Kamloops’ own Dungeons and Dragons-themed convention was held in the Campus Activity Centre again from Oct. 4-6. The weekend was filled with more costumes, vendors, and gaming events than in previous years.
Every floor of the Campus Activity Centre was packed with tables decorated in gaming-themed merchandise and personal artworks from many of KamCon’s special guests, including that of Call of Cthulhu’s artist, Toren Atkinson.
Atkinson, a well-known figure in table-top gaming circles, was quite busy at the event. In addition to interacting with guests at his booth, Atkinson hosted several gaming tables and designed artwork for one of KamCon’s t-shirts. The t-shirts with Atkinson’s Cthulhu design became a hot commodity and were nearly sold out by the second day of KamCon.
Atkinson told the Omega that he doesn’t usually attend conventions anymore but made an exception for KamCon this year.
“The organizers approached me last year to come. I used to go to conventions fairly often, like 10-20 years ago, but I kind of stopped doing it,” Atkinson said. “I’d got burned out, so [being at conventions] wasn’t something I was interested in doing anymore.”
Originally, Atkinson only agreed to do the artwork for KamCon. Still, after being asked by the event’s coordinators, he decided to attend for the weekend, manage games for guests and interact with fans.
Aside from selling many of his Call of Cthulhu artworks, Atkinson brought CDs featuring music from his Cthulhu-themed band, The Darkest of the Hillside Thicket.
Vendors, however, were not the only attraction bringing fans to KamCon 2024, with night two of the event featuring a cosplay contest, with characters such as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Flareon from the Pokemon franchise, and Astarion from Baldur’s Gate 3 appearing alongside many cosplayer’s original Dungeons and Dragons characters.
Augustus Holman/The Omega
Cosplayer Seren Crawford, a fan from Vernon who travelled for the contest, constructed their Astarion costume almost entirely from scratch. While many awards were given to the various cosplayers, Crawford’s Astarion won Best in House for their dedication to the character, their craftsmanship and detailed costuming.
“I started [my Astarion cosplay] in July, and I finished it right at the end of August… so I did it in a bit of a crunch. I made my armour as well as my pants entirely by myself,” Crawford said. “My dad sent me a link [about KamCon] because I’ve been getting into cosplay, and he saw that there was a cosplay contest at KamCon. The website looked really cool, and I saw that the event has been going on for a while which is great.”
After the costume contest results were revealed, all cosplayers marched through the event in a parade to show off their costumes.
According to the event’s website, KamCon ‘24 was a great success and will be held again next year.
For more information on future KamCon events, check out their website here.