FEATI-Otaku Festival 2011
FEATI University’s Computer Science Society, in cooperation with Otaku Valenzuela (O-VAL) held the FEATI-Otaku Festival last July 30, 2011. It was held at their school gymnasium located at their Sta. Cruz, Manila campus. Three competitions were held during that day as part of the event – cosplay, costume-building and drawing. There was also a maid cafe side event. The event started out at two in the afternoon, but cosplayers and attendees were coming in as early as 10 am. Since it was a Saturday, FEATI students who had classes that day also attended the events and took pictures with the cosplayers.
There were 47 cosplayers who attended the event, and they were divided into two groups. Present were characters from popular anime such as Naruto and Soul Eater. Armor and mecha cosplayers also joined like Mazinger Z and Henger from Monster Rancher. In the end, Don Robert Torio’s Iron Man Mark V won the top prize for the competition (picture below). As with a regular convention, booths and bands were also present – for the latter, bands such as Ikuso Iwa, Breaking Hubris and Onigiri Infusion rocked the house with Japanese anime theme covers. Saishin Hobby and Sugarfree and Blue were some of the booths who were at FEATI during the event. Otakultura was able to cover the festival, and here are some of the team’s thoughts about it.
Ruby Knight’s POV
It’s been a while since I last cosplayed. I arrived at the venue at about 10:15 in the morning, since it was rather accessible from my school (I had to finish something school-related before I left), only requiring me to ride both LRT lines. As soon as I arrived, I changed into my costume and met with Prawnt, Colocoy and Chylle. We stayed for a while at the booth area, then we went up when the program started. It was done in their gymnasium located at the fourth floor, providing a good view of the Pasig River just outside the window. The program should have started at 1pm but it was delayed to an hour later. I didn’t stay for long and left about 3:30 in the afternoon.
I can’t really say that the event was 100% appealing in my opinion. First up, the booths were rather far from each other. I managed to talk with other exhibitors and they agreed on one thing – there was no fixed exhibit area. Two sponsors were on the ground floor and two were on the fourth – one even packed up early since their location was detrimental to their business. Another even told me that since they paid for those booths and the event itself, they should get their money’s worth. Second, the bands performing somehow delayed the competition. I have no problem with them performing, but I was expecting only one band playing their set before the catwalk, then another band plays after it. It’s like they crammed the program, adding to the delay in schedule.
On the other hand, I would like to commend the organizers for doing a good job in the logistics aspect. As soon as people entered, the registration desk was ready – although it was far from the event proper itself. ROTC cadets served as security officers and marshals to guide the cosplayers; their headquarters even served as the dressing room and lounge for cosplayers who joined the event.
Chylle’s Glance
I found the school event to be lacking on the exhibition part since I was hoping for something rich in culture to be featured either by theme or by presentation. Nevertheless, it was quite something to successfully hold an event despite rain or shine – and that is an understatement with how high the floods were at that time. When Colocoy and I arrived at the event, it was still way before the opening of the registration area and the entrance proper. We could see exhibitors still preparing their wares; but what I did like was the organizing body all motivated with smiles as they made last minute preparations for the event. The mood in the air did not feel as tense and stifling with the outside humidity since everyone was chatting happily as they did their work, which was a nice change from all of the main events that I visited – pre-opening.
The event area, being the main staircase going up to the fifth floor and the gymnasium, was an interesting distribution of exhibitors and contest areas. I can probably guess and understand how they wanted the main stage area to be as open as possible. They were probably expecting the worse case scenario that all 1000 visitors will parade to the event area and fill the place, which is a very prudent move. But it seemed to have backfired since the main stage area was hogging all the attention which left little incentives to go down and visit the exhibitors. Which was kind of sad, seeing how much of the happenings in the main event area, other than listening to the live bands, were appreciating the maid cafe, the photo booth, and the cosplayers. I did fancy the Dunkin’ Donuts kiosk though, I frequented that kiosk more times than I remember.
But what I still found surprising was that 47 registered cosplayers graced the stage that day, still not counting the cosplayers who did not join the contest because I cannot remember the exact number. And for a simple school event, it was nice to see high quality costumes of different shapes and sizes all over the place. The main stage area was pretty lively with plenty of curious students and visitors all mingling with each other. At first, I swear I did not believe that so many professors came to the event until I saw their IDs hanging from their necks and students calling them in proper pronouns. I even watched in dumb amazement as a Sister was genuinely smiling and observing the event. Despite the negative nitpicking I can point out, I, in the end, enjoyed the event seeing so many enjoying it themselves. It deserves to be called a success.
Colocoy Thinks…
Okay, it was a really wet day but still – Chylle and I decided to go to FEATI for their first cosplay event. We heard that the event can only accommodate 1000 people so we went there 30 minutes earlier than the mentioned time. On Facebook they said that it would start around 10, but an organizer said that the actual event will start around 12 – so we waited for more than 2 hours. 12:30 struck but the event has not started yet. Being their first time, I can understand the situation.
One of the problems that I noticed is that the important places are so far away from each other. For example, the registration is found on the bridge entrance which is found on the other building – away from the event hall. Also, the merchandise booths are found at the 4th floor while the event proper is in the 5th floor where all the crowd gathers. I hope that, next time, they can find a way to resolve this because it could be really troublesome for both visitors and exhibitors. As for the event itself, I can say that I really enjoyed it. Just seeing different bands who really played well (sorry guys, I forgot my videocam) and watching 47 cosplayers (I was surprised that many registered) is enough. In addition, the professor who gave the opening remarks enlightened the crowd what the word “otaku” really means.
Everything was going well and I can say that I was really enjoying the event until for some reason, a group of cosplayers went to the stage and did some picture taking WHILE A BAND WAS PERFORMING. What’s worse is no one from the organizers stopped them. The band was the event’s guest (and as far as I know they played for free) and I think they don’t deserve to be treated like that.
I’m looking forward for the next event from FEATI and I really wish for more improvements and that “incident” won’t happen again.
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Tags: Anime & Manga, cosplay, Event, events, FEATI-O
