Get your con on: what you need to know about CapriCon 2019
Cosplay! Tabletop gaming! Special guests! Vendors! Central Queensland’s highest concentration of geeks-per-square metre!
CapriCon Steampunk and Pop Culture Convention is back for 2019 on April 6. Following a couple of packed-out years at the southside library, this year the event moves from its spiritual home to the Rockhampton Showgrounds.
Special guests
This year’s guests include cosplayer Scrap Shop Props, and fursuiter Skyehigh Studios.
Cosplay competitions
Nominations are open now for the official CapriCon cosplay competitions. You can enter twice - once as an individual in your age section, and once as part of a group in the team competition.
Open categories
For cosplayers over 13.
Top Cosplayer: for the cosplayer who best combines costume construction skills and their portrayal of the character. Characters can be from any suitable movie, TV or streaming series, comic book, card game etc - no original or custom characters. Judges may ask for reference material.
Top Crafter: for cosplayer who provides the best demonstration of costume construction skills. There are no character eligibility rules for this category, so go to town with your original characters and mashups!
Top Team: Two or more eligible cosplayers. Custom characters are OK, but your group should generally be from a recognisable franchise.
Judge’s Choice Award - Special Category: This is a special award open to all enrants, with no set criteria. It’s the judges’ special call for someone they feel deserves some extra recognition.
Here are the ground rules for all the open categories:
Entrants must have made at least 50% of the costume being worn, and be able to provide evidence (like work in progress pictures or creation notes) at the judges’ request
The other 50% can be pre-purchased bits and pieces you can’t practically make yourself, like wigs or shoes. They should be minor parts of the costume, and modified to suit the costume rather than looking off-the-shelf.
Costumes and props must follow the CapriCon weapons policy (more on this below)
Junior category
For cosplayers five to 13 years old.
Kids’ costumes can be purchased, made, or a combination of both. Extra credit may be given for costumes made or modded by the participants themselves, with reasonable help from a grown up.
Other competitions
Allsorts Open Mic is hosting an unofficial CapriCon-themed after-party at their show at the Saleyards Distillery that evening, including an informal costume competition judged by an audience panel:
Best cosplay: no set rules around made versus bought but extra credit will be given to costumes that show an effort has been made
Best fan regalia: not a costume as such, this is an opportunity to dress head to toe in your finest fan merchandise
Shittest cosplay: no time, money, or talent? Hit up a discount shop for an ill-fitting Generic Boy Wizard With Glasses set or tie a sheet around your shoulders and call yourself Superman, this section is for the shallow end of the costume swimming pool.
Workshops
If you’d like to learn new skills to help make your costume, CapriCon is offering pre-con events to learn everything from makeup to prop building to wearable tech. Check out their events list to see what’s on and how to get involved.
She’s out in an alley because the con staff wouldn’t let her bring in the piece of broken glass.
Weapons policy
It might be a Con but we still live in a society, so no, you can’t wave around a realistic gun or a piece of sharpened metal in public and not expect to be bounced out.
If you’re bringing bits and pieces it’s a good idea to check out the whole policy, but here are the main points:
No genuine or replica weapons, including martial arts weapons.
Toy/prop guns need to have orange safety tips
No firing projectiles. Nerf guns must be unloaded
No props or weapons with powder charge (includes cap guns) or flamable fuel
No metal props or weapons. Metal armour is OK if it has no sharp edges. POSSIBLE exeptions for lightsabre hilts if the blade itself is plastic and you behave yourself with it (no duelling indoors)
No props or weapons more than a metre long in inside areas (they’re OK outside)
No functional bows, slingshots, crossbows, or arrows. Non-functional prop versions cannot have high-tensile stringing. Non-functional prop arrows have to stay attached to your costume
No laser pointers
Sports gear as prop or weapon (like baseball bats) has to follow the same length and safety guidelines as other weaponry
CapriCon staff have the final say in what is and isn’t allowable.
Judi Mason is the Central Queensland author of Stories from the Law of Attraction: The Good, the Bad, and the Funny. In part one of this week's three-part series, we learn what the Law of Attraction is - and what it has to do with hill starts.