BUCKHANNON – A unique event set to be held this Saturday at the Stockert Youth and Community Center will offer the community the chance to partake in a day of cosplay, trivia and performances.
BuckhanaCon is a local convention open to all fandoms that started in 2019. At cosplay conventions, participants often wear costumes representing characters from movies, television, video games and other forms of media. They’re a celebration of pop culture.
“We are calling it BuckhanaCon New Beginnings, because we are back in human form, so it’ll be our second big one,” organizer Catherine Jessi Adair Fultz told My Buckhannon. “We are very grateful to be back in person — we were virtual the last two years, and while we did have a lot of fun, we are very excited to be back in person.”
The event will take place on Saturday, June 11 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at SYCC. Tickets for ages three and under are free, ages four to twelve are $5 and ages 13 and up are $10. Preorder by clicking here or purchase at the door.
“It all started with my niece’s birthday party, because I threw her a mini-con for her birthday,” Fultz said. “That was our first one. I had a bunch of people ask me if I was going to host another one, and I told everyone if we managed to get 30 people who were not involved with the birthday party to want to participate, I would try and host another one. We had 102 reply, so the demand was there, and we went for it. The first BuckhannaCon had over 350 people.”
The pandemic stopped them from having the event in person again until this year, but they developed a growing following on their Facebook group.
“We have been virtual the last two years and our group is up to about 700 members online, so we are excited to see who comes out this year,” Fultz said. “I know quite a few people who have seen me out in town who have told me that they were at the first one and they are excited to be back, so that’s exciting. I enjoy meeting people who have come to the last one.”
Fultz said she is particularly looking forward to the BuckhanaQuest, an activity that will last for the entire con. It will be structured to work like a fetch quest from a video game, or an elaborate scavenger hunt.
“I am crazy excited about the BuckhanaQuest,” Fultz said. “It is not on the schedule, because it is an all-day event where you can partake in that anytime. Then the Floor is Lava should be a lot of fun, and I am excited for the cosplay contest.”
This year’s BuckhanaCon raffle is raising money to help victims of domestic violence, and Captain Jack Sparrow will be on hand taking pictures, also raising money for victims of domestic violence.
“Captain Jack is amazing, and he will be there doing a fundraiser to raise money for victims of domestic violence, so you can go and get your professional portraits taken with Captain Jack and all donations from that go straight to victims of domestic violence,” Fultz said. “We do a donation every year from our raffles, so all our raffle earnings every year ago to a new charity or function, and this year we also chose domestic violence.”
The full BuckhanaCon schedule:
- 11 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. Opening announcements
- 11:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Working with EVA, tips and tricks with Dream to Life Cosplay
- Noon to 1 p.m. Cosplay Lip Sync Battle
- 1:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Floor is Lava competition
- 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Photo Op with Captain Jack Sparrow
- 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Fire Performance with Out of Ashes
- 2:35 p.m. Raffles
- 2:35 p.m. to 3:35 p.m. Cosplay Contest
- 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Supernatural trivia with Stacey Earls
- 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Photo op with Captain Jack Sparrow
- 4:45 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. Slime Lab with Ghostbuster Jack Earls
- 5:30 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. Saber Demonstration with Centauri Prime
- 6 p.m. Closing Announcements
