"Geek is Gangsta": Vancouver Fan Expo 2014

                When my friend first told me to buy tickets for the third annual Vancouver Fan Expo, I never in my geekiest dreams imagined how much fun I would have! In the one day that I joined the Expo (it ran for three days), I was able to meet and interact with some of my favourite celebrities, as well as enjoy a city-wide event that was full of excitement, fun, and mutual nerdiness. There was also much fun to be had while browsing the many vendors selling geeky paraphernalia from your favourite genres and shows; for instance, one stall was selling cute T-shirts with captions such as the one that inspired my post title ("Geek is Gangsta").

                 To explain the photo above, Karl Urban, who currently works in Vancouver on a FOX TV sci-fi drama known as Almost Human, captured my heart more than 10 years ago when I first watched him act in my all-time favourite movie trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, as Eomer of Rohan. As a result, you can probably imagine how damned happy I was to physically meet him during the Fan Expo!

My lovely fellow geek as Clara Oswald from Doctor Who.

                When I arrived at the Vancouver Convention Centre on that gloomy Saturday morning, I was greeted by Jokers on the skytrain, hobbits on the streets, and Scooby-Doo characters in the nearby Starbucks. The excitement in the air was palpable and I only wished that I had dressed up myself (I had been planning a sexy Gandalf costume but that dream had been abandoned during the stress of exam period).

                After I picked up my ticket and had walked into the crowded exhibition area, I was able to find two of my friends before we began taking pictures with the crazy awesome cosplay people. Half the fun of walking around the area was spotting characters from our favourite shows and comics; from the mainstream to the slightly obscure, people had dressed up to their geeky nines.

The super cute, vibrating Tribble (Star Trek) that my friend found hard to let go of.

Lego characters from The Hobbit!

   Since this was my first time at any sort of fan expo, I decided to go all out and buy a photo-op with my favourite actor at the convention: Karl Urban. Unfortunately, as he was one of the most famous individuals there, he was also the most expensive. A photo with my man crush cost me $70 (+ $10 for a digital copy which I definitely didn’t need)! You can imagine that I didn’t splurge on much else during that day. Also, we attended a Q&A session with the very good-looking and funny Steve Amell, the lead of the CW show Arrow. Honestly, I really regret not attending the Q&A session with Billy Boyd, who starred as Peregrin Took in The Lord of the Rings. According to some tweets that had me reeling in envy, Boyd had some a snippet from Edge of Night, a song that he sang in the third installment of the trilogy (The Return of the King). Can you tell that I’m a huge LOTR aficionado?

All about Breaking Bad: Walter White & Jesse Pinkman in their meth lab suits, Saul Goodman's calling card, and Walter White in his standard white undies.

Doctor Who geekdom: Matt Smith's Doctor Who, my Tardis button, and posing in the Tardis (with my eyes half-closed).

                My other main regrets include not getting some autographs from other actors from Harry Potter (Tom Felton), The Walking Dead, and other great shows such as Breaking Bad. Next year, I plan on obsessively planning out my Fan Expo strategy so that I can attend all of the Q&A’s that I want. As well, I will be saving up for a few of those photo-ops and autographs!  (I know I sound crazy but I don’t care.)

                

Have any of you attended an event like this before? If so, did you love it as much as I did?