Pyrkon 2019: A powerful report from the biggest fantasy festival in Poland People of Pyrkon 2019: Who did we meet at the biggest Polish fantasy festival?

Pyrkon 2019 took place on April 26 - 28 at the premises of the Poznań International Fair. As always, the event attracted tens of thousands of fantasy fans, and this year the Menway team. Bartek and Michał appeared at the largest Polish geek convention as reporters.Here's a short, casual editorial conversation about what they saw:

Venue

Bartek: First impressions of Pyrkon are provided by the place where it takes place. I have been to, in and near many venues dedicated to organizing events: halls, congress centres, stadiums, palaces, castles, fortresses, fortresses, citadels - none of them matched the size and scope of the center of the Poznań International Fair.

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Therefore, if anyone is still wondering why Poznań hosts the biggest geek event in the country, I answer: walk from one end of MTP to the other.

Huge halls and lots of larger or smaller rooms give you the opportunity to cram the huge crowd that comes to Pyrkon every year. Although this area is slowly becoming too small for such a crowd...

Michał: 52 thousand people. Exactly as many lovers of manga, anime, fantasy, sci-fi, RPG, video games, comic books, films and series came to this year's 19th edition of the Poznań fantasy festival.

Poznańskiego only in name, because the whole of Poland participates in the game, which we have already seen at the railway station in Krakow. We hadn't even boarded the train yet, and we already knew that the entire platform, crowded with people, was going to one place.

Bartek: Such a multitude of people guaranteed two things. Firstly, it was impossible to complain about boredom. Second: queues.

People

Michał: Pyrkon can boast of a very rich program. This year, as many as 938 lectures, workshops, performances and similar attractions were held. That's really admirable.

When you go to Poznań, however, you have to bear in mind the aforementioned 50,000 people with very similar interests. As a result, it may happen that wanting to take part in a specific point of the program ... there will simply be no space for us.

We learned about it painfully on the first day, when in the evening we tried to get to the room where a lecture on occultism in the Third Reich was being held.

There was no chance - and not only because the lecture turned out to be one of the most popular attractions of the event. The attempt to "break in" to a few other lectures ended even before kissing the doorknob.

We didn't even try to get to the meeting with the special guest of this year's edition, Christopher Judge, the voice of Kratos from God of War - despite having superpowers in the form of press cards.

For some, Pyrkon is parading around in the costume of their favorite character, for others meeting friends who are shooting the same movie or series. For many, this event will be associated with a long wait in front of closed doors. In this respect, smaller conventions are definitely superior.

Bartek: It seems to me that this number came from the tickets sold, because I got the impression that there were at least twice as many people. As befits the greatest celebration of people who are screwed every day at school and at work due to the unpleasant taunts of their colleagues, Pyrkon is teeming with life that spills out from every side, not only on the event grounds.

Both crossdressers and plainclothes nerds are also taking over the city center. Being there, one has the impression that here, for these few days, is the center of the world.

But it's hard to disagree - the common name "Kolejkon" did not come out of nowhere. Unfortunately, the walls are not made of rubber, like parts of costumes of low-cost cosplayers. The growing number of participants at the event generates long queues, often of several hundred people.

It does not depend on the organizers, but therefore if someone wants to take part in any lecture or meeting, they must arrive at least an hour earlier.

Yes, pyrkonowicze have the opportunity to sign up for selected events in advance, but this does not eliminate long queues like German supply lines on the eastern front.

Games

Bartek: - It's a pity that other big fish didn't appear with us. It would be nice to talk to them and show users the differences between our products - told us Lukas, a nice Czech, commander in chief of the Nintendo stand.

Pyrkon 2019: Powerful coverage of the largest People of Pyrkon 2019: Who did we meet at Poland's biggest science fiction festival? ></p><p>Sony or Microsoft could show up at such a serious event. Nevertheless, the zone with electronic games was very cool: Nintendo rocked it by providing dozens of Switches, and Alsen provided the party with other equipment where you could play for free. The part with retro games was also impressive.</p><p><b>Michał:</b> You're right that there was a lack of

As a fan of the company from the Italian plumber, I couldn't omit the fact that both hardcore players (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament) and parents with small children who could assemble and put into digital life Nintendo Labo constructions.

There was also... a synchronous dance! Nevertheless, there was a lot to play and from what we saw, consoles and retro equipment were one of the attractions that you could actually take advantage of at Pyrkon.

Bartek: But man does not live by electricity alone. Pyrkon works strongly in the subject of classic RPGs, but also battle games or board games. We benefited the most from everything related to the former.

The entire Story Zone was created for playing and a lot of speakers were invited, thanks to which you could meet with D&D, Warhammer, World of Darkness or Call of Cthulhu (we managed to talk to the latter). There were also LARPers who told how to make an RPG live in theory and showed it in practice.

Michał: It should also be mentioned that the lectures in this thematic block were of a very high standard. Glad we managed to catch them!

Contrary to appearances, we did not come across any Dantean scenes described by our colleague from Newsweek. I even dare say that the RPG brother was one of the calmest participants of the entire convention.

Bartek: Well, I don't know, some shady guys were hanging around... Just kidding. Strangely, as they write here and there, we did not meet those already famous thanks to a certain, very "credible" article (well, everyone plows as much as they can to attract attention) degenerates and perverts from "erpegies".

Pop culture

Bartek: Film, TV series and comics are also strongly represented. The most important thing that we should show off at the start is an interview with the legendary Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yoijmbo and winner of the Eisner award. Stan is a really cool and cheerful guy who impressed me primarily with his approach to work - he has been drawing every character of Usagi from scratch by hand for 35 years.

In addition, we enjoyed the large number of meetings, lectures, talks and panels related to audiovisual pop culture. Less happy, however, is that we did not manage to enter any of them due to their huge popularity. Maybe another time. Nevertheless, I approve.

Michał: As a long-time Star Trek fan, I've always felt a bit lonely. At Pyrkon I realized that I am not alone. Ba! I even took a picture with all the Trek fans present in Poznań!

I'm writing about it because fans of any pop culture franchise could find something for themselves there and meet soul mates. I don't think there was a fictional universe that wasn't represented - and I'm not just talking about cosplayers.

Speaking of the latter - at Pyrkon, as every year, the Masquerade was held, i.e. a competition for the best dressed participants of the event. The winner of this year's edition was Małgorzata "Margaret" Janikowska, who prepared an outfit for one of the characters from the Diablo series. However, we did not find out who won the Masquerade, i.e. the election of the best of the cheapest cosplays.

We hope that the Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat we met, who made his disguise from a T-shirt and jeans thrown over his shoulders, returned from this bloodless battle with the main prize.

Bartek: Oh, yes, it's nice that you mentioned it. A well-prepared costume is admirable, but I am a fan of "cheap cosplay" and I was not disappointed, because many pyrkon goers went in this direction. time and duties chased us...

Science

Michał: To our surprise, Pyrkon turned out to be not only a fantastic meeting place, but also a real scientific lecture place. You could listen to both the history of the military and the mysteries of the solar system. For those thirsty for excitement, a lecture on how to survive a plane crash has been prepared!

Bartek: Right - a very nice surprise (at the beginning: we didn't manage to squeeze in either, but we'll get it!) was the Science Block. To be honest - the topic of practically every meeting sounded great and if I had the chance I would go to every one. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who thought so...

Exhibitors, villages and stands

Bartek: Another surprise - I thought that we would spend the least time in the artists zone, Fantasium Creatium, and we were there very often.

The place is supposedly static and not much happens there, but there is a lot to see.

The figures from Transformers, Marvel and G.I. made a good impression. Joe, the ship models from Star Trek looked cool, and in the Klingon Village and Star Wars Cantina, it was even interesting to see the character. By the way - in the villages zone, Fantasium Suburbium there was also something to look at, the Tolkien Village looked especially nice.

Michał: "Visiting" the villages was so pleasant that they were one of the few places where the crowds were smaller. In addition, the fantastic settlements begged to be photographed in front of them. Everything could be touched or even put on, no wonder there were a lot of kids going crazy here and... at least two well-known politicians.

Michał: One hall was fully occupied by the exhibitors. The number of stands made it difficult to leave Poznań empty-handed. For publishers of books, comics and board games, the presence at Pyrkon was simply mandatory. It should also be mentioned that several new releases had their Polish premiere at the convention.

A nice surprise was also the stands of smaller exhibitors, where you could buy geek gadgets or works made by artists referring to pop culture. I really didn't think that I would leave Pyrkon with... craft soap!

Organization

Michał: Finally, a few more praises for the organizers. Thanks to their efforts, over 50,000 people could feel safe. We have not seen or even heard of any dangerous situation, and it should be noted that the number of melee weapons at the convention could embarrass many armies.

Crowds did not interfere with a quiet meal at the festival site.

When approaching one of the food trucks, I expected to wait for an order - as if for a lecture - at least an hour. I received the dish after less than a quarter of an hour and I know that I was not an isolated case. Great respect!

Bartek: Maybe it's boring, but again I agree, because the organization of the whole thing deserves praise. Since we have finally reached the gastronomic and entertainment part, it is impossible not to mention that one of the Wielkopolska craft breweries appeared there, serving drinks prepared especially for Pyrkon. It made a nice atmosphere. In addition, there was a full-fledged stage playing until late at night - great atmosphere and full of fun.