Yaoi Con 2017 Review!
Yaoi Con 2017 Review!
By Michelle Gonzalez
Since I was a young anime fan, Yaoi Con has always been on my list. I always dreamed of going the second I turned 18 and frolicking amongst all the Boy Love and Yaoi with my friends. Years later and though I grew out of my yaoi phase, I had the opportunity to go with some of my very best friends, so I jumped at the chance!
Yaoi Con is held every year in the Northern California Bay Area region and was first established in 2001. It’s a uniquely 18+ only event that focuses on “fan-centric” entertainment surrounding
the love and adoration for all out anime boys.
This year it was held in Santa Clara’s Hyatt Regency Hotel. The hotel was a very nice location, and the hotel staff was very welcoming to the con-goers. The hotel had a heated pool and hot tub, and though there weren’t many food options around the immediate area, the hotel did their best to create food and drink specials within the hotel’s restaurant and cafe.
Yaoi Con itself was a lot smaller than anticipated, both in size of the venue, the amount of attendees, and the size of the vendor hall. The con itself only had a handful of entertaining events like yaoi bingo which is one their larger events, a few workshops, an auction, and their masquerade. The auction was not cosplay focused, but performance based. Each group or solo performance would go up on stage, do their skit, and afterwards they would be auctioned off! I had never seen that done before at a convention and thought it was very fun for the audience and the people who performed as well.
But even though it was on of the smaller conventions I’ve attended, Yaoi Con made up for it’s size with an absolutely amazing artist alley, special guests of honor, and even a cute all yaoi manga library. But what overall stood out to me the most was the acceptance of everyone. It was a convention, without judgement of body types, race, identity, and cosplay. It was a convention that was very stress free, fun and a safe space for people to express themselves, their love for yaoi and to make friends.
Pros
-friendly staff
-well organized
-great artist alley
-low stress
-friendly and accepting community
Cons
-small
-not very many outside food options
-smaller vendor hall
-not very many panels/events
Chicano | Fighting/Writing for Diversity | DM since 08 | Anime Lover | Site: https://www.thegeeklyfe.com | info@thegeeklyfe.com | http://twitch.tv/that_deangelo | https://linktr.ee/deangelomurillo
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Kouki
I’ve always loved everything about Yaoi con, but I agree they could use more events and vendors. Perhaps when it grows more popularly attended, they’ll do it. Sadly I cannot go anymore because I moved out of SF and now live in Texas. 🙁