Recap: Festival of Friendship 2023

 

From Brony to Bronte – Festival of Friendship 2023

Hoarse News Convention Report 2

Dr. Foal Duke, Basingstoke, Saturday 18^th March 2023. Note: In 2024 the con moved to Southampton and expanded to two days; would it hold up?Stay tuned to find out.

Small, but ambitious That's how I'd describe this particular convention.

This was a one day event out in the suburbs of Basingstoke, in the midst of the old stately manor of Downton Abbey and the classical redbrick home of Emily Bronte. This was my first time to this part of the world and while I expected it to be a bit off the beaten track, I certainly didn't expect it to be this far off; train strikes were planned for today, and appeared to follow me everywhere, from EponaFest in Milan last May to Nottingham and now here. Or should have been.

As I nursed a headache on Sunday's replacement bus with the smell of vomit on the other seat and the alarm threatening to pound my skull and stomach until their contents oozed from their holes, I reflected upon how lucky this convention was, in a country where even delays are delayed. It first started as a meet up for fans in the countryside in 2019, and thanks to having almost no budget, was able to come back in 2022 as a very small convention. This year attendance was actually up by about 20 percent and despite its location being a little difficult, the thing went ahead without a hitch. There's not much to say so I'll keep it brief.

 

The start of a new convention, with host Graham on the right cosplaying Snufkin really getting into character, chilling patiently as the laid back Moomin character does.

 

 

 

Panel – Equines in Animation with Stormblaze

This was an interesting little talk, and we were treated to the history of horses as humans have treated them in animation. The panel was presented well and covered a suprising amount of animation history, for such a niche angle; I put this down to the fact that horses were very difficult to animate and one of the first notable achievements in photography being the capture of a horse's running sequence. This panel had a nice variety of examples, from early classical depictions to the traditional styles trend-set by Disney in the 1930s and 1940s. The talk then led to other influences that eventually broke this mold, from the illusion of realism stemming from the varied, bulky styles as seen in Boxer and Benjamin in Animal Farm (1953) to the sleek, highly detailed take in the Australian animated series The Silver Brumby (1991) and how they pulled that off on a limited budget. And, of course, this brought us full-circle to the equines we know and love. Engaging and entertaining.

Event – Cosplay Competition

There's been a trend since the pandemic for some smaller conventions to move away from costume competitions owing to the small number of participants, so this was ambitious to say the least. The parade was over a little too quickly, without much fanfare, as there were less than ten attendees. However, this was more than made up for by the variety of costumes, which included a childhood favourite and a couple of nice OCs. The awards were quite numerous for this event's turnout, another sign that they're pushing the limit of convention size!

They were as follows: Overall Winner – this rather nice Capper cosplay; Best Junior Cosplay – Luna; Best OC Cosplay – Dark Heart; Best Fursuit – Donk (the donkey, believe it or not); Best Honorable Mention – Graham as Snufkin (from the Moomins, the only thing more girly than ponies).

Donk and Capper, two of the cosplay entrants.

Charity Auction – T.A.P.

This auction really punched above its weight, and managed to raise £2405 for t.a.p., a local therapy animal organisation that you can read about here. That's a lot for a single-day event with about 80 attendees. There were some really nice lots, as well. These included:

• Doctor Whooves Funko figurine, SIGNED BY DAVID TENNANT! Started at £50, went at £95;

• Fluttershy brushable toy signed by her voice actor Andrea Libman, started at £10, went at £55;

• Roller banner seen below, started at £10 went at £155;

• Roller banner (additional) started at £40, went at £100;

• Horse riding lessons, started at £40, went for £160,

• Transfer sheet for musician Prince Whateverer's new guitar, started at £40, went for £140!

 

Other Events

There were, of course, other events going on in the side room, including a panel on Electricity in Equestria, a couple of game panels, and a chill room for card games and so on. As this was effectively a community hall event, the standard of amenities was to be expected; there was a canteen serving snacks, sandwiches, tea, coffee, and even some alcoholic drinks, which were a little bit more expensive than I'd do them, except the drinks, which were cheaper. The music was two hours of the usual suspects from Prince Whateverer and Blackened Blue as a duo, and while it's not as exciting as a full con, had the vibe of any party down the local community hall and was fun enough. One person got removed for getting a bit too drunk and being a tad rude to the staff when they refused to serve them. Aas an added highlight, ScrimmyPone managed to catch the look on the musician's faces when they were back to back for the finale song and the lights suddenly came back on and the music cut at the last second. Apart from that one technical hitch, which was amusing, it was fine.

There were several shops and restaurants nearby. Accessing this con from London is easy, as most Western cities, via a bus from Basingstoke train station up to the village, which takes about twenty minutes. Just bear in mind that it's a ten minute walk from the stop to the hall, and it might be a bit hard to spot – it was covered in scaffolding and I walked right past it. Make sure you get a hotel nearby, of which there are three, so book early. You could get a room a bit further away and cycle, but these are country lanes so do so at your discretion. If you're able to get a lift back into Basingstoke there will still be stuff to do after midnight in the town centre, but bear in mind the takeways are expensive, like EIGHT POUNDS for a burger meal from a van. In London it's like £6.

One thing that intrigues me is, while the con is meant to serve the western half of the UK, it clearly drew devoted fans from up North and even Ireland and France. One guy had even come here from Italy via motorbike. It was a sign that the fandom was still going strong, and Spring was on the way; you can't ride in Winter weather, after all. It really was a Winter Wrap-Up and we knew it had been a pretty good one, as far as small cons go. So we left happy, to the sounds of our national anthem, Winter Wrap-Up, and we knew it would not be contested by the pretend one, Ghost Town by the Specials. Anyway, that's the Irish National anthem, last sung at My Lovely Horse 1997.