‘Cus it’s only a one day convention, gonna stick on the Aquarium visit and other bits and bobs here too :3c
Day -1, Friday, 13th of October
Spooooooooooooooooooooooooooky~ 👻
This was mostly a travel day so it wasn’t too exciting. My journal notes start “Train travel to Bristol wheeeeeeeeeeeee”, and I know the “whee” is sarcastic ‘cus being tall and on a train doesn’t mix.
The most eventful part of the day was Google Maps making me do weird routes while we blindly followed it from Bristol Temple Medes (BRI) station to the hotel. Oh well more walking is I guess but y’know I am VERY nervous walking around with a load of luggage in a busy city centre that I don’t know, even if I’m with my partner 🙃
Checked in, on the 9th floor woo, come back down and there’s just this giant group checking in that we barely get past and grabbed a normal dinner of KFC (where I somehow lost my keycard, a first for me tbh) and observe that Bristol’s city centre Lidl has self-service but is somehow more hectic and busy than the one I live near. That was fun.
Pop back to the hotel (with a replacement keycard obtained) and sit in the bar for drinks, which after having a drink a group of 19 comes in to be sat down. Like normally this isn’t something I’d call attention to in something like this, but that is insane (remember this for later)???? Anyway, drinks had, off to bed.
Day 1, Saturday, 14th of October
Sonic Fan Fest time! But first we go to Costa where someone takes my drink, asking if anyone is named H, and before we can get to them “the H probably stands for Hazelnut” they disappeared. Now you’d think that would just be someone stealing a free drink, but after waiting an extra 5 minutes a take out large latte is served up and… no-one takes it. So not only did this guy take the wrong drink he actually got a smaller drink as a result. Well done guy :B
ANYWAY we get to the sanicpeeps and shove ourselves in a corner with Flux and Regdeh, and also finally getting to meat Splat! AAAAA 😀 We’ve chatted for like, years, but even if brief it was great to see them finally! It was also wild to be in a con so small again, the last time would have been the 2014 Sonic the Comic Con, where we all managed to fit in the Great Hall of the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall in York (which was a weird but classy setting for a comic con lol).
Imagine some photo of a room of fans here, I don’t want to post it as I don’t wanna potentially post peeps faces! Unlike a furry con where you’re mostly gonna get pics of a cute animal head, there’s not really any (other than cosplays) here. Also the main event was available for parents to bring kids which makes me feel more uncomfortable to post!
Made sure to hit up merch and collect ALL THE BUSINESS CARDS too. Honestly I’d have loved to have picked up more but I was so conscious of space but know that everyone there I was genuinely enamoured with at least one thing on your stall! But we got a few things at least!
Top left: KaozHedgehog/Stephen Sharpe. Top Right: Cloctor
Bottom: A chunk of business cards/fliers for SaiyanHajime, Mushroom Forest Elf, Mrechoangle, MechatheTecha and MLTYComics
In the corner we sat ourselves in though it meant we were sat with the artists. This isn’t a surprise for me though, it was a complaint of mine for CFz2023, I love that kind of environment were people are just doodling or doing detailed pics in a space. Even if I can’t pump out multiple sketches in an environment, just getting to watch other people is just aaaaaaa, lovely. And I DID do a piece! It looks better in photo than scanning but that’s just hashtag traditional art problems
This is the first time I’ve done this level of traditional art in years lol. Anyway Super Sonic in Fleetway was best working in a café for a cat alongside a sheepdog called Pyjamas. My fantastic and amazing partner did some rad as heck art ‘cus they’re great.
Anyway that aside spent the rest of the day chilling as well as meeting TJ Davis and getting her autograph (and a photo! Yay memories!) before eventually getting to the end of the event and her performance. And remembering how like when I was at Summer of Sonic 2016 the raw energy of a group of fans singing along to songs ‘cus the music is always a bop.
Given she admitted in her Q&A that this is probably the first time she has visited these songs since her performance at Summer of Sonic 2008 damn she still sounds fantastic! Also she’s really nice???? Bonus!
At this point the event is over and we enter THE AFTER PARTY, but after dinner (Guys of Five). Actually a quick aside I very briefly managed to catch and meet Bluejay! And much like Splat it was entirely too short D:! Was hoping to catch both of them again at the afterparty but ah well hopefully we’ll catch up again another time!
Anyway to THE AFTER PARTY. First there was A QUIZ and I remembered robotnikinin (it’s a protein thing) but not how it was pronounced, thanks Flux for having that spark after I said it and they went “yeah but how is it pronounced?”. Hell yeah I got a question right on the the insane quiz. Around this point was also where I managed to meet BenCG in person! Another fact to name 😀
Then it was karaoke! You thought it was loud with TJ? Time for even louder as we all sing along and some idiot (me) decided to destroy their voice doing metal growls during Find Your Flame and a few other tracks where our group did it for giggles. Undefeatable was the final track and also where I lost my voice after it and was at least two octaves deeper for 12 to 20 hours :’D
And then we crash back to the hotel. For a larger event this is where I’d be like “HERE’S SOME THOUGHTS” but honestly the only thing I’d say is that the Audio tech was perhaps a little off, as there was quite a few speaker peaks causing crackling audio. Other than that, fantastic work, well done Pete/TitansCreed as emcee, and most of all thank you so much to the event staff!
Day +1, Sunday, 15th of October
We get to have a lie in! Unintentionally ¦D … anyway we get ready and grab a coffee and NOT have it incorrectly taken and we go off on an ADVENTURE to Bristol Harbourside and visit Bristol Aquarium. With the original plan to have food first but we arrived at 14:30 and they don’t admit people one hour before close, at 16:00, so 15:00! I guess it’s time to see aquatic animals first!
We saw my favourite marine animals first 🙂
Joking aside, it was part of the tropical area and detailing Jurassic aquatic environments! Continuing through we got to see their giant grouper, Sheila, get fed and holy moly they’re big.
Also this is your reminder of how puppy sharks are.
And then the rest of the visit I was just enamoured by honeycomb moray eels before we got to see them feed Octavia the Octopus. Who promptly didn’t want to be seen other than stick out a few arms for a handshake.
Afterwards we went to Revolución de Cuba, to grab some enchiladas and a “Hot in Havana” cocktail.
Now to adventure in the opposite direction to hit up Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf which was a fun little diversion before finally crashing out to the hotel with a boozy coffee, and packing, and getting ready to go.
GOOD WEEKEND glad we did it C: