This Saturday sees the inaugural Mountain State Pop Expo at the Charleston Town Center Marriott. You can expect a collection of cosplayers, gamers, toy collectors, comic book fans, movie buffs, genre fiction fans and more like-minded individuals, all coming together in one big celebration of pop culture.
All proceeds go to benefit the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, to provide aid to Foster Children and adopted familes. Admission is only five dollars, with kids under ten admitted free with an adult. There will be a game room and tournaments and an all-ages cosplay contest, plus a special unplugged musical performance by HARRAH. The PopCult and RFC crew will be milling about all day, too.
This is all Saturday, starting at 10:30 AM at The Charleston Town Center Marriott. Follow the jump for a full schedule and more details.
Mountain State Pop Expo Schedule:
10:30 – 10:45 AM: Opening Ceremonies
10:45 – 11:30 AM: Cosplaying for Charity
with Causeplayers, Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club, and Ghostbusters – West Virginia Division
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Cheap & Easy Monster Makeup with Sarkany Studios
12:30 – 1:30 PM: Cosplay for EveryBODY! with Kiss a Frog Cosplay
1:30 – 2:30 PM: Pair-up Panel with Taylor Lovejoy
2:30 – 3:30 PM: HARRAH Live Acoustic Concert
3:30 – 4:30PM: : Cosplay Q&A with Celestiial Cosplay, Midori Kaguya Cosplay, Xehnis Cosplay and Bunny Bombshell
4:30 – 5:30 PM: Cosplay Craftsmanship Contest Walk-on and Awards
5:30 – 6:00 PM: Raffle and Closing Ceremonies
*Cosplay Craftsmanship Contest has prejudging until 3:30. Be sure to register at the cosplay table early to get a time for judging.
COSPLAY CRAFTSMANSHIP CONTEST:
Would you love to show off your awesome cosplay on stage? When you register for the cosplay craftsmanship contest, you will be given a chance to show off your costume on stage! Even if you rather not be judged, we have a exhibition walk-ons category as well.
CONTEST CATEGORIES:
EXHIBITION: This category is for people who only want to show off their costume on stage for fun. It will not be for competing to receive awards. This category allows: commission costumes and store-bought costumes. There will be a limit to this category depending on contestants.
JUNIORS (Ages 12 and under): This category is for those who are 12 and under. You are allowed to receive help on your costume from friends and family.
ORIGINAL DESIGN: This category is for all costumes that are based on your own design or a fanart design. There is no award limitation for this category.
NOVICE: This category is for contestants that are new to making costumes for themselves. No more than 1 major award and/or no more than 4 costumes made.
JOURNEYMAN: This category is for contestants that have won no more than 3 major awards and/or more than 10 costumes made.
MASTER: This category for those who have more than 3 major awards and/or more than 15 costumes made.
ABOUT THE JUDGED CATEGORIES:
All costumes must have been made from scratch by the costume creator. Most of your items need to be made by you. Commissioned costumes cannot be entered into the contest but is welcomed to be in the exhibition category. Fanart costumes will only be permitted in the original design category. All costumes must be derived from the original source material/artist/creator.
You can register for the contest at the cosplay sign-in/judging table. Remember if your costume is being judged for craftsmanship you must have a printed reference of your character for the accuracy score. It is prefered for it to be a color printout, but bringing figures, tablets, manga, books, laptops, etc., will also be accepted. We will schedule you a time at sign-up to come back for judging of your outfit. Judging will be on 10 minute blocks so make such to come a little early for your time just in case someone drops.
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