BUCK's goodbye message

This is what BUCK posted on its Tumblr, Twitter etc, and it's already been on EQD, so I doubt there are many people who haven't seen it.¹ However, on Friday the Tumblr posted an extended version (on Tumblr), which is even more heart-rending. :'(

¹ For those who don't know, Britannia is the BUCK mascot. No relation to the other Britannia, who is the UK PonyCon mascot!

Horse News considers the last BUCK and UK con financing

Hat-tip to Idris for alerting me to this.

It's no secret that I rarely read Horse News, but from time to time it does come up with something really worthwhile. The article in question is titled Rolling Pone: An Interview on Pony Convention Finances and Doubtful Allegations, which makes it sound like it's just a scandal piece – but actually, it's a lot more interesting than that. As always with HN, don't go reading it anywhere that's going to make a big deal about NSFW language.

I'm not going to try to summarise the whole thing, since that would detract from the flavour, but writer Foal Duke's pseudonymous associate (who has extensive experience in event organisation) makes it pretty clear that brony cons have very weird finances when set against many other fandoms (yes, even furry) and that a super-high-cost environment like Britain shouldn't really have been able to support a con like BUCK at all. In other words, the BUCK team did the impossible.

One little nugget from the comments, although in true 4chan style it's from an anon: apparently a single hall at Birmingham's NEC costs £100,000 for just one day's hire. Even if an event managed to negotiate a discounted rate, you can see why there is absolutely no chance of something like BUCK ever happening at a place like that. Actually, the comments thread contains more interesting posts than memes and insults, including a fun one by knighty about his own experiences. (I was at that fanfic contest; he did indeed have to rush out to buy pens.)

Anyway, read the article for yourself. It's not that long, and it provides a perspective that I haven't seen before, at least not when applied specifically to the UK.

Episode review: S6E04: "On Your Marks"

So, BUCK is no more, and the UK no longer has an all-out brony convention to call its own. It's a sad moment in many ways, but it was immensely pleasing that it went out on a high, with what by all accounts was a very successful con. I'll probably give some more thoughts on this in a future post, but for now I have an episode to review!

"Six hundred Tyrantlestia fics, and I still haven't found a good one!"

Ever since "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" went out, most of us have been wondering "What now for the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" – and it would seem that the CMC themselves have had similar thoughts. This week's episode sees the return of Dave Polsky, who I think is now the only S1 writer remaining on the team. This time around, he's working with Josh Haber; seriously, are we going to get any one-writer eps? Past the break for more thoughts.

BUCK 2016: Last of the Line

Note: this is an "initial reaction" sort of post, bashed out with very little editing. I may give some more considered thoughts at a later date. Or I may not!

Nethesem, the chairman of BUCK, has put out this official release, and the headline to take away is this: there won't be another BUCK after this year. Not ever. It's worth reading all the way through, since it gives a little insight into just how much effort the convention staff have put into making the con happen since 2012. Having attended in 2013 and 2014, I can't help but be appreciative of the mountains the BUCK guys have moved to make a full-scale con happen in the UK, one of the hardest places to put one on.

Hard as it is for me to say, I think they've made the right decision. As Nethesem says himself, the numbers just don't stack up any more. The prices that have to be charged to break even are so high that not enough people want to come – and you can't run a convention on the scale of BUCK with a couple of hundred attendees. Something has to give, and given that the BUCK guys understandably don't want to compromise or downsize, there's only one realistic option. The alternative would be pushing ahead without sufficient funding in place, and that way lies madness.

This does not mean that the pony convention scene in Britain is dead. As far as I know, both UK PonyCon and BronyScot intend to return in 2016, and BUCK's demise may even leave a space for a third smaller event in 2017. However, I think that, once April is out of the way, we will have seen the last of the all-singing, all-dancing brony extravaganza events. The economics just don't work any more. Maybe Europe only has room now for one such event, and that event is GalaCon. It's been a long, hard road for BUCK, and they've done amazing things. But now there's just one more to go.

Yes, of course I regret not being able to attend BUCK this year, and after this news was announced I did have another think to see if I could make it work. Sadly, my problems are in some ways similar to BUCK's: the numbers just don't add up. I could only afford it if I dropped plans to do pretty much anything else pony-related, UK PonyCon included, and I'm just not willing to do that. So I'll be supporting from the sidelines, to my great and probably lasting regret. Those of you who are going, though: make this one last party to remember, eh?

BUCK 2016 guests: Daniel Ingram out, Peter New and Nicole Martel in

Some big news on guests for this year's BUCK – some good, some bad. Let's get the bad out of the way first: Daniel Ingram will not now be able to attend, owing to pressure of work. Let's not beat about the bush: this is a big disappointment. In fact, if I'd still been thinking of going to BUCK this year, Mr Ingram's attendance would have been the single biggest draw. The announcement post does slightly slip in the bad news (it's not mentioned at all in the threadline) but it's not as if people are going to miss a change like that.

Happily, there is good news as well on the guests front. Two new names have been announced, the first of whom is Peter New. He has a superb reputation as a con guest, and I'm sure that BUCK will benefit immensely from his presence. The second new guest is a name many may not know: Nicole Martel. She works as layout designer for several big-name cartoons, among them Friendship is Magic. She'll be presenting a workshop, a format which worked very well last year with the likes of Heather Breckel. It's a very interesting choice of invitee.

BUCK 2016 news: the Pinkie Pie Pals return!

One of the best features of BUCK 2014 has returned for this year's iteration. The Pinkie Pie Pals area group of volunteers – not actually convention staff, but working closely with them – who aim to help new, nervous or younger attendees, or those going on their own who feel a bit lost, enjoy the event more. Last time round, they created the Fluttershy Club for said attendees, and as a participant in said Club (admittedly partly for the super-cute 'Shy badge!) I thought it was an excellent initiative.

I'm therefore using this post to signal-boost the launch of the 2016 Pinkie Pie Pals. You can read more about it, including details of how to apply to be a PPP volunteer, in this UK of Equestria post. (You don't have to be a UK of E member, as the post is public and there are email and Facebook routes for applications.) Given that I thought this was the best new feature of BUCK 2014, I'm delighted to see it return and even though I won't be there myself this time, I wish it every success.

BUCK ticket prices announced!

Britain's biggest (by some distance) pony convention, BUCK, has published its ticket details for next April's fourth edition of the con. They're going for a modular structure this time, but this is how it will work (prices are rounded up to the nearest pound):

Standard weekend: £100
Saturday (daytime): £35
Saturday (evening): £20
Sunday (all day): £55

On top of that, there are the bolt-ons, which are as follows:

Generosity badge/charity donation: £10
Priority entry/pre-registration: £35
A2 poster/listed in conbook: £35
2016 "20% Cooler" T-shirt: £35

Guest buffet lunch: £50 (Sunday?)
Mini-golf with guests: £50 (Fri afternoon)
Jazz Club with VIPs: £50 (Fri evening)

If you're American, these prices probably look sky-high; UK running costs are much higher, so that's inevitable to some extent. Even from this side of the Atlantic, they ain't cheap: this is by a long way the most expensive pony con in the country. It was last year as well, but most people (including me) felt it offered decent value for money.

The weekend ticket is up £20 on last year; the organisers claim it's the same, but that's pushing it a little; last year we got the Summer Sun Celebration on Friday evening as well for that price. Accommodation and travel may be trickier as well in 2016 owing to the edge-of-town location, so I think it's inevitable that the con will be costing some people significantly more than in 2014.

As a two-BUCK veteran, I know just what a wonderful experience these things can be, and how well (the odd hiccup aside) they're organised. These prices are such that I can't really commit to going in 2016, but if I can scrape the money together then I'm still tempted: there isn't a great deal that I'd rather spend any "fun stuff" cash on than a really good BUCK weekend.

On the other hand, I could buy three UK PonyCon weekend tickets for the same money and still have enough to buy food! :P

BUCK gets into gear: some early thoughts

The BUCK website is now up and running properly, with a little under a year until the UK's largest brony convention returns from its 2015 hiatus. It's still early days, and several key pieces of information are not yet available, but we do now know a few things. My thoughts at this stage, therefore:

The dates: 9-10 April 2016
The BUCK people said a long time ago that they were working on a spring date for 2016, and here it is. Unlike in previous years, this con will not be held over a Bank Holiday weekend. On the whole, I think this weekend is a good choice. It may be trickier for some to get time off, but the dates should mean lower accommodation prices (well, perhaps: see later) and less chance of Network Rail deciding to dig up every railway line within 50 miles.

It's being advertised as a two-day event, which was the case last year as well – as far as the con itself was concerned. What we don't yet know is whether there's any sort of separate-but-associated event planned for the Friday night, along the lines of the very successful Summer Sun Celebration (SSC) concert/rave/noisefest last year. As with a lot of things, the BUCK team are keeping their cards close to their chest on that one.

The venue: EventCity, Manchester
The city isn't a big surprise, as it's where BUCK's been held every year since its inception in 2012. From a selfish point of view, Birmingham would have been much easier, but I was never really expecting that to happen. The venue itself is new to BUCK: for the first time, the convention is moving away from the city centre and out to a purpose-built exhibition hall near the vast Trafford Centre complex.

To me, the venue is... okay, I guess. I'd personally much rather BUCK had remained in the city centre, but costs seem to have spiralled too much for that to remain practical. As with many retail parks, the Trafford Centre has excellent access by car but less good access by public transport. Buses aren't too bad, but there's no Metrolink service and the nearest station is over a mile away and has a dreadful service.

I touched on accommodation earlier, and this could be a source of awkwardness. As usual, BUCK doesn't have a "con hotel". There are four hotels around the Trafford Centre – three(!) Premier Inns and one Travelodge – but that's about it. The hostels and cheap family hotels many relied on last year aren't available. I suspect it's going to be even harder to do BUCK on a really tight budget than it was last year.

The VIP guest: Daniel Ingram
This announcement has been met with pretty much universal acclaim. It doesn't really need saying (but I'll do so anyway) that Ingram is hugely popular in the fandom, and it's a real coup for BUCK to have enticed him along. I have no idea whether there are likely to be any other guests from the official side of the fandom (it's much more expensive for UK organisers), but even if not, Ingram will be a big draw on his own.

Tickets?
Last year, weekend tickets were tiered £80/£195/£335. The Standard ticket was comparable to the similarly-sized ConFuzzled's, but the middle-tier 20% Cooler ticket was widely held to be overpriced for what it offered, being much dearer than a ConFuzzled Sponsor-tier ticket. BUCK isn't cheap; there's no getting round that. If it offers good value, though, most people will accept the hit to their wallets.

The BUCK 2016 website is alive!

Admittedly, at time of writing the official site doesn't exactly contain a wealth of detail. Almost none, in fact. Nevertheless, we can glean a couple of things. The convention is indeed happening in 2016, for one. That there will be VIP guests of some description. And (in the source) that Fluttershy is best pone. Which we knew already, but it's still good to have that confirmed. Will I go? I hope so. Right now, it's much too soon to say for sure either way.

Cons, cons everywhere!

Well, everywhere in the UK, that is. In the last few days and weeks, we've seen no fewer than four pony conventions announced for 2015 in this country, plus another one for 2016. Two of the events in question are returning after successful outings last year, while another two are newcomers aiming to take advantage of the absence of BUCK next year. And talking of BUCK, the behemoth of British brony bashes will be coming back as well, albeit not until 2016. So, here's the run-down:

Great British Brony Convention – 24/25/26 July, Manchester
A completely new venture, the GBBC takes the "BUCK replacement" concept almost literally by being held in the Manchester Conference Centre, only a few hundred yards down the road from Manchester Central itself. This con is intended as a one-off event, as the organisers don't wish to compete directly with BUCK when that returns (see below). Nevertheless, it takes several cues from that con, such as a Friday night concert. Captain Hoers and Mush have already announced their attendance, but it's highly ambitious, especially with another con happening 40 miles down the road just a month later...

My Little Convention – 29/30 August, Southport
Another newcomer for 2015, this con's venue has been announced as the Floral Hall in the Merseyside/Lancashire resort. Early bird tickets are already on sale (£45 for Standard tier) and planned events include a Saturday night concert, an area for up-and-coming musicians (apparently modelled on BUCK's Cadance Stage) and the inevitable CCG tournament. No guests have been announced yet. MLC was originally planned for Norwich, but has chosen to move across country for better transport links – although holding the con over a Bank Holiday inevitably means that there'll be rail engineering works to contend with.

UK PonyCon 2015 – 10/11 October, Leicester
This is a two-day convention covering the entire My Little Pony fandom, with a strong emphasis on collectors but also catering for families, bronies and other ponyish types. This means that the attendee profile (and therefore the atmosphere) is very different from other cons, with everyone from young children to grandparents coming along. The venue, the Mercure Grand Hotel, is the same as this year's, but 2015 will see the con gain the use of the entire hotel, not just half of it as happened this year. This should do a lot to alleviate the crowding problems that affected it in 2014.

BronyScot – "October/November", Edinburgh
Scotland's very own brony con faced challenges in its debut year, resulting in the decision to reduce the planned two days to one. This disappointing outcome was responsibly handled, though. This, together with good organisation, resulted in a well-received convention, so it's good to see it returning in 2015. After an unfortunate clash of dates with UK PonyCon last year, the two organising teams are on good terms and have made sure that this won't happen again. The popular Rock Nessie concert is set to return, while tickets look likely to remain attractively priced.

BUCK – "early 2016", venue TBA
Yes, the big beast of the UK pony convention scene is returning, probably in a new spring slot. Plenty still needs to be thrashed out before exact details will be made public, but I can guess at several things: it will be the biggest of all the British conventions, the tickets will be the most expensive, it will have the best range of guests and events and it will be the most slickly run event. BUCK's membership of the European Pony Convention Union is also a big plus, indicating that it abides by a number of rules to protect con-goers and staff alike.

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.

BUCK report: Saturday

(L) Welcome sign outside; (R) Those pony convention essentials, cider and muffin!

At long last, I have time to post this!  Saturday dawned chilly (especially for August) and rather drizzly, which was a bit of a pain. I got the train into Manchester and walked the few hundred yards to Manchester Central at almost spot-on nine o'clock. Registration was already in full swing, so despite having to wait for the priority-ticket holders to be processed, I wasn't really in the queue for very long. I noticed one or two friends, which made a change from last year and settled my nerves a bit.

Once inside, there was a bit of a wait until the opening ceremony at 10.00, so (like most people) I busied myself with talking to friends, browsing the merch stalls and wrestling the venue's free wifi into submission. I felt immediately at home this year, which was lovely: in fact, every time I walked through that front door all weekend, there was a feeling of "Yes, I belong here." The atmosphere was wonderful: busy and cheerful, but without the crush and overheating of BUCK 2013.

The opening ceremony passed off without much incident, so after a few minutes' more shopping (and some My Little Karaoke, naturally) I headed off to one of the side rooms for the "Word Crimes" Fanfic panel. This was well attended and had an interesting line-up, headed by FIMFiction top man Knighty and prominent author (and occasional Worcester meet attendee!) Blueshift. The hour passed by very quickly, and other than maybe giving the panellists a dais so we could actually see them, I don't think I'd have changed a thing.

(L) Button Mashes karaoke-ing "Don't Mine at Night"; (R) Fursuiters and, er, Space Marine

Next up was the first of the VIP panels, from G. M. Berrow on "The Magic of Creativity". After a slightly shaky start (she told us she was a Powerpoint novice, and it showed!) she gave a really interesting presentation on how she approached writing the successful MLP chapter books. For example, the very first one (Twilight's) was written in a deliberately more juvenile way than those that came afterwards, and she uses a three-act format to mimic the show's own episodes.

It was about 1.30 by the time Berrow's panel finished, and Manc Central's catering options were... limited (though they had a superb range of muffins!) so I linked up with Hawthorn (who some of you will know via furry) to get some food. Well, the nearby McDonald's, anyway, where we gorged on Big Mac meals, in my case making Twilight's table manners look good. The place was packed with bronies, and we got into a very interesting chat with a Hungarian guy who had some trenchant opinions on just about everything!

Back at Manc Central, it was charity auction time! You know how these things go, I'm sure, though having Mic the Microphone on MC duties may not have been the best idea given that he has (by his own admission) terrible eyesight! I bid on a couple of items but didn't win any: a nice Flutterbat print started at £20... then someone shouted out "£300!" and every single other person folded! Still, it was good fun all round and we raised over £11,000 for JDRF. Top item: a custom Chrysalis plushie, £1,100.

(L) Mic the Microphone at the charity auction; (R) G. M. Berrow's autograph

Then it was autograph time! I got into the queue 45 minutes early, and had to listen to a rather boring argument about Scottish independence between fellow waiters a few feet away, but hey ho. The actual signing session was extremely well organised, with all three VIPs (the others being Dave Polsky and Heather Breckel) doing their stuff in one big room. £10 per signing, and I had Berrow sign my copy of Rarity and the Curious Case of Charity, which she did with a lovely message (see photo above).

Having got that done quickly, I did catch the last part of the cosplay competition, and then (for some utterly insane reason) Bridle Timeout, VCGriffin and I decided to have a bit of an impromptu public singalong. We picked up a couple of others during our dodgy performances, at least one of whom joined the UK of E forums as a result, so it can't have been all bad! Actually, it was a huge amount of fun, and something else that I would never have done in most circumstances.

Finally, there was the Lunar Eclipse concert. This wasn't as much to my taste as 2013's iteration, with more hardcore noise (Davhors!, JackTHerbert, Teithepony and Cavi) and less orchestral and vocal stuff. Even so, I was very glad to be there for a brilliant set from RainbowCrash88 that rocked the whole venue. By a bit after nine, it was a repeat of Friday night, ie I'd stopped understanding the music, so it was time to get back to Bolton. Once again, Northern Rail were hopeless, but I made it in the end.

(L) Guiding Breeze cosplaying as Daring Do; (R) Adorable sleepy Flutterplush

BUCK report: Friday

(L) Manchester Central by night; (R) The SSC in full swing

All right then, here we go with my report for BUCK 2014, which sadly seems almost certain to be the con's last iteration thanks to spiralling costs. I travelled up on the Friday morning, and the journey was uneventful. Didn't see any other bronies on the way, which was a slight disappointment. As I couldn't check into my hotel until after 3pm, I had to lug my rucksack around for a while, but I'd been careful not to overpack it, so it wasn't too bad an experience.

First task (after eating) was to get to Manchester Central to pre-register for the Summer Sun Celebration. This didn't go all that smoothly at first, as I was told (politely but firmly, and against what had been advertised) that only those who had premium tickets for the con proper could pre-register. I was too tired to argue, so walked away grumbling under my breath. Then I had a stroke of luck: bumping into Hurricane, Nekky and Coastie purely by chance in the city centre. They told me that Standard ticket-holders were now being allowed to pre-register.

So, I trekked back to Manchester Central and this time got my SSC wristband. Then it was off to the nearby Central Library's café for the inaugural meeting of the Fluttershy Club. With an attendance of about 40, twice as many as expected, it was a little bit unwieldy and we didn't get far beyond saying hellos, but at least it was there. I had to leave early to get the train to Bolton to check into my luxurious five-star Travelodge. (Actually it was fine, though the surrounding area was a little on the grim side.)

(L) Alliminaro's fine OC plush; (R) Pinkie Pie and Party Cannon

After a bite to eat, it was back to Manchester Central for the Summer Sun Celebration! The nearest thing to a rave I'm ever likely to go to, and a rather surreal experience. Most of the con vendors were in operation in the lobby, so there was a good deal of merch-buying going on. I snagged a Fluttershy cushion for £15, which was something you're not going to find in your local Tesco Extra. (More's the pity.) It was actually very useful when I was feeling a bit chilly sitting at a metal table in the huge main hall!

The opening act was Prince Whateverer: not bad at all and pretty enthusiastic, if a bit metal for my tastes. I was mostly there for the next guys: Acoustic Brony. Only the second time (and the first in Europe) that they'd belied their name by being backed by a full rock band, and my word it was good! We got several show songs ("Babs Seed" and "Helping Twilight Win the Crown" among them), we got my favourite "I'll Fly Higher"... and yes, we got "Loyalty".

After that, it was Mic the Microphone. Starting to get a bit heavy for my tastes now, though I really enjoyed "Nightmare Night". I stayed on through his set and General Mumble's, but by the time we got to Icky things were just sounding like noise to me, so I went back to the hotel. I was a bit sorry not to stick it out for the others (Lavender Harmony, Addictia, The Living Tombstone and HMage) but if I had done, I'd have missed the last train to Bolton by about two hours!

(L) Programme for the SSC; (R) Manchester Central's main hall

All in all, I had a pretty good time, and it wasn't nearly as intimidating as I'd feared. We are, after all, pony fans, so we don't do "intimidating" very well on the whole! Acoustic Brony was easily my favourite act, but until it all merged into noise I enjoyed the others as well. I was pretty tired by the time I got back to the hotel (no thanks to Northern Rail's inability to provide enough trains) but I was looking forward to what Saturday might bring.

Manchester awaits!

Having a separate processing fee for each ticket seems a little off, though

You may remember that last month, I was pretty clear in my mind that going to this year's BUCK was out of my reach. Well... things change. An unexpected piece of financial good news has led me to reassess the situation, and it's turned out that I can make it after all. I must admit that I've cut it fine – yes, that date is correct; I only actually bought the tickets earlier today – but it's all done and dusted now.

This doesn't mean that I'm going to throw any criticism of BUCK out of the window. On the face of it, this year's venue and schedule don't look quite as exciting as last year: from a personal point of view, the lack of a Pony Pub Quiz (because the bar area will be used for the inevitable CCG tournament) is a major disappointment. The performers at the Lunar Eclipse don't seem quite as much my thing, either.

However, this time around I won't be a complete novice at going to conventions, and that has a considerable effect. It should mean that I won't waste time wondering what on earth to do, plus I'll also know more people than I did in 2013. The selection of VIP guests is also great: G. M. Berrow, Heather Breckel and Dave Polsky are all brillliant invitees. So I'm pretty optimistic that I'll enjoy this.

Oh, and yes, I have indeed bought a ticket for the Summer Sun Celebration. I was really unsure about that, as this year's line-up seems more hardcore than 2013's, and that isn't my thing. But as it's not a huge amount extra, and as it may never happen again, I thought "What the hay?" and went for it. I won't be able to stay till the end (trains) but I hope I'll at least find it an experience worth having.

It'll be BUCK, Jim, but not as we know it

I can't say that the announcement that BUCK in its present form is most unlikely to continue beyond this year took me entirely by surprise. The con's budget now runs into six figures (of pounds!) and that really is huge for an event in what, in the UK at least, is a bit of a niche fandom. It makes me even more disappointed that I can't go this year, but I'm also even more glad that I made it to last year's edition. (Besides, nothing this year will match the Bridgewater Hall's auditorium for sheer grandeur!)

There have been some fairly heavy hints from the BUCK team that there will be something from them in 2015, but that it won't be what we've known up until this year. It'll be interesting to see whether that's enough to stop anyone else trying to set up their own con. If they're going to do that on any sort of scale, I don't think they can risk waiting months until BUCK makes a final decision. On the other hand, there's clearly a limit to how many MLP cons this country can support in a year.

Now for some musing on the future of British cons. UK Ponycon is probably the safest, since it's long-established and as a multi-gen event doesn't depend entirely on we fickle bronies. BronyScot is an interesting newcomer, on what seems a sensible scale, and I really hope it goes well. GalaCon in Germany seems likely to be where "big con" devotees will head from now on, but that still leaves, to my mind, a gap for a medium-sized con in England or Wales. That gap may end up being filled by "BUCK Redux", of course.

As in so many other things, I'm often out of the mainstream, so a con tailored to my own preferences would probably be a disaster from a financial point of view. But since this is my blog: I don't think I'll ever forget singing "Winter Wrap Up" with hundreds of others in one of the greatest concert venues in the world. Of course the people were the main thing, but they weren't the only thing: the posh venue did make a difference. Similarly, I really like the look of the four-star hotel UK Ponycon will be using this year.

Similarly, the Lunar Eclipse. When I'm not kicking myself (again) for missing most of EileMonty's set, I'm revelling in the memories of hearing Acoustic Brony do "I'll Fly Higher" in that auditorium. It was more special than it would have been in a plain big hall. So my dream would be a standalone brony music event in a place like that, or Birmingham's Symphony Hall. Will it happen? Unless a passing oligarch turns out to be a brony, almost certainly not, on cost grounds. But if it ever does, put me down for a ticket right away.

Going back to BUCK, though: I'm glad they're taking the sensible, professional route here. Pushing on into 2015 and risking having the thing fall apart and the BUCK brand dragged through the mud would have been absurd. In the end, finances have beaten them: no matter how much your costs rise, you can't keep putting prices up by 30% a year and expect everyone to keep shelling out. So yes, BUCK as we knew it will die at the end of August. Hard though it is to say, that's probably for the best in the circumstances. Here's to the future!

BUCK is back... at a price

It's official: BUCK 2014 will be held at Manchester Central over the August Bank Holiday weekend (23-24 August) with the Summer Sun Celebration taking place the night before. So, after all the talk that the con was going to be in Birmingham, and that there'd be a change to an earlier date, BUCK has actually ended up literally across the road from its 2013 home at the Bridgewater Hall and on exactly the same weekend! Promo video embedded above: if you can't see it then click here.

The big talking point so far has been the increased price of entry. The con's costs have gone up a good deal since last year – it's now big enough to be VAT-registered, for one thing – and that's been reflected in substantial rises in admission charges. Tickets aren't on sale quite yet, but here's the detail:

Standard: £80 (up 45% on last year's £55)
20% Cooler: £190 (up 48% on last year's £135)
Celestia: £335 (up 25% on last year's £250)
SSC: £20 (up 33% on last year's £15)

You can mitigate the impact somewhat, at least as far as Standard tickets are concerned, by getting in quickly and grabbing an Earlybird special. These will sell for £65, but rather irritatingly the organisers won't say how many are available: it's a case of "when they're gone, they're gone". (Edit: there are officially 200.) The full £80 is, whether coincidentally or not, exactly the same price as non-residential admission to ConFuzzled. That's in a hotel, so BUCK clearly wins on venue prestigiousness.

The SSC ticket looks like the best value of the lot, and I could see some people going only to that. At the other end of the scale, most of those who buy Celestia tickets dwell in another financial universe to the rest of us, so they'd probably pay £1,000 if they had to. The big concern for me is the 20% Cooler tier: that's suffered the largest increase (with no Earlybird discount) and is now very expensive. Using ConFuzzled as a comparison again, their broadly similar Sponsor-tier ticket is £130.

BUCK is an expensive con – and yes, it's still an expensive con even compared to other non-expo cons held in the UK. I've mentioned ConFuzzled, but another example is DWCon, for the Discworld fandom, where a full-rate Standard ticket costs £65. And of course there's UK PonyCon; they seem to leave it later than most to announce ticketing details, but last year a weekend pass could be had for £35, from memory. Sure, it's an altogether smaller-scale event and not specifically G4 focused, but it's still a pony convention.

Will I be going to BUCK? I'd like to, but Manchester is much more expensive for me than Birmingham would have been, and with the higher admission prices on top it's going to be touch and go for a while. I'm certain BUCK will be a great event, and I'd urge you to go if you can... but I think we may be getting close to the limit of what even our "throwing money at the screen" fandom may bear. Another similar increase in 2015 would take Standard admission into three figures – and that really would be too high.

An interesting idea for BUCK

Over on UK of Equestria, Nethesem (BUCK's deputy PR guy) has mentioned that someone on the show staff made a suggestion to him recently. This was that they could do a presentation showing how storyboarding helps an episode of MLP:FiM take shape. This has had a very positive reaction so far, and I'm not surprised: I think it's a great idea. It's also encouraging in that there seems to be some good-quality contact between the con team and the official side of Pony. Show guests aren't the priority this year, which I don't mind too much but some people may.

I do also think it's a good idea to tweak the pure Q&A format that was used for panels for BUCK 2013. It worked well sometimes – the Writers panel was extremely enjoyable – but at other times it creaked quite a bit. Some questions rambled a lot, some weren't able to be answered (eg asking Cindy Morrow what would be in S4) and some verged on the inappropriate at times, or at least were interpreted as such. I'd support having a smaller part of the event devoted to questions, and having those pre-screened by the con team.

BUCK 2013 official film preview video published

The sheer volume of material to work through has meant that it's taken some time, but it seems that the BUCK team are getting closer to releasing the official video of the 2013 con. Above (or here) is the preview, which gives just a glimpse of what we can expect. The preview is very interview-heavy, and concentrates on the Friday, but there are a few minutes of Saturday-shot footage near the end. I was particularly amused that the very last word said by the narrator was... "Fun!" (Also, yay retro LWT-style opening ident! ;))

The 2014 BUCK train is getting up steam

Over on UK of Equestria, Nethesem (BUCK's Deputy PR Manager) has been posting some interesting information. Not least this Q&A thread. As you can see if you take a look at it, almost everything is still up in the air – really the only thing we're sure about is that a 2014 convention is indeed being planned. Birmingham has been mentioned as a potential venue, while the con may well be brought forward a month, to late July. This should help to avoid too many clashes with other events.

One of the things that does seem likely to happen, though, is the a "grass-roots, community-oriented approach". This isn't surprising, given that so many of the participatory events (pub quiz, flashfic contest, gaming tournament, karaoke etc) were very overcrowded last year. It should also help to give BUCK 2014 a distinct, fresh flavour, rather than having it just being a slightly different re-run of this year's con in a different place. So far so good on that score, though!

Everyone, including me, wants to know what tickets are going to cost, but that won't be announced for a while. Nethesem's post states that a Kickstarter campaign may be utilised: everyone pays the same for the actual ticket, but perks are added at certain Kickstarter donation levels. I believe that GalaCon in Germany makes heavy use of crowdfunding, and although BUCK's model isn't likely to be the same, that does prove it can work for a brony convention. All in all: looking good so far!

BUCK of the net

Well, what an opportunity in this brony community

Plenty of people have written about their experiences at this year's BUCK convention in Manchester. Being the unoriginal sort I am, I'll join them. This won't be the massive piece that some others have managed, but more a sort of "general impressions" thing. Suffice it to say up here that my first convention (of any kind!) was — for the most part — a hugely enjoyable experience, and that I am absolutely hoping to return for BUCK 2014. However, click past the jump and you'll be able to read my rambly, disjointed thoughts. Yay.