Geekfest 2017

This was my sixth year to attend Geekfest, my fifth to have a recruiting table, my fourth to do a panel, and my third to judge the contests and it was the best year yet!

Costume Contest

The costume contest has grown tremendously since it's inception.  This year we had over 70 entries.  We simplified the categories this year by eliminating the novice and advanced divisions in handmade and props and armor.  We then added groups as a new category.  We had over half the entries compete in the costume casual category, 10 in groups, 16 in handmade, and another dozen or so in props and armor.

Panel of Judges

Unfortunately we were down three committee members when it finally came time to make the trek to Killeen.  Meagan had a work conflict, Lindsey had childcare issues, and our newest committee member, Shanna, was in the ER!  The first day was rough only have me, Jason, and William to man the registration table, but we survived it.  Pre-judging went smoothly.  We were fortunate enough to find last minute replacement judges.  I brought Bailey Cole, MCC's newest theatre dept. adjunct, and Jason brought his friend Jennifer who judged with him on his first contest.  Our third judge was recommended to us by the Geekfest staff.  Line Up went much more smoothly down in the dome with the seats and extra cold air conditioning.  The house was SRO and a good time was had by all.  We gave out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies in all four categories plus one Best in Show and one Judge's Choice award.

From left to right: Danielle ?, Jennifer Piper, Bailey Cole, Kathleen Laundy (me), Jason Sanchez, and William Priest.

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Winners circle

Winners Gallery

Contestants Gallery

Geekfest's Got Talent

No one seemed to get what we were trying to do with this event in the two years past that I've been involved.  It started off as the Cosplay Skit contest, was rebranded the Cosplay Lip Sync Battle. This is now the second re-branding of this event that I've been involved in and we were told that if this didn't work out, the Sunday event would be cancelled. Honestly we were tired of the poor turnout of contestants and low audience attendance.  This year it was called Geekfest's Got Talent and that seemed to finally do the trick.  Everyone knows what a talent show is, all our contestants had to do was make it geeky. We had 14 people sign up to compete in costume.  We had four dancers, one Opera singer, other singers, a belly dancer, a stand up comedian who did impressions, a dramatic reading of Harry's Flying Lesson, a spoken word poet, and a martial arts demonstration.  It was great.  Everyone was super talented.  Hopefully this will just grow and be even bigger and better next year.

Judges and Winners