UK PonyCon report, part 6: Brave and strong and weird and clever

Well, what did you expect?

UK PonyCon 2021 was a resounding success, and the people who made it happen deserve enormous thanks. Once it became clear how many people I knew were planning on attending (even before I discovered I would be too!) I was reasonably confident it would work out, even if I forbore to say so too loudly for risk of tempting fate. I thought there might be a bit of nervousness and awkwardness, but no. Well, not beyond the usual standing about awkwardly – but then that's what bronies are supposed to do. (Not that everyone at UKPC is a brony, of course!)

The venue

Nottingham as a city remains what it has been the last few years to me: a nice enough place in the daytime, but not one of my favourite places after dark. Walking back through the city to the railway station on Saturday night didn't feel threatening as such, but it wasn't all that pleasant. More specific to the con, Nottingham Trent University's building has never been the most thrilling of venues, but it did a good job this time. In particular, the space it offered was welcome in this year's unusual circumstances.

The atmosphere

Wonderful and, in its own way, quietly jubilant. I'd mentioned a few times since the convention was announced that I was concerned whether singing would be restricted. Thankfully that was not the case, and for me at least that really helped. That pre-closing ceremony not-very-angry mob will stick in the memory for a long time. Using LT2 (the cinema room) for big events was very successful, although it was only really possible because of the rejigging caused by the lack of a music stage. Oh, and the heating was set to just right. Walking around in a T-shirt I felt comfortably warm but not too hot.

The problems

Happily, there seemed to be very few of these. There was the odd technical hitch, but these seemed to be less common than sometimes in the past. The con schedule being separate from the con book was a minor irritation, I guess caused by late confirmation of the timetable. I did hear second-hand that one of the Sunday cosplay prizes was won by a fart-themed entry, and it's fair to say that makes me roll my eyes a bit. Sure, maybe that's partly my personal boredom with that theme talking,* but then this is my personal blog. :P Still, if that's the worst thing that happened over the weekend, it's a pretty good result overall.
* I am thrilled that the G5 movie had zero fart jokes, incidentally

The 'rona

Okay, time to deal with this aspect. I thought UKPC handled it very well, without being overbearing, and I never felt at all unsafe. The Covid status check was done quickly and efficiently before the con opened, and hand sanitiser dispensers were plentiful. Masks were optional inside the convention venue (PonyCon Holland the following week had the same policy) and after the Saturday morning queue I'd estimate that about 80% of people dropped them, including me. We can't predict the future, but hopefully this will be a one-off section for this year, and by UKPC 2022 we'll have left it gratefully behind.

The food

As I touched on in the main report, the café pod worked much better than it had in 2019. Queues were far shorter, and not shutting down in late afternoon on Saturday made a difference too. It didn't match the space or fun range of food at the Bristol 2017 café, and the lack of any muffins was disappointing, but it did the job. Unlike in 2019 there was no hot lunchtime food available, which was a mild shame. Also unlike 2019, the venue was entirely alcohol-free. The lack of a bar didn't bother me at all, and I'd be quite content if it remained the case in future years.

The people

I was delighted to learn about the presence of people who'd come to UK PonyCon after enjoying G5 but with no other MLP experience. The multi-generational nature of UKPC is one of its core strengths, and the advent of a new gen was absorbed very smoothly. Slightly less positively, it's a bit of a shame that relatively few families seem to attend these days, compared with a few years ago. I've mused in the past that the ending of on-the-day ticket sales from 2015 could be a factor there. I suppose there's not much that can be done about that, especially given the lack of American-style enormous con venues.

The charity

I was absolutely thrilled that UKPC 2021 managed to raise over £10,000 for the RDA, which I have always been delighted is the con's chosen beneficiary. I wasn't at all sure how much it would be possible to raise in this year's odd circumstances, but to get that much with a significantly reduced attendance was brilliant. Not that much reduced, though: although it was clearly quieter than in 2019, we apparently had more than 500 attendees. That would have been a very respectable attendance for a UKPC anyway before the last few years. 

The future

We've already been told that there will be a UKPC 2022 – it will be online if absolutely unavoidable, but if at all possible it will be like this, in person. This is excellent news! We won't find out for a while yet whether Nottingham will be its home again, or whether there'll be a return to the traditional touring status. My personal preference would still be for the latter, but then I'm not the person who has to do all the work investigating new cities and venues. Apart from the US My Little Pony Fair, UKPC is the longest-running Pony convention in the world: this was its 17th iteration. It deserves its honour.

The mayonnaise

Bing-bong!