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| The customs at UKPC never fail to amaze me |
After a quick welcome back from the con staff, Sunday began with the second round of StormBlaze's Art Storm. Some of the same artists were back, with one or two newcomers who hadn't appeared on Saturday. It was a nice way to ease back into the convention, and Stormy was as ever a very good host. There was even the odd picture of Fluttershy mixed in there, which is something that rarely goes amiss, I feel!
At midday, it was time to face the evil of the UKPC Quiz. Whether in person or online, whether hosted by Archer or Bexi, this has always been a terrifying affair, and so it proved once again. By the end of the G1–G3.5 rounds, my score stood at 6/26. Seven of my answers were "Custard" and two "Batman". I did retrieve things a bit with the final three rounds – on G4, Pony Life and UKPC itself – and finished with 24.5/46. That's good going for me!
After this, I tended to flip between "Rate My Fakie", "Pony Room Tours" and the continuing Pony Town server. Naturally this meant that I missed a lot, but it did give some of the frenetic feel of a con, as well as the classic "Am I missing something great in another room?" feel. A quieter later afternoon, as the Vectors panel didn't interest me much, though I did watch some of the cosplay showcase.
There were more conga lines and general silliness to be had in the UKPC Pony Town server, and I ended up staying in there rather than watching the Euro Conventions panel. It didn't help that I couldn't get the stage screen to work in Pony Town, though for some reason this problem was fixed when I switched from Firefox to Chrome later on. Admittedly I also took a meal break during this period as well!
At 6:15 pm, it was Elley Ray time again. And my sweet Celestia, what an evening that was! In the way only she can, she engaged brilliantly with the rest of us following along on Discord and pulled us into a madcap, absurd, wonderful evening of sheer entertainment. It's hard to put that into words in a report like this, but I'll try to offer at least a small flavour of the... "experience" is the only word I can think of...
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| Elley Ray, Elley Ray-ing. Plus Ponion Pony by StewArt |
...though the word of the evening was "ponions". These are, possibly, maybe, who knows? ponies that are also onions and tell lots of puns. Apparently we all spent an hour or so creating more or less from nothing a new cartoon series (and associated convention theme!) starring the ponions. UK PonionConline was born! Things were flying by so fast that none of us could keep up, but fried ponion rings were certainly suggested as con food. Not containing ponies!
In amidst all the madness, there were other priceless nuggets too. I can't possibly remember them all, but one that stood out was UKPC chair Maz explaining to Elley Ray: a) why everyone in the UK finds it immensely amusing that Apple Bloom not only drinks but sells cider; and b) that (and here I quote verbatim) "for UKPC we specifically tell the bar to stock more cider than they usually would for an event of our size."
Elley Ray's panel was supposed to last an hour, but everyone was having such an incredible time that it went on for twice that, eventually running into the next event on that stage... which was the closing ceremony! Surprisingly perhaps, that did take place, albeit in a shortened form without much beyond the necessary thanks to everyone who'd made UKPCO 2021 such a wonderful experience.
That wasn't, in fact, the end of the story. A couple of musicians took to the stage after the close, one of those being DoTheDaringDew. It so happens that his Snails song "Carryin' My Water" is a staple of favourite of several Worcester meet people, and thanks to... a handily placed shared contact, shall we say... it was the very first track he played that night! After DTDD, though, it was nearly time for me to go. Just a little more Pony Town, then bed.
It had been an excellent couple of days, probably the nearest thing I've ever experienced online to a true convention atmosphere, ahead even of the likes of the PonyFests. Whether we'll ever quite see its like again I doubt, given that running a full online con and an in-person con would be burdensome indeed for the staff. If this was the last full online UK PonyCon, then what a way to go out. Thank you so much, everyone who helped make it what it was!
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| A quiet moment in the Pony Town Bunny Room |
That custom G1 Tempest. :D
ReplyDeleteSparkler is great. She's also done heaps of work for UKPC, including designing several years' T-shirts and con book covers, which is never a bad thing!
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