I think the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about Eirtakon is that the convention had more than its fair share of ups and downs. That isn’t to say that the convention as a whole was poor, quite the contrary it was most enjoyable...

I think the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about Eirtakon is that the convention had more than its fair share of ups and downs. That isn’t to say that the convention as a whole was poor, quite the contrary it was most enjoyable, it just suffered many setbacks, even before the opening day.

Despite the major blow of the robbery the convention suffered which as a result caused the lost of their special guest Chris Patton the people at Eirta still managed to sort themselves out and pull something together after a string of very bad luck.

The first day for me was one of the most fun and enjoyable days, not just because I was on the winning team for the pub quiz but because of the calm and friendly atmosphere, not to mention the great fun seemingly had by all during the anime quiz, even if there were a few technical glitches, the quiz was the followed by the extremely popular Evangelion drinking game in which a classic episode was shown gaining many cheers and smiles from the viewers (as well as the drinkers).

Saturday then brought yet more anime screening and the Masquerade. There were 6 cosplayers in total taking part in the Masquerade (2 of which being Dragonslayers members) but unfortunately there were not in the top 2 mainly, at least in my opinion, due to a minor lack of experience on the part of the Eirta judges who judged the winners on crowd reaction alone as opposed to the normal convention ruling of costume detail, level of difficulty to make etc.

Finally came Sunday where the main attraction was the Closing Ceremony. It was here that the prizes were awarded and the 2 main competition winners were drawn. The main prize of the day though was won by one of Dragonslayers very own who won a copy of the first volume of the popular graphic novel and anime Trigun. What made it special was that this copy came with a certificate of authenticity and was signed by the original Japanese author Yasushiro Nightow

In the end I have to admit I really enjoyed the convention but I unfortunately also feel the need to point out some of the major flaws I noticed. The first and probably the biggest flaw was the lack of supplies. On the first day there had been a problem and the rules for the Evangelion drinking game were not able to be projected next to the screen as advertised and as such con-packs were handed out. This meant that there was a shortage of con-packs with some not being available until Sunday. The major downfall in this lack of supplies was that many visitors from what I could see were unable to claim the advertised free con t-shirt with some people only able to get them as they stayed on alert and were ready to run and collect one at short notice. The next flaw was the judging of the masquerade which, as mentioned above, went by crowd reaction as opposed to actual costume detail. I see this as a flaw as a Dragonslayers member was entered who had spent at least a hundred hours preparing a costume only to be beaten by someone who admitted his costume took around 10 minutes. Lastly there was the schedule, to be blunt the prepared schedule given in the con-book was almost thrown out the window, with certain events overrunning and calling for a drastic rethink of what was to happen and others just not happening at all.

Given that this was actually the first attempt to run a convention though, I would rather not end on a negative note and understand completely that all these problems were caused by numerous problems, a bad run of luck being a main culprit. From theft of funds to site rules causing major problems to the schedule the Eirta members certainly had their hands full throughout the weekend and even well before that. In the end though I think that it was a good start given everything that happened, with the convention still going ahead and getting roughly 200 members according to a final count. I am now looking forward to next year where I can get back down for yet another fun weekend of anime viewing and blowing my budget at the dealers tables. This years Eirta was a great way to try and break in a full 3-day convention into Southern Ireland and if nothing else will also provide a huge well of experience for the organisers who despite a lot of setbacks managed to keep their heads (at least in public) and keep everything running right to the very end.