A gaming and popular culture convention took place at the Yellowknife Community Arena last weekend. Participants included cosplayers, boardgame lovers and vendors with merchandise from various animations and games.
According to Ptarmicon vice-president Aimee Dentinger, the summer convention offers something for everyone, with events ranging from board games and role-playing games to a huge video game area and a live-action escape room. There are also food vendors, an artist alley featuring local artists and even a rock show on Saturday night.
One of the highlights of the convention is the cosplay contest, which took place on Sunday at 2 p.m. Local cosplayers showed off their best costumes, and there was also a photo booth run by charity sponsor Home Base Youth Centre, where attendees could have their picture taken with their favorite characters.
Despite the challenges that come with organizing such a large event on a volunteer basis, Dentinger said, “We’re a group of volunteers that are doing this in their spare time, but for the most part we do it because we like it.”
Ptarmicon was first established in 2009 and the convention just kept growing, according to Dentinger.
“We used to run a lot of these events out of school gyms and some of the smaller venues like in the mall… and obviously now we have to use a big arena or else we can’t fit everyone in,” she said.
Michael Liu, a cosplayer who was in his costume inspired by the monster known as Cthulhu, has been engaged for a couple of years with different characters and outfits. Liu said he was pleasantly surprised that there was a comic convention in Yellowknife since he had only arrived about a year ago from Toronto.
Riley Beck, another cosplayer who was in a Zero-two outfit — a character from an animation called Darling in the Franxx — said this is one of her passions. She started getting involved when she was 13.
Tammy Roberts, executive director of Home Base Youth Centre, said this was the second year that her organization partnered with Ptarmicon.
“It’s just really good exposure for our organization because we’re all about letting people know what we do and how we support youth in the community,” she said.
Another reason is that because the organization mainly focuses on youth, getting young adults exposed to new things is one of their priorities.
“The more things they are exposed to, the better chance they’re going to find something that really makes a connection for them,” she said.