UK PonyCon 2025 report, part two: Saturday, first half

My hotel room view was concrete, so have Birmingham Council House (which I did walk past) instead

It's been too long owing to that WiFi outage, but I'm back with the next part of my UK PonyCon 2025 report. I was delighted to get a good night's sleep at my hotel – I think I chose pretty well – and because of not having to travel into Birmingham from elsewhere I was able to have Saturday breakfast at the Travelodge for once. The usual buffet stuff, but I ate a lot as lunch is always a problem at cons, so we're talking bacon, scrambled eggs, sausages, tomatoes, hash browns, yoghurt, cereal, several glasses of fruit juice... you get the idea. Then it was time to check out as I wouldn't be returning to this hotel. All smooth.

It was a very windy day, but fortunately Storm Amy's worst effects were elsewhere, and it was at least bright so a reasonable experience to walk into central Birmingham. I know a few people were in the Briar Rose (same pub as last night) for breakfast, though memory for specific identities is already hazy, so even though I wasn't eating I joined them there for a bit. By now of course I had my con badge around my neck – I only really take it off for bed and showers during the weekend – so the excitement levels were building nicely.

Off to New Street station, but not to catch a train: walking through it was just the easiest way to get to the venue, which was a few minutes' walk out the back. I made it at just before 9:30, I think, and the queue was already substantial, although it became even more so not long afterwards. I remember seeing a few people go by – Ace, Zen, Trixxy, Charles, a few others I can't recall. The building overhang by the comic shop would have protected us a bit from any rain, but there wasn't any, yay. Pretty much on time (10:00) we filed in!

The crowded Opening Ceremony. Britannia and Bexi on stage

The bag checks from venue staff on entering were an unknown, but they were very professionally handled all weekend, even if the level of strictness over outside food and drink did seem to vary from person to person. I had a little more to carry than usual owing to not being able to leave stuff in my hotel, but it all fitted in one bag. There was a very basic cloakroom (basically just a coat rail and a space underneath for bags) which was unattended; I was willing to leave my old jacket there but not my bag.

It was nice to catch up with some friends before things started, including Ghost Mike who I hadn't seen until this morning owing to all those plane delays. Chatting away with sometimes long-absent friends before a con is one of my favourite things, so that was great. I also made sure to have a quick chat with JowyB – it might have been then, it might have been slightly later – who is a great guy and a great artist. I bought one of his lucky dip sketches for a fiver and came away with a 2014 one featuring both Chrysalis and Flufflepuff. Very happy!

The opening ceremony happened in much the same way that these things nearly always do, by thanking everyone for coming, introducing the special guests Rebecca Shoichet and Imalou, having a little bit of minor physical comedy from the fursuiter playing UKPC mascot Britannia, etc etc. It was very cramped, though: we were right up against the venue's capacity, with quite a few of us having to stand around the edges of the room. This went all the more so as some of the stalls were squeezed in at the back owing to the lack of a sufficiently large single space for all vendors to be together.

"Have you seen this mare? Reward: B10 or one cherry"

Then it was train time! Zenfox who presented ably, with technical assistance but still no cake from Ace, shifted from the recent setup of simply helping people travel safely on our railways to the far more challenging task of trying to explain Equestrian railways. Given my own attempt to do that in ponyfic with On the Wrong Track a few years ago, I was all ears. And it was tremendous fun. I have issues with the use of a crying Scootaloo image on the shaky grounds that it was the best picture of a particular station. And I have Issues with the portrayal of Fluttershy as a train hijacker and all-round criminal mare. But yeah, I loved this panel.

There wasn't that much I wanted to do for the next hour or so, and so I wandered around, exploring the "Collectors' Cove" for toy-focused stalls on the ground floor, making a quick visit to put a lanyard on the freebies table and pick up some other small thing, and generally get my bearings in the venue. I can't actually remember what I did for lunch, though I have a feeling it might have been another trip to the Briar Rose with just Patrick. Either way, that big breakfast meant I didn't eat very much.

Back to the venue to see the last moments of the cosplay contest, which has never been on my must-see list but which I normally experience a bit more than that of. Since we were in Birmingham, Luna (my friend, not the Princess) and some cronies had dressed up in Peaky Blinders-style attire (as the Pinkie Blinders, of course) and arrived in a stretch Hummer, of all things. I didn't see it, but he told me about it. That car was a bit less Brummie, though! They ended up deservedly winning the prize for Best Group Cosplay, though we didn't know that until later on.

"Pony Romance Languages" – eg Apple Bloom speakin' in Fancy

Finally for this part of the report was an unusual little panel from ImmyChan: The Languages of Equestria. I was very keen to attend her panel, as this has been a minor interest of mine since the days I created Frithaes! An Introduction to Colloquial Lapine for the Watership Down fandom over 20 years ago. I thought it might just be Hawthorn and me, but in the event the small room was packed. Immy gave a good account of herself, and even though the panel was short I found it intriguing: the North Germanic nature of Breezie-speak, for example, and a decent stab at explaining how a Latin word like "draconequus" exists in Equestria in the first place.

Next time: Getting Batman wrong...