ITAI Behind the Scenes

Mochi Fest was a last minute decision on our part. We had done one previous event with YumiCon (the Lunar New Year). The Lunar New Year had gone great, so we when the weekend of Mochi Fest opened up for us, we emailed asking if we could vend and they said yes. I’m very grateful!

The first day was super windy, and I had to set up the tent myself because Jack wasn’t feeling well. A lot of tears later and help from the guys at the next booth over I got it all set up and was good to go. Truthfully I wasted like 2 to 3 hours of vending time in the morning just being sad and not on my A game.

Where Mochi Fest really shined was the cosplayers.

Maybe it was just the weather, but there were SO MANY great cosplayers there.

By great cosplays I mean high effort ones.

When I “dress up”, it’s always very casual, so no hate to more casual cosplayers, I am definitely one of you. I say “dress up” because after seeing everyone at Mochi Fest I would never want to call anything I do cosplay again. Everyone there was so amazing!

There were a ton of Spy Family members and Mikus at the con.

One of the dads ended up breaking his arm during an arm wrestling contest. I heard the whole thing, and Jack saw it, but I am still not 100% sure how it happened.

Milk builds strong bones I guess. I could make a lot of jokes about that. Please imagine I said something very funny.

One of the voice actors was Meg McClain, English voice actor or Rachel Gardner from Angel’s of Death.

She is famous for other animes as well but that’s a whatever. Angel’s of Death is one of my top favorite animes of all time. There was someone cosplayed as Zack Foster from the same anime at the convention as well, but I didn’t get a good picture of him.

One thing I appreciate about Mochi Fest is that the panels are free. Since Mochi Fest is a smaller con, there is only one stage. Every event happens on that same stage and is open for everyone.  It makes the convention feel more community and fan oriented. Part of the reason I don’t like most conventions is that they are very “pay to play” (you need to buy a pass to get in, then a pass to get into individual areas, you can’t make all the panels…)

Mochi Fest, the entry free is just the parking to Trader’s Village and then, since everything is open, you can watch the entire convention from every booth/ be a part of everything.