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| UK PonyCon personnel, somehow still upright after today |
After returning from the Dragonlands, it turned out I'd missed nearly all the cosplay competition on the Mane Stage. That was slightly disappointing, although in truth I'm not quite as into that aspect of the fandom as many people are. I wouldn't be able to tell you who won what, for the most part. I did a bit more stalls shopping, though by now I'd mostly finished getting the few things I wanted. I also popped back to the freebies table to leave a few more things – though annoyingly not the blind bags that I discovered I'd left at the hotel – and pick up a couple more of the Kayou cards for others.
Next up was the Charity Auction. This is always a big deal at UK PonyCon, and it always seems to feature tension between wanting lots of... well, lots to raise money for the RDA and the thing overrunning, people overheating, or quite often both. To most of our surprise, the lot count this year turned out to be over 100, which it hadn't looked like a few hours earlier. I at first decided to stick it out, but as I was standing and squashed on the edge of the room I threw the towel in after a while. A shame, but I don't really regret it as I had very little cash left anyway.
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| A few of these are Worcester in-jokes, but you should get the idea! |
The combination of all these extra lots and the compressed Sunday schedule did have one particularly sad consequence. Ghost Mike had worked very hard on his Pony Kart game and had achieved a high enough ranking to appear on the Mane Stage final at the end of the afternoon. But it soon became obvious that there just wasn't going to be time for everything, and Pony Kart was what had to give. Mike was impressively philosophical about it, and I'm sure he'll get another chance in the future, but when a friend works hard and through nobody's fault is denied the chance of Mane Stage glory, that's tough.
I hadn't done a lot of formal events on this day, and the one panel I had been to (the morning Fluttershy one) hadn't really happened. Still, Sundays at UKPC are usually more laid-back – and even though that wasn't the case for the staff this time round, it was still mostly the case for many of us. So I spent a while in the breakout room with friends, just chatting and trying desperately to fill my bingo card – not an official con thing, but one made up for our Worcester group by Hawthorn. I was truly thrilled to finish mine when Cozy obligingly asked me whether Tales was G1 or G2!
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| Fortunately our venue wasn't quite as small as it looks here |
The closing ceremony was upon us now, and so we all trooped back to the main room and squeezed in as best we could. Because I'd taken a while to get there I had to stand up yet again – I didn't especially mind, but I don't think I've ever stood up more at a convention, which shows you just how maxed out the venue was. The ceremony itself was the usual mixture of thanks and photos, with perhaps the most memorable moment being Imalou's praise of the convention's diversity and inclusivity, including a wish to return at some point. We'd love to have you back, Imalou! Rebecca too, of course.
And with that, the official portion of UK PonyCon 2025 came to a close. There were a few nice leftovers to pick up in the entrance hall, such as unsigned versions of the Sunset Shimmer print Rebecca Shoichet had used for her autograph sessions, and I picked up a spare con book for Eliki. Then it was out into the street. In Nottingham the Worcester folks had often used this opportunity to take a group photo, but there was much less room here and so we ended up passing on that until later on.
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| This is my hotel bathroom, not the one at the Dragon! |
After my lunchtime visit, we were fairly confident we could find room at the (Dragon) Inn, and so it proved. I think our group ended up numbering about fourteen, and so there was a good deal of moving tables around. Fortunately, Wetherspoons is unfazed by this kind of thing! We did take a group photo there, but that's not something I'll put in this public record. What I will note is that I ordered chocolate cake and then found it had sold out. Why am I not surprised that it was Ace who got the last one? ;) Fortunately I was offered apple crumble at no premium, and that was nice enough. No custard, though. Boo.
A particularly nice aspect of this meal was that we were joined by Pigasus, the Worcester meets founder and organiser, who'd never made a UK PonyCon before. Okay, this wasn't officially part of the convention, but for my money it counts. Pigasus is the reason I do social Pony things in the first place, after all. I think I stayed for about three hours before returning to my hotel. There's surely little chance we'll be at the same con venue in 2026, but in the event we are the Dragon has doubtless won itself some returning custom.
Next time: CoffeeStandCon
The last two posts have showed that this Sunday can feel sparser and small when you read about it, between starting two hours later and the standby events of Britannia Marester, the Charity Auction and the Closing Ceremonies thus taking up 3.5 of the 6 hours. Especially with the cramped mane stage area. But I'm sure you'd agree Logan that the vibes were still immaculate.
ReplyDeleteMike was impressively philosophical about it, and I'm sure he'll get another chance in the future, but when a friend works hard and through nobody's fault is denied the chance of Mane Stage glory, that's tough.
Much appreciated bud, both for the shout-out and because I was worrying I was over-complaning at the time! But especially a month on, I think the long plane wait taught me better that when plans go awry and it's no one's fault (and this was emphatically no one's fault), there's no point expunging energy on it. Just move on and look to the future. An obvious takeaway, perhaps, but I'm better at following it now.
To most of our surprise, the lot count this year turned out to be over 100, which it hadn't looked like a few hours earlier.
I still really don't get how this happened either! Given they closed donations off the prior day at 6pm. Sure, we know one or two folks who snuck it and added their lots anyway, but most people won't have. Really does come down to all those ones from the con staff and their backlog of items that were never in the room to begin with, I suppose.
A fact I do feel it is important to make known. This ran over, yeah, but it got a much shorter timeframe than intended, of an hour. It finished just before 17:15, meaning it would have fit its original one-hundred-and-five-minutes time slot perfectly. So the con staff are properly estimating and gauging it, especially with how they did these speed lots style – after a delayed start and the intro, they averaged a lot every 48 seconds, which is most impressive. All in all, they absolutely adopted the charity auction, and provided next year's gets a big enough room (and there's nothing like the fire), it'll finally be in good hands.