Over the summer, Supercon visited Raleigh, North Carolina. Supercon is a three day event where fans escape from reality by dressing up as some of their favorite characters and seeing their favorite celebrities. Featured at Supercon were events such as tabletop gaming, cosplay competitions and celebrity panels.
“I had friends who would go Supercon in middle school. It was the only time they would hang out after school,” said Kyla Norris, junior.
Norris is not the only person Supercon has impacted.
“I had some students who were gonna do cosplay. That was a few years ago.” Michael Wood, math teacher.
Although these events can bring people together, they can also be costly with a four day VIP pass which cost attendants 265 dollars. Although the lowest ticket price is 40 dollars, that is only for one day and does not include pictures with celebrities or other events participants might want to attend. People attending these events also tend to buy costumes or in some cases make their own. While some use only what is in their closet to cosplay as certain characters, some spend up to hundreds of dollars perfecting their costumes for this event.
Norris said if she were to attend Supercon she would want to cosplay.
“If I were to go to Supercon I would want to dress up. I’d probably want to go as someone from ‘Supernatural’ or maybe ‘Deadpool,’” said Norris.
This year celebrity guest such as Dave Bautista, Henry Winkler, Rey Mysterio and Tom Kenny attended the event along with many other guest. Celebrities are what drive participants to attend, letting fans meet their favorite movie stars and see them talk about their experiences with their favorite shows or movies.
This year “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” stars Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn and Pom Klementieff were supposed to host a panel, but had to cancel due to speculations with former “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” director James Gunn. Fans were left disconcerted with little explanation as to why the panel was canceled.
Celebrities are very important to Supercon fans. Michael Wood, math teacher said he would like to meet “LeVar Burton, he was on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow.”
Supercon returns to Raleigh in July 2019. Some guest are already announced such as Lisa Corrao, a stand up comedian and actress and Jose Delbo an artist who worked on comics such as Wonder Woman, The Transformers and Thundercats. Next July may seem far away, but Supercon won’t be gone for long.
Wood stated that events like Supercon help to bring people together who might feel uncomfortable sharing their interest to others who do not find these events interesting.
“I feel like a lot of people feel like they’re the only ones who like certain things and to just see a bunch of other people do the same thing makes anyone feel good,” Wood said.
