UK PonyCon 2024 report, part four: Sunday, first half

AJ Ember proving an expert at stand up

I slept well on Saturday night – oh, the joys of not being in the city centre! – and decided to be slightly more leisurely in my preparations the next morning. I was going by Red Arrow again, so I was a little at the mercy of the relatively limited Sunday timetable, but there were no issues. The weather forecast had suggested it might rain at times this day, but for the moment it was dry, if rather cloudy and dull. This is always the risk when staying at my favoured Travelodge – short of a taxi, there's no covered way to get to the bus/rail stations.

Coming to Derby, I'd packed the small seapony rucksack I'd bought for not much in B&M years ago. It was an impulse decision to bring it, but it was so light it was easy to pack and so worth the flyer. I decided that I was going to use it as my main bag for Sunday, unlike on Saturday where I'd carried the old faithful Tesco MLP carrier that dated way back to the 2017 movie. The rucksack only had a few compartments, which was a point in its favour – bag checks take longer if you have 28 zipped pockets! It was just large enough for an A4 art folder and a bottle of water, which was really all I needed.¹

¹ Water is exempt from the "no outside food" rule, a good job as drinking water provision on-site is surprisingly limited for a uni building in 2024.

I thought I'd go to the Gooseberry Bush for breakfast this time, partly because it was basically on my route to the venue, partly because I've occasionally met other UK PonyCon-goers there, and partly because it's generally quiet on Sunday mornings. Unfortunately, things went slightly awry this time – I did spot a guy in a PrinceWhateverer hoodie, though someone I only barely knew by sight and didn't really feel able to chat to. I'd parked myself in a quiet corner, but within minutes a whole bunch of rather loud lads (as in laddishness) had appeared nearby. While they didn't actually bother me, it did slightly sour the atmosphere, so I moved out a little before I really wanted to.

A small part of the substantial stalls area

This did at least allow me to walk slowly to the venue rather than have a Rainbow need to Dash. No opening ceremony to make this time, after all! Having had no time to do so on Saturday, I was very much intending to do some shopping today. (Spoiler: I did.) I'd decided to skip karaoke, all the more so as I wasn't especially enthused by the addition of dance game Trotmania. I later heard from Stu that the singing was of the “sing as a small group” format too, which again isn't what I really prefer. I don't imagine I'll ignore karaoke for evermore, but I don't feel bad about doing so this time.

It was a choice between Year of the Dragon (a look at fantasy creatures in the MLP universe) and Britannia Master on the Mane Stage. Inertia took over and I stayed for the latter. This was based on the long-running British TV show Taskmaster, in which contestants – here Ashleigh Ball, AJ Bridel and two UKPC staffers – are set various weird and (sometimes) wonderful, well, tasks. A representative round was asking them to stand when they felt exactly 40 seconds had passed. AJ Staffer Ember got this almost perfect! There was laughter, there were feels, there were silly memes, you get the idea I'm sure.

And then it was time for a long-standing set piece of UKPC: the Charity Auction. If you've read Ghost Mike's report on this already, you'll know that the highlight was his Batannia plush reaching an astounding £1,350. Not having expected anything like this (who did?) Mike's face was quite a picture from a couple of seats away! Unsurprisingly, this proved to be the highest bid received for any single lot this time around – it's very rare for anything to reach four figures in a British Pony convention auction. It was certainly a big talking point this year.

This Scootachicken went for a mere £240

There were some eye-opening bids elsewhere, too. A set of the first nine IDW Friends Forever comics, in good condition but unsigned, went for something like £200 – I had to blink quite a lot at that, since I'm the proud owner of the entire 38-issue run. (And no, I'm not selling it!) However, for the first time in years I didn't stay to the end. The aircon was completely inadequate and I was melting, especially as the auction massively overran. This really is going to need to be looked at next year, despite how lucrative the auction is for the wonderful RDA. UKPC has perhaps outgrown the current auction format.

I went to the coffee vending machine in the basement (which unlike most in such venues wasn't overpriced!) and then sat around in the general areas for a bit, simply because it was cooler and a blessed relief. Every so often, someone else exited the auction hall, usually also because of incipient heatstroke. I also took this opportunity to finally have a good look around the stalls. Financial constraints meant I had to pass on quite a few nice things, but I was very pleased to have a brief chat with JowyB, one of my favourite Pony artists¹ and a very nice, affable guy to boot. I bought three of his A4 prints, as you'll see when I eventually reach the Merch Haul post.

¹ He's long since branched out into much other stuff, but this wasn't UK OtherStuffCon! ;)

This kind of multi-gen love is part of UKPC's appeal

I wasn't entirely sure what to do next, but eventually I decided to go to Nelson's panel on the World's Biggest Tea Party. Yes, the G3 live show. Oilyvalves was already there when I entered the room, and I spotted Juniper and a couple of others I knew as well. It turned out to be really interesting, not to mention superbly researched – this guy had it more accurate than the actual G3 wiki! Nelson also took the line that the sneering and laughter some bronies had directed towards the Tea Party was unfair: the show was aimed squarely at little girls, and reaction at the time from them (and parents) had been very positive. This panel did change my mind about the WBTP at least somewhat.

There was one sour note right at the end. As the Q&A was winding up, Oily and I got the sense that one guy was about to set off on a harangue regarding some personal bonnet-bee. This kind of thing isn't that uncommon and is normally only mildly irritating, but we didn't really want to hear it so we left smartly. Before long, though, we heard on the con grapevine (which doesn't hang around) that things had got more serious, involving inappropriate and even racist comments from this person, and that both con and venue staff had had to make a strong intervention. I really hope Nelson isn't put off by this from presenting more panels in the future, since he was very good at it and I'd certainly consider attending.

I did think quite carefully about whether to mention this, especially as it's a slight downer to have it at the end of a post – but in the end this is a report, not an advert. By all accounts it was handled swiftly, anyway. While I don't think there was any reason for the staff to mention the unpleasantness at the convention itself (they didn't), I don't feel I need to ignore it entirely here. As it happens the subject of when and where to mention serious/problematic things in our fandom has been on my mind since just before the con, for reasons I won't go into, and I plan a more general post on that topic before too long. Not just yet, though, as there's still more fun UK PonyCon stuff to write about!

Next time: Sunday part two, featuring colourful storytelling, Rainbow Road... and bright yellow custard. Yes, at last!