possibly the "Toys to Life: Pony Fursuit Building 101" panels. But I decided I needed the extra sleep more. It's difficult to enjoy a convention if you don't get proper sleep.
So with that the Saturday Guest of Honor panel was my first of the day. As always, it was a rather entertaining panel.
Here we have G.M. Berrow facing off against Ian Corlett in the Switch game Quick Draw!
They had some of the guests of honor face off against each in some Nintendo Switch games such as Quick Draw, Cow Milking, and Wizard dueling. Needless to say, it was certainly an interesting time.
Here's Rebecca Shoichet tossing a Sunset Shimmer plushie back into the crowd. The lucky person to catch it got to face off against her in a game of Wizard dueling. She ended up winning the Wizard dueling match.
After the Guest of Honor panel I had to go put on my Pinkie Pie fursuit for the Cosplay Contest. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the contest since I was in it. If anyone has any pictures of the contest, feel free to link them. I'd to see them!
After the Cosplay Contest concluded I wandered around for a while in suit until it was time for the concert. Being a music lover, the convention dances and concerts are another event I nearly always attend.
A lot of awesome musicians were present, such as Garnika, D.Notive, Vocal Score, Steel Chords, DJ GeekBrony, Forest Rain, DJ Rod, Seventh Element, Technickel Pony, The Shake Ups in Ponyville, and Black Gryph0n. I was a little disheartened in myself for wandering away and completely forgetting to return in time to catch Black Gryph0n's performance. But still glad I got to see so many other great musicians perform.
After having spent some time at the concert, I decided to check out some of the panels that were taking place at the same time. I noticed there was a Lip Sync Battles panel starting and decided to check it out. I find these types of panels to generally be a lot of fun. This panel was hosted by The Colt of Personality, ToonKriticY2K, with some special appearances by Josh Scorcher (I'm sorry I didn't get a pic of one of your performances, Josh, they were both hilarious and awesome),...
And everyone's favorite Sunset Shimmer; DustyKatt!
I was very glad I decided to attend the Lip Sync Battles panel. It ended up being one of the highlights of the convention for me.
After leaving the Lip Sync Battles panel, my options were to either go back to the concert, or check out the Nostalgia with WeimTime panel. I decided on the second choice, because I'm old and like nostalgia and because WeimTime is one awesome dude. I unfortunately forgot to take any pictures of this panel, but it was a lot of fun as well. We all discussed the old days of the fandom. Old videos, animations, music, and what the first Brony video or animation we ever watched was, etc. Much nostalgia was had for sure.
Unfortunately, during that panel one of the convention organizers stepped into the room and gave us some rather unsettling news. Someone had made a threat against the convention and they were evacuating and shutting down all convention spaces for the night as a precaution to keep everyone safe. We briefly covered the incident as it occurred over here.
I'd like to take a moment to thank the convention and all it's hard-working staff for handling everything professionally and keeping everyone's safety in mind. Your efforts are very much appreciated.
Sunday:
And that brings us to Sunday, the last day of the convention. I always feel a little bummed on Sunday, as I know the convention is nearing it's completion. None-the-less, I aim to enjoy it like I would any other day at the convention!
As with Saturday, the first thing I attended was the Sunday Guest of Honor panel.
After the Sunday Guest of Honor panel there was a short downtime before the next panel that interested me. So I went and slipped back into my Pinkie suit before wandering into the How to YouTube panel, hosted by ACRacebest, Saberspark, and PaleoSteno. In this panel the trio basically discussed some of the in's and out's of having a YouTube channel and tips on helping it grow into a success. Very informative panel for those looking to start a YouTube channel or improve their existing one.
Upon the conclusion of the How to YouTube panel, I wandered around aimlessly for a short while as I figured out what I wanted to do next. It looked like a nice day out and I noticed there was a meetup taking place in the courtyard, so I decided to step out for a few and get some fresh air. The meetup that was taking place happened to be the Musician's Meetup. I didn't really do much mingling if I'm honest. I was simply hanging out enjoying the nice weather. But it looked like folks were having a good time. I think some folks were curious as to why there was a giant Pinkie Pie just hanging out. But hey, Pinkie is quite the musician herself! After-all, how many other horses can play this many instruments at once?
Next up on my itinerary was the Industry Vs. Fandom Production panel, hosted by Ian & Claire Corlett and ILoveKimPossibleAlot. This panel discussed the differences between producing content for the fandom versus producing content professionally. Also a rather helpful and informative panel for content producers.
I stuck around for the next panel, which is always one of my favorite events at any convention; the Charity Auction! It's always fun to see what sort of items come up for auction and it's always heartwarming to see so much money raised for great charities.
The charity for this year was Extra Life. All together $5300 USD was raised for this charity. Congratulations!
There were many wonderful items up for auction, such as the Mane Hall banner above, which was signed by all the Guests of Honor,...
A set of custom hats and plushies all signed by the Guests of Honor,
(When you realize you're the belle of the ball)
This awesome set of etched glasses that Rebecca Shoichet herself was bidding on,
And Rebecca even auctioned off the chance for some lucky person to be serenaded by her right there on stage. This is her and the lucky winner. She sang beautifully.
One of the more silly items, this soda can signed by comic artist Tony Fleecs.
And oh so many other wonderful items.
But the absolute best auction item and best moment of the auction, at least in my opinion, had to be when Ian Corlett would have his beard shaven off for charity. They raised an impressive $480 USD doing this, which is phenomenal.
That moment when you realize what's about to happen.
If you're still curious and want to see a video of it, Claire took a video of the whole fun escapade and put it up on her YouTube channel which can be found here, along with the rest of her own Whinny City vlog experience.
The charity auction was a resounding success and with that at it's conclusion, there was only one more panel left before the convention wrapped up...
The Closing Ceremonies of course. Just as I always try and attend the Opening Ceremonies as it's the official kickoff to the start of a convention, I also always try and attend the Closing Ceremonies as well as they are the official conclusion to a convention.
As always, there were many happy and heartfelt moments to be had. Many thanks were given out and everyone reminiscing about the incredible weekend they enjoyed at the convention.
And because I love all the awesome signs and banners conventions put up all over, here's most of them down below:
All-in-all the convention was a great success and I had a lot of fun. My plans are to attend next year as well. Hope to see some of you there again next year!
