Galaxy Con Raleigh (GCR) 2021 was an impulse con for me this year. I've been in the past for the full weekend, but I had rolled over my 2020 pass to 2022 in anticipation of higher rates in 2022 and the possibility of cons not returning by the summer of 2021.
But I digress. I was making plans to hang out on the Saturday of GCR with my friend Ingibear (Inga) and recalling that GCR was taking place that weekend I checked the website to see if there were any full day Saturday passes still available. Shockingly there were (this was on Monday or Tuesday) and so Inga and I each purchased a day pass for Saturday. I'm glad that we purchased then because I overheard that they sold out of full-day Saturday passes by Wednesday and were only left with Saturday PM passes (good for Saturday 4PM and onward).
I decided to wear my Gwen for the day as I hadn't gotten to wear her to a con yet and she's simple enough that it was easy to pull her out of my cosplay closet. Inga decided to go as Tsunade from Naruto and I think she looked fantastic. So with our cosplays set and our badges purchased we were to blonde babes ready to hit our first post-pandemic convention!
With this background information set though, let's get into my review!
Pro: the location
I both love and hate the Raleigh Convention Center. I've been to three conventions at the location, two being past GCR events, and I feel that this year it was very well done. Nothing huge seemed to change, but I do think that the venue was better labeled and set up. This of course could also just be my familiarity with the venue and the convention in general, but in past years I also was more confused about where to go for certain panels than I was this year.
Something about the convention center that I do love is all of the stunning natural light that the many windows let in. I feel like it not only keeps the venue feeling larger and more open, but it also makes everyone's cosplays look better while we're walking around the open floor that isn't in the vendor and artist area. I know that quite a few hall shots that some folks took of me as my Spider Gwen even had really even lighting thanks to this.
Around the Raleigh Convention Center there are a good variety of restaurants and there are fairly decent photography locations too. With it being in the heart of downtown Raleigh, the restaurants aren't surprising but the variety of photo locations can be. There are the usual of parking garages and hidden stairwells, but there is also a small "garden" a few blocks down that while it usually does have quite a few photographers there, is a fantastic location if you're looking to photograph in a more natural setting. And even in addition to the natural location, Raleigh is a great city to get shots with city skylines in the background. Since I live in Charlotte I'm a bit spoiled with having it readily available to me, but for those who don't it's great opportunity to get those shots.
As for the hate portion, there are just a lot of stairs. The escalators do help, but there are still a lot of stairs.
Con: the weather
I know this isn't something that GCR can help, but especially for those traveling to a future GCR I want you to be aware that this con is always hot. I've never been to a con at this venue where it rained and it's always hot and sunny. So hot that I dress ready to sweat. This year I showed up in shorts, a crop top, and chunky sneakers. I was sweating buckets. When I changed into my Gwen cosplay I went straight to the convention space and I stayed inside until about 9:30 when the sun had been down for an hour or so already and so it was cooler outside. How the folks wearing fur suits survived I have no idea. It's now Monday and I still feel a bit dehydrated from loosing so much water via my sweat on Saturday.
For folks who haven't been to an east coast con, I want to clarify that it isn't just the heat that makes it so bad, but also the humidity. Even your wigs get a bit frizzy from the heat and humidity combo.
So for anyone attending east cost cons in the summer, heed my words. Set your makeup well, make your makeup matte, plan for summer cosplays, and carry lots of water/a reusable water bottle.
Pro: the staff
I have rarely seen such helpful staff at a convention. I had applied to host a few panels that were accepted for GCR 2020 but due to covid-19 the event was canceled. I had, I think, fairly assumed that all panels would be canceled as well and that all panelists would just have to reapply for 2021. This apparently was not the case. I was sitting in the cosplay room with Inga looking over the schedule of events to see what we might be interested in attending when suddenly I saw a panel titled "I HATE DUMBLEDORE". I have a panel titled exactly this so I thought it was funny. So I read the description. Which was word for word what I wrote for the panel and use on my submissions every time I submit the panel. So all I could think was "someone stole my panel!"
I quickly made my way over to the panelist check-in table where I learned that I was actually the scheduled panelist for this panel, despite having not submitted to panel for this year. And not only that, but that I had been scheduled to host four panels, one for each day.
Something great about me is that I can be ready to panel any of my panels at any time provided I have access to a computer with internet. This is because I store all of my panels on Google Drive so all I have to do is log-in and I'm ready to go. So I communicated this to the panel staff and they supplied the laptop and I paneled! They also honored their reimbursement policy and refunded me for the single day pass I had purchased.
Con: the merch options
This also isn't something that the convention can control, but I collect keychains for characters I cosplay from artists (so not the ones that are resell or bulk sellers). I usually attend anime conventions so they rarely carry comic merch which is more than understandable, but as such I figured that GCR would be more likely for an artist to carry a Spider Gwen keychain. But there was no Spider Gwen keychains! At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to order one off Etsy or get one custom made.
On the other hand though, Inga found a bunch of keychains, stickers, and a t-shirt she loved and got so maybe I'm too picky?
Pro: the panels
I've paneled at quite a few cons at this point, all with different panel reimbursement rates. And for the size of GCR compared to the reimbursement rate I'm so pleased. They had scheduled me for one panel of each day of the con which would end up reimbursing me for a full 4-day weekend badge. And while I couldn't end up taking advantage of this, I absolutely loved how they are taking care of their panelists with this.
I also feel like GCR does a great job of providing a variety of panels while still providing enough content that it feels like everyone has at least a few things that they're interested in each day. I'm more interested in the cosplay and photography panels with the occasional fandom panel at GCR, and I love that they set these up all in one hall of the convention center to make it easier for those who are like me and prefer that track of content.
A few things that I do want to mention but that I don't feel need their entire section this review are the parking, the lack of harassment, and the crowd.
I had no issues with parking at all, it was only $10 for the entire day and it was right next door to the convention center. This worked well since I used my car as a changing space/storage locker. I did have to park on the top floor of the deck so my car was in the sun, but I was also close to the elevator so it wasn't too terrible at all.
At cons I usually hear a lot of people complaining about being harassed, but I didn't hear a single complaint about that this year, in person or online. There were obviously those who are just a bit socially awkward, but no harassment which for a con of this size is extremely impressive.
For the crowd, I usually feel that GCR overfills their venue, or that they stuff it to max capacity and that it is way too crowded. But this year I could move from registration down to the vendors and artists in under 5 minutes. I tested it. Usually it takes me about 10 I feel like since there are lines for stairs or escalators, people standing in the middle of the walkway, etc. But not this year! They may have decreased the attendee allowance due to covid, but either way I much preferred it this year.