At a Con Far, Far Away…

Hannah Middaugh and Kirsten Bilger attend AwesomeCon 2018 as official members of the press

AwesomeCon, located in Washington D.C., welcomed thousands of fans on Mar. 30 to Apr. 1. During the event, fans were able to attend different sessions, which consisted of Writing Dynamic Characters and #Buffy20, meet and greet television actors and comic writers, and buy as much merchandise as possible.

 

However, the event would not be complete without the cosplayers.

Cosplayers, portraying various superheroes—Batman, Captain America, and Green Arrow—to characters from anime- Kaneki Ken (“Tokyo Ghoul”) to Goku (“Dragon Ball Z”), lined the streets of D.C. and the halls of the conference center.

However, one common theme outranked all the rest—Star Wars!

People dressed as characters from “Star Wars” dominated AwesomeCon. Kylo Ren, Rey, older Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Stormtroopers, R2D2, and BB8 roamed the floors of the conference center. There were even life-sized, fully-functioning droids, a mock museum of actual costumes from the latest films, and a mockup of Luke’s land speeder for attendees to geek out over.

In between sessions, these cosplayers took advantage of the characters they were dressed as, staying in character for most of the convention.

Kirsten with Darth Vader

While fans were browsing the merchandise and booths, one girl dressed as Rey challenged a Kylo cosplayer to a lightsaber duel. As a group of bystanders gathered around, the two displayed their light sabers and the battle began. Within seconds, the group grew bigger, each one filming the fight unfolding before their eyes. At the end, Rey successfully pushed Kylo back and arose victorious.

The highlight of the weekend was a headlining appearance by John Boyega who plays Finn in both “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi.” Also in attendance was Joonas Suotamo who plays Chewbacca—a role previously performed by Peter Mayhew.

Overall the weekend proved a success. It was a lot of fun and provided a number of rare opportunities to cover a large event.

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