MAGFest 2018 Recap

Time for the recap of my favorite convention of the year! This is my fourth MAGFest, my second year volunteering, and my first year as staff. It’s a party convention with board games, video games and friends, and I prepared appropriately.

I spent the first day and a half of MAGFest volunteering! MAGFest is one of the few conventions that dotes on their volunteers, offering free food, free swag, free badges, and even a free hotel room in exchange for a few hours of convention time. You get to choose your own schedule, including where, when, and how much you work! This year, I did most of my volunteering on Wednesday and Thursday, folding shirts and handing out badges to the incoming attendees.

Also, the staff badges were donuts this year and it was the BEST THING EVER.

Being shot (by photographers)!

I don’t usually cosplay much at MAGFest! This year I only did two photoshoots in costume.

The first was a Hannah Alexander Avatar group with Gabby and Tori, photographed by Alexandra Lee Studios.

Honestly, this was a bit of a crapshoot (haha, get it?). It took me twice as long as expected to get into costume, crystals fell off the dress, my headdress broke… I felt pretty cursed by the end of it. As for the shoot itself, we went out to the river in the 15 degree weather with 20 mph winds, huddled for warmth, and ran back inside as fast as we could to warm up!

Alex tells me that the photos are worth it, though. I hope you're as excited as me to see them!

The second shoot was Suvi on Sunday with Dancing Squirrel Photography! We’ve both wanted to shoot this costume together for a while, and the Gaylord looks like the perfect Nexus backdrop! 

I was... weirdly energetic as Suvi. The Art Nouveau shoot stretched me to my breaking point after an already long day, but being Suvi had me leaving the convention energetic and happy.

Although, it's hard to be sad when I'm dressed as my favorite super geeky scientist <3

Shooting Cosplayers (with a camera)!

I also played photographer this year at MAGFest! Here are some of the incredibly talented people I got to photograph!

(Hover for their names!)

Jewel Maiden Cosplay

Rifle and Silk Cosplay

Fräulen Ninja Cosplay

Philly Cosplay

Feytaline

Ghoulish Gals Cosplay

TidalZora Cosplay

Tenth Moon Cosplay

Highlights (no hidden pictures here tho)

MAGFest is always full of concerts, parties, panels, and workshops. Here are some of my favorites I got to experience!

Triforce Quartet

A standard four-person quartet local to the DC area, they perform at several conventions and shows a year. It’s always a treat to attend their concerts! This year, they weren’t officially on the schedule, but they still gave an unofficial performance at the Gazebo that filled up almost the entire floor!

Starship Simulator

A starship simulator game is a real-time multiplayer game where you and 4-5 other people are flying a starship. You each have your own positions & consoles with different information, and you have to work together to complete a mission. Basically, a Star Trek simulator! Normally the reservations close up early in the day — but after closing time (midnight), they provide pizza and drinks and special playing time exclusively for staff members.

It was incredibly challenging and incredibly fun! We didn’t survive a single mission, but we still had some great team bonding time :3

Wizard Party

The idea of the "wizard party" was show up in a wizard costume and try to break the world record of “wizards” gathered in a single place at a single time! About a month before MAGFest, the event went viral on Facebook with a few thousand “interested” attendees. The party was so full that they actually ran out of tickets with which to count wizards! I believe the official final count was around 650 wizards, utterly obliterating the previous record of 200-ish.

I made an AVPM Voldemort costume to wear to the party. Everyone loved it, and I even met a Quirrell!

Super Soul Bros

I spent most of Saturday night in the Jamspace with Super Soul Bros, and they have a new fan in me. They do video game music in the style of big band jazz! I danced so hard that I had to go outside in the 10 F weather to cool down.

See you next year!

Before I sign off, I just want to highlight a few amazing memories that I made this con:

• Talking to the professional astronomers setting up for the American Astronomical Society meeting on Sunday while dressed as Suvi Anwar (an astrophysicist/geologist/biologist from Mass Effect: Andromeda)
• Running through the halls with finger guns at 3AM on Sunday morning
• Apparently missing the huge order of chicken nuggets that made it to the Gazebo at 5AM?
• Actual, functional BB-8 checking in Thursday night
• Some guy giving me a random "Lord of the Dance" DVD (???)
• Meeting the composer of Minecraft
• Alexandra Lee Studios walking up behind me and whispering "you smell different when you're awake" in my ear
• Dancing around in Shrek masks like crazy people

MAGFest is such a fun convention with its own unique culture and feel unlike any other. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend you make the trip!