Feiten. Anders bekeken.

Re-visiting FACTS

Geschreven door  op in Cultuur, The Mobile Life.

If you are a proud geek living in Belgium, like we are here at The Mobile Life, you will probably have heard of FACTS. The biggest Comic-convention in the Benelux. By the end of this weekend over 40.000 people will have walked through the doors of Flanders Expo. Since 2004, I visited FACTS loyally each year, until 2009. Back, it was a smaller but fun convention in Ghent’s ICC. The iconic location in a park felt like a homecoming each year, but because FACTS grew that fast, the convention was moved that year to the bare halls of Flanders Expo. By necessity. So, since that 2009 change I haven’t been able to visit FACTS again due to scheduling issues, but earlier this year came the news that Artefix bought the entire convention!

A new organisation with involvement of the original caretakers, but with the chance of growing into something bigger and better. And to top it all, a new date at the end of September! “James, prepare my bags, we are going to FACTS!”, I clamoured into thin air, before remembering that I didn’t had a butler. So I packed my bag myself, and got on the morning train to Ghent.

KVDS-20150926-122017-8856-NIKON Df

As a convention veteran, I noticed that FACTS was always plagued with growing pains. Having visited conventions like Star Wars Celebration in the States, it’s hard to come back here. But this year, it felt like FACTS finally got into puberty. A fresh new look, staff everywhere and bigger than ever gave good first impressions. Historically when arriving at FACTS, you’d cue for the better part of an hour before you even reached the inside of a building, with some cosplayers in the skimpier outfits like Conan (not what you expected, right?!) having to brace the cold October fog. But when we arrived an hour after opening, there was not a single queue anymore, with every person crammed into the big expo hall. Quite the efficiency!

The fact that the ‘loud’ activities like the cosplay contest got moved to a separate hall made for a much more enjoyable experience. And from what I heard the food wasn’t bad either. I chose, just like many others, to eat at a nearby IKEA, which had quite the queue themselves for those meatballs. However, at FACTS there is still room for growing. Simple things like background music, convention carpet or better parking would make this a much more premium experience.

KVDS-20150926-152632-8917-NIKON Df

KVDS-20150926-152738-8918-NIKON Df

The actor-line up also got some pretty big names as well! Back to the Future’s Christopher Lloyd, Firefly’s Summer Glau, Game of Thrones’s Alfie Allen, Lord Of The Rings and Indiana Jones veteran John Rhys-Davies lead the provisional bill, followed by Ghostbusters’ Ernie Hudson (Rewatch the interview we did eight years ago with him!), our favourite walking carpet Chewbacca was also back in the form of Peter Mayhew. Following up is nineties teen-throb Casper Van Dien and William Sadler who we should remember from Homeland and Iron Man 3. Of course, with actors come cues and photo restrictions, for example, if you want take a selfie while doing your best Marty McFly impression with the good ol’ Doc Brown, prepare to lay down 50 euro on the table. An autograph? Another fifty. A photo during the photo session? Sixty euro! But who can put a price on memories of course.

The inside of the hall now had a great mix of display booths and a very wide variety of shops. Though the variety of shops have evolved quite a while from back when it started. It seems the huge anime trend from the past years has settled down, with action figures having more than once taken over. I can’t remember a single comic-book booth, and I still don’t think a gigantic booth of literary-geek drinks such as mede and absinthe bottles really belongs there, but, there was a lot of shops.

KVDS-20150926-155500-8945-NIKON Df

Talking about comic books, while the C officially still stands for comics, it’s almost like it has changed to Cosplay with more people dressing up than ever. Be it in elaborate costumes that make your mouth open in amazement, to Primark onesies. And let’s not forget to mention the slightly out of shape guy with only a mankini and a pair of purple ladies panties as a mask. (We wish we were kidding about that one.)

Another thing I was wondering about, is the pricing of the stores has changed quite a bit as well. Things like the Star Wars Unleashed figures, a cool line of bigger statues that ran from 2002 to 2006, retailed in the States for 15 USD. Pricing back then here started from 45 euro, all the way down to 10 euro, and now back up to 25 euro. From dumping prices to almost ‘vintage’.  Things like the brand new LEGO WALL•E which is available for 49,99 euro, was being sold at 70 euro. That’s not a mark-up, that’s a rip-off. The time of FACTS sales seems to be over, with better deals being found online. The irony is that some of the stores that have a booth at FACTS offer better pricing online as well, without the hassle of walking home with huge bags of merchandise. More than once my bags where filled with camera gear and FACTS loot, needing a chiropractor afterwards to get the pain from my back. This time I went home with only pictures and a press release.

KVDS-20150926-155651-8956-NIKON Df

KVDS-20150926-142400-8861-NIKON Df

Back when I was still a full-time member of TeeKay-421, the Belgian Star Wars Fanclub, I was present for two fulltime days. Back then we even had the crazy idea to create videos of the convention, years before the official after movies, with our interviews especially raking in tens of thousands of views. (2006, 2007, 2008)

However, these days I’m just a ‘mere visitor’, so I’ve had to make a choice this morning which train I would board this morning. Back to home in Hasselt, or back to the madness in Ghent?

Hasselt it was. All by all, FACTS is fun again, but with the massive crowds, I’m finishing this report from home. See you next year at FACTS, and good luck for those going today!

PS: view all the pictures here at Het Belang van Limburg.

Ook interessant

‘Uitgelezen’ brengt Hugo Matthysen naar Smaaksalon Hasselt

03/03/2017

03/03/2017

Op 7 maart vindt de volgende editie van ‘Uitgelezen’ plaats in het gezellige Smaaksalon in Hasselt. ‘Uitgelezen’ is een literaire...

Lightning To SD Card adapter (USB 3.0)

14/12/2015

14/12/2015

A single cable that replaces a MacBook Pro with an iPhone. Isn’t that just a preposterous thought? Strangely enough, with...

Curated music & random noise

06/06/2013

06/06/2013

<p>One of my favorite places to work from is a local coffee shop. Why? Music! </p>

Modemuseum opent expo ‘Across Japan’

04/03/2017

04/03/2017

  Dit weekend gaat het Yokoso Festival van start om het 25-jarige bestaan van de Japanse Tuin te vieren. Tot...

‘Use Hearing Protection: FAC 1 – 50 / 40’ over de vroege dagen van Factory Records

01/10/2019

01/10/2019

Heeft er iemand toevallig nog een uitstap naar Londen gepland, de komende weken? Indien ja, trek dan zeker tijd uit...

Pop-up PKP-symboliek als een écht festival niet kan

20/08/2020

20/08/2020

Een boodschap van hoop en optimisme. Met die bedoeling plaatste Pukkelpop vandaag totaal onverwachts haar iconische letters op de plek...

Jenevermuseum toont werk van schilderijendokters

01/02/2018

01/02/2018

Vanaf 4 februari kan je tijdens de expo ‘Jenever op doek’ in het Jenevermuseum van Hasselt gaan kijken hoe twee...

Netsky vs Boris

07/07/2013

07/07/2013

<p>This morning I was reading an interview with now-famous Belgian DnB musician Netsky. In the interview he talked about living on the road, where after weeks at a time being Netsky, coming home and just be Boris again. <br></p>

Game Of Thrones battles piracy

09/04/2015

09/04/2015

<p><span>What happens when you create the most popular show in recent TV history? Piracy.</span></p>

#MWC17: Wat is “blockchain” en hoe kunnen we het gebruiken?

27/02/2017

27/02/2017

Mobile World Congress draait niet enkel om mobiele telefoons en accessoires. Meer dan ooit draait het ook om het “Internet...

C-Mine Genk verkent fotografiegrenzen in expo ‘Tim Walker: Wonderful Things’

22/08/2020

22/08/2020

‘Tim Walker: Wonderful things‘ is de grootste tentoonstelling ooit over het uitgebreide en spraakmakende werk van de inventieve Britse fotograaf...

Rode Panda’s en Skywalk voor ZOO Antwerpen

27/10/2016

27/10/2016 1

Ze mogen opgelucht zijn in Antwerpen, er zijn (opnieuw) panda’s in hun zoo. Het feit dat het de schattige rode...

Apple Watch Impressions

16/05/2015

16/05/2015

<p>I've had an hour with the Apple Watch. And it was quite an introduction!</p>

Hello Bank!

17/05/2013

17/05/2013

<p>Hello Bank! is a completely new online-only bank by BNP Paribas Fortis. We were at the launch event in Brussels.</p>

We komen nu aan in Klant-Centraal

12/10/2016

12/10/2016

Er waait al even een frisse wind door de NMBS. Het eens zo statige staatsbedrijf is ondertussen bijna drie jaar...

Reageer
Geef een reactie

Het e-mailadres wordt niet gepubliceerd. Vereiste velden zijn gemarkeerd met *

Deze site gebruikt Akismet om spam te verminderen. Bekijk hoe je reactie-gegevens worden verwerkt.