fest | Sub Cultured

Sunday, March 25th wrapped up the Colorado Anime Fest in Denver. Sub Cultured was there all weekend, taking in the amazing cosplay, interacting with the incredible staff, and partying the only way nerds know how to! It was a successful weekend for staff and attendees alike as over 2,950 anime lovers came to the Renaissance Denver Stapleton Hotel, so read on to find our breakdown of the event!

Friday kicked off with an opening ceremony, where One World Taiko played some traditional Japanese drums as well as more contemporary Taiko songs that were belted out to much amusement. Kieran Strange, the event host, broke down the weekend’s events and introduced all of the guests. After leaving the Main Hall, I felt very prepared for what the weekend had in store. The AMV contest took place Friday evening, and it is always great to see how creative the contenders are!

As is the norm with most conventions, Saturday was the busiest day by far, with the cream of the crop in panels and activities taking place all day. One stand out panel was by the Alamo Drafthouse, as they discussed the mainstream acceptance of anime and the influence eastern culture has on Hollywood. It was a very engaging discussion where the whole room was involved. The moderators really knew their stuff and shined a lot of light on the topic at hand. You will find this top tier quality in any of the panel rooms you will find yourself walking into, and their is a fit for everyone as there were plenty of diverse topics. You’d be hard pressed not to find a topic that interested you!

The arcade was filled with amazing games that you can only find at conventions, or across the seas… and of course some DDR and Pump It Up cabinets. It was always busy inside, which made the atmosphere feel like a real arcade. People were kind with their time, and moved on and didn’t linger on the machines for too long, which is easy to do because all games were free! We were able to fully complete House of the Dead, a feat I have not accomplished since my early teenage years. Consoles were on the ready for people who wanted to play Super Smash Bros, as well as plenty of other rhythm based games like Taiko: Drum Master.

Cuban Pete from The Mask

There is a certain magical element to a convention. While not special to any one con, but alive in all of them, you will find the stars aligning on a lot of fun moments, These are unplanned, random happenings that just fall into place and create much entertainment. The lobby of the hotel here at Colorado Anime Fest becomes a nexus of interactions and impromptu shows. Only at a convention will you find somebody dressed as Cuban Pete from Jim Carrey’s The Mask, only to have a completely random person have the actual song, “Cuban Pete,” on their device, as well as have a portable and loud speaker so the entire lobby can enjoy a one for one dance scene of the Cuban Pete conga. That’s the magic of a convention.

The cosplay contest took place Saturday, and saying that it was filled with amazing costumes is an understatement. From beginners to professionals, the audience got to see the whole spectrum of cosplay. We were so happy to sit up front where we could really get a good look at the craftsmanship. I am not much of a cosplayer myself, (I buy my costumes because I am not creative in that way), but boy, I would be lying to you all if I said I was not inspired more than once by these amazing contenders. Seeing a great, handmade cosplay is truly humbling!

The Saturday evening rave stretched into the wee hours of the night, and the artists played a variety of bleep bloops and synthy tech tunes, some of which were steeping in nerdom. Hearing the Jurassic Park theme blaring over loud speakers really had the room cheering. As with all good things, the rave had to end, but that did not mean that the fun had to. The staff at the Renaissance were very nice and allowed convention attendees to keep the part going outside of offical convention programming. No security guards requested people to move along from the lobby in the wee hours of the night, and no hallway edition games of Cards Against Humanity were disturbed. The relaxed atmosphere allowed attendees to spread out on the floor and just allowed the space to be ours, which was very refreshing.

There’s no getting around it, Sunday is the day of the dead at conventions. Attendees everywhere are running on fumes, broke from the spending at their favorite vendor booths, sleep deprived, and possibly hungover. A bittersweetness engulfs the final moments of the con. We’re all sad it is ending, but at the same time, we are all longing to sleep in our own beds.

Plenty was still going on panel wise on Sunday, and the floors were full until the later afternoon with most of the floor still rocking their costumes and nerd apparel. By the end of the event, Colorado Anime Fest had helped raise over $9000 dollars for a charity group called Youth On Record! One World Taiko preformed the closing ceremony, just as they opened it, and we were all sadly relinquished from our fun-filled weekend.

Colorado Anime Fest continues to grow in size and it seems they will be at a new venue next year, moving to the Denver Tech Center Marriot on April 19th – 21st, 2019! If anime conventions are your thing, and you are a Denver local or close to the surrounding areas/states, then you should absolutely check it out. ‬While not as big as some of the southern cons like A-Kon, it is also not as crazy and chaotic. Everything felt in control, and manageable, all without sacrificing any of the fun. The staff working the con really did a great job, and there are faces that I cannot wait to see again next year!

Want to see more from our time at Colorado Anime Fest? Head over to our Facebook page to find tons of photos from the weekend, and be sure to tag yourself and your friends! Sub Cultured will be there for sure next year and we hope to see a bunch of you there as well! Want to know where we’re headed next? Check out our Convention Schedule or follow us on Twitter! We continuously update with what conventions we’re covering, panels that we plan to do, and guests we are going to interview!