BUCK report: Sunday

(L) Worshipping at the Fluttershrine; (R) In my Derpy scarf, eating appropriately!

I've taken much longer than I'd hoped to get this done, but at last here is the third and final part of my BUCK report. Sunday dawned very cold (for August) but at least it was dry and bright. Unfortunately, the uselessness of Sunday morning trains meant that I couldn't get to Manchester Central in time for doors-open, which in turn meant that I missed the Flash Fanfic contest. A shame, as I got an honourable mention in that last year. Oh well.

Instead, I took the opportunity to ease myself fairly gently into the day, meeting up with existing friends, talking to a few new people and doing some merch hunting. All of these continued all day, of course: I didn't buy a huge amount of stuff, but I couldn't really resist the deal I was offered for a Derpy scarf and a plush parasprite. Well done, Pegasus Embroidery UK: I'll keep your name in mind for the future!

In fact, I didn't attend any formal, timetabled events all morning. Instead, there was a lot of singing at the karaoke, as well as guiding one or two people towards the VIP autograph sessions I'd been to the previous day. Lunchtime arrived, and BridleTimeout, Vcgriffin and I decided to have lunch together. After a rather longer walk than we'd been expecting, we ended up at a Subway sufficiently far out that there were hardly any other bronies there. :P

(L) Heather Breckel's panel; (R) Griffin, Bridle and me with Diamond Dog

Although it was sunny and quite warm at the time, things started to cloud over as we finished lunch and the temperature dropped, so we headed back to Manc Central. I chose to attend Heather Breckel's panel/presentation on digital colouring: not being a terribly artistic pony I didn't understand that much of it, but it was quite interesting nevertheless. (If I hadn't gone to that, I'd probably have been to the community VAs panel in a side room.)

A big highlight of the con now: Dave Polsky's presentation. He was brilliant, with a wide-ranging talk taking in the likes of Goethe and Einstein, and even those of us who don't list him as their favourite writers were favourably impressed. It's by now well known that he dealt very professionally with a very difficult question about "Twilight Time", but that was only one element of an all-round excellent performance. A shame this clashed with Pipsqueak's stand-up comedy, which I enjoyed in 2013.

Then, a bit more of the impromptu singing (see Saturday's report!) when we realised that we hadn't done "Smile", something that needed rectifying at once. I did drop in on the Cadence [sic!] Stage for lesser known musicians occasionally, but the only one who really caught my attention was a guy named Vocal Score. His excellent acoustic cover of "Make a Wish" was what sealed it for me, and I'd recommend giving his music a listen.

(L) A collection of fursuiters; (R) It's getting very near the end

The final regular event of the con was the joint VIP panel. All three of them sitting on sofas being interviewed by one of the con staffers, and it worked very well. They all seemed relaxed and the intended "friendly chat" atmosphere was what we got. After that, all that was left was for everyone to be silly in the main hall for a while before the closing ceremony. That was as you'd expect, right down to the mass choruses of "PFUDOR" and "Winter Wrap Up". And this year I actually managed to take part in the huge group hug at the very end!

So, that was BUCK for this year. There won't be another one for at least two years, if there's one at all, so I'm glad that 2014's edition took us out on a high. Not everything was perfect, and I don't think the venue had quite the sense of occasion that the Bridgewater Hall had, but I'm still extremely happy that I was able to go. As with last year's event, I'll keep some of the memories from BUCK 2014 with me for a very long time. Good con? Good con.