Midwest Brony Fest Kansas City: The Over a Week Late Review

One of the first things said at MWBFKC shocked me right to the core. On the first panel, they claimed that EFN was legitimate news, while Horse News is mainly satirical. This shocked me to the core. Horse News, an incompetent rag? How preposterous! To remedy such claims, this article will be completely objective and factual. Anyways, keep reading past the break to hear the report on Kansas City's only pony convention.



On May 23, Midwest Bronyfest: Kansas City kicked off as... interesting, to say the least. Of course, they began with all the normal start of convention fare, reminding guests to shower, wear a different change of clothes every day, and that "no means no". Talk about some high standards, huh? After the rules, there was some talk of the fandom and how it started (these guys knew their shit and credited /co/, so they knew their shit), eventually the topic of /b/ came up. They actually warned people away from /b/, because they are megacasuals who need to git gud. If they were worth their salt, they would be warning people away from /mlp/, because we won the weirdest website, not /b/! I felt cheated, once again.

The next day, I had originally planned to go at nine A.M., but I had a huge hangover that totally was not a result of getting drunk during the panel the night before. I ended up making it to the convention in time for the VA panel, starring Kelly Metzger (Spitfire) and Peter New (Big Macintosh). This panel was very enjoyable, the voice actors did their voices, and my trusty cameraman recorded some of the questions. Questions were typically of the type only a large fandom could bring, stuttering and awkward. I almost died of spaghetti overdose, but somehow managed to struggle through. Afterwards, I went through the Hall of Happy Merchants, with fantastic prices that were absolutely not ridiculous. Some of the sellers were well known, such as Braeburned and Drawponies, but I had as much money as the PS4 has games (that's zero for those not in the know), so I bought nothing. After going to a Minecraft panel (the guy leading it said Minecraft was easier to mod than before, which is not true at all, where is my modding API?) and kinda watching a cosplay competition, I left for a short time, promising to return for the rave.

The judges of the cosplay competition

When I showed up to the rave, I was pretty shitfaced. I tried to film the rave with my phone's single shot camera mode. I later figured it out, but that footage is shaky as fuck.
Also, at some point while waiting in line for the rave, I took this picture of two guys cosplaying as anon. I don't really remember taking it. The rave was fantastic, and there was another HN staff member, Mushrooshi, as DJ to begin. However, soon after, I had to leave, sadly. I would not be able to return for the last day, but hopefully the convention will return next year.

Pictured (from left to right): Anonymous, Anonymous

MWBFKC may not have had the advertising, turnout, or the exciting city that you hear about in all the large conventions. That may turn some people away, but it really is not a bad thing. After the Unicon debacle over a year ago, these small scale conventions were hurt by people decrying them, claiming there was a lack of funds, that conventions should stick to the larger cities. The people who say that are wrong, what these conventions provide is the opportunity to participate in the fandom without the time/financial investment the big conventions require. Unicon was a one-off thing, a case of the convention not being able to make enough money. Small scale conventions do not typically have this problem, as they keep more realistic turnouts. I have no doubt in my mind that MWBFKC will return next year, bigger and better than ever. Attend your local conventions, they help keep the fandom going.