“The Big festival” assembles cosplayers from the whole region
The festival of comic books, cosplay, merry-making and nostalgia for cartoons and characters from various years – “The Big Festival” – took place in the Expoforum from April 16 to 17. More than 12,000 people assembled for the event
The organizers divided the Festival space into thematic areas by period, starting from the 1960s till the present time. Each area was filled with entertainment that was popular in those years (for example, the electronic game “Wolf and Eggs” from the 1990s), the exhibition demonstrating special cultural features from the period. Thus, you could listen to phonograph records at the rock’n’roll stand as well as leaf through comic books dedicated to rock legends, learn how New Wave differs from No Wave and sit with Beavis and Butt-head and watch videos of glam rockers. Emotions from childhood, teenage years and youth awaited visitors in real time operation mode!
More than 30 thematic stands dedicated to various comic books, games and films ran in parallel with these “time areas”. One of the halls was given over to a comic book area, where you could attend master classes and lectures. Here, you could buy comic books, meet your favorite authors and cartoon makers from all over the world. Foreign guests came to “The Big Festival” – Alex Hirsch, author of “Gravity Falls”, and Patrick McHale, creator of “Over the Garden Wall” and director of the animated series “Adventure Time”. A separate section was dedicated to the theme of space, with an installation arranged to coincide with the 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight. Here, visitors could speak to Russian cosmonaut and tester Sergey Ryazansky.
Cosplay contests (costumes of characters from various times from cartoons, comic books and films), graffiti and street art contests, presentations of new works from the comic book industry and video game championships took place as part of the festival. There was an interactive recreation and table games area, a mobile planetarium and plenty more besides.