As it has done pretty much every year since first being held at the Sydney Showground in 2002, Supanova: Pop Culture Expo has once again begun its annual tour of Australia. 2015 will see six weekend shows being held in six major cities across Australia: Melbourne, Gold Coast, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. Tied with Adelaide which also began in 2012, the Gold Coast leg of this expo is one of the newest currently on offer, and is the only one not held in a capital city of Australia. Despite this, it still draws a fantastic number of people to it each year.
Descending upon the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre for the fourth year now were cosplayers of all ages – representing characters from anime, manga, video games and the numerous and varied pop culture franchises which are welcomed at the event. From the kids clearly enjoying their first opportunity to dress-up at a convention to the seasoned cosplay veterans who evidently spent weeks if not months labouring over their latest design; it was clear that most were enjoying the opportunity to meet up with friends under a different guise/persona. Once you include the larger audience of those rocking up in regular clothes, ready to do some shopping, catch up with friends or enjoy the various guests on offer – the venue was clearly buzzing with traffic, excitement and the unavoidable bit of chaos that comes with such a large crowd.
Unfortunately I didn’t get much of an opportunity to sample everything on offer at this year’s Supanova: Pop Culture Expo on the Gold Coast, due to my current academic commitments and ongoing coverage of the annual Gold Coast Film Festival at The Arts Centre Gold Coast. While I did not have an opportunity to attend many of their panels, it is clear that Supanova: Pop Culture Expo was aiming for a star-studded cast this time around. Perhaps the most prolific guests on their list were Christopher Lloyd (Emmett “Doc” Brown – Back to the Future) and George Takei (Mr. Sulu – Star Trek), complemented by a significant line-up of guests including but in no way limited to Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura – Star Trek), Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov – Star Trek), Kevin McNally (Joshamee Gibbs – Pirates of the Caribbean) and Martin Klebba (Marty – Pirates of the Caribbean) among many, many others. Pricing for autographs and photographs did vary considerably between guests, but this is no different from any other Supanova event.
Anime fans also had a nice selection of guests to meet and get autographs from. At the Madman Entertainment booth was Jessica Dicicco (Adventure Time, Final Fantasy XIII, Psychonauts) and Todd Haberkorn (Who doesn’t really need an introduction), with reasonably priced prints/autographs. Similar to the approach taken by Veronica Taylor and Eric Stuart in 2014, most other anime guests had stalls in the Artist Alley. The guests taking the artist alley approach were Robbie Daymond (Sailor Moon), Ellyn Stern (Ghost in the Shell 2, Gundam Unicorn) and Richard Epcar (Kingdom Hearts, Batman). As the artist alley tended to get packed very quickly, it wouldn’t surprise me if some waiting for autographs from these guests felt squished. That being said, I personally had no issues with space late-afternoon when having a chat and grabbing the autograph of Richard Epcar. I can imagine late-morning to early-afternoon being more chaotic. Hanabee Entertainment’s booth also played host to Arryn Zech and Barbara Dunkelman, giving fans the usual opportunity to interact with some of the lively personalities of Rooster Teeth.
With five event venues running across both Saturday and Sunday events (AnimeLab Theatre, Cosplay Theatre, Supanova Seminars, FILM INK Features Theatre and Imagineer’s Playground) and each running with an almost packed schedule from 10:30AM until at least 5:00PM, there was no shortage of events to attend. Unfortunately as there are not five of me to attend every session across both days, I don’t want to vouch for the quality of these sessions. However, when I snuck into the Anime Theatre to quickly catch the “AnimeLab Surprise Premiere” at 2PM on Saturday, I found there was not a seat to be found. Therefore, with some venues being quite small, there is a real risk that some may have missed out.
This leads into an issue which I have personally found grows slightly each year. While the growing community is fantastic for both the Gold Coast and Supanova in general; walking around the vendors floor felt more cramped than previous years. I am not sure the exact layout of the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, but it really needs a bit more room to expand in terms of floor space. When you throw people in large costumes, places to eat, queues mid-hall for autographs and people who end up stopping the flow of traffic for photographs or chats into the mix; it tended to feel squishy during peak times. I genuinely felt sorry for anyone hoping to navigate the venue in a wheelchair or other mobility device.
But aside from the general squishiness of the venue at times, Supanova: Pop Culture Expo 2015 Gold Coast was a fairly well run event. They even made it so attendees with tickets didn’t have to line-up outside in the heat when waiting for entry into the hall – a significant plus compared to earlier years. But, whether you were there to meet up with friends, greet your favourite guest or just wished to leave a giant hole in your wallet – there were opportunities to enjoy each of these.
