By Victoria Stone-Meadows
Deza-Con III was back with a vengeance this year, with over 400 people attending the third incarnation of the region’s only pop culture event.
Cosplayers, gaming enthusiasts and comic book lovers all turned out to the Narre Community Learning Centre on Saturday 27 May to share their love of all things pop culture.
Event organiser and father of Deza-Con Roy Condeza said the third Deza-Con event was a great success.
“We smashed it,” he said.
“It was great; we got a bit over 400 people come through which is a really good turnout and more than previous years.”
There were events within events at the convention, with the cosplay competition bringing out the best costume adaptions and recreations in the area.
Missbear Haven (Annika Godfrey) took out the top prize for her steam punk Mary Poppins adaptation.
“The idea came at the start of the year because my daughter and I wanted to be involved in steam punk themed Disney characters and my costume was originally for Supanova,” she said.
“The costume just seemed to work; Mary Poppins is such a magical character and seems to be timeless and I love the movie so I feel like I kind of connect to character.”
“Since I’ve been in the cosplay community, I get nicknamed the cosplay mum because I take my daughter with me to most cons and we do costumes together – she had a ball at Deza-Con.”
There were also local comic book artists set up in the newly introduced Artists’ Alley as well as a Nintendo Game Zone set up by Nintensive Gaming.
The proceeds from the refreshment crew were donated to local humanitarian group Transit and the proceeds from the Nintensive Games Zine donated to the Peter Mac Cancer Research Centre.
Mr Condeza said he was looking forward to bringing the event back later this year.
“We’ll be back again toward the end of this year and I have a few new things in play. I can’t say too much yet but there are exciting things in the works,” he said.
Mr Condeza extended his thanks to everyone involved in the convention to make the event as successful as it was.
“I want to thank everyone who turned up to make the event a success from traders, to artists, volunteers and the attendees,” he said.
“Everyone had a great time and we got so many positive comments from people coming out so we are really happy.”
Vendors, stall holders, artists and cosplayers interested in participating in the next Deza-Con and contact Roy Condeza on 0402 019 201 or rcondeza@hotmail.com.
