The Best and Worst of Cosplay Carnival 2022

After two years of hiatus due to the global pandemic, cosplay convention is back! Cosplay Carnival 2022 officially kicked off last weekend with some ups and downs. The 2-day event was held in SMX Convention Center that aims to bring the cosplay community back after a long break due to the covid-19 pandemic. It is definitely a great start for the cosplay community and an indication that we are slowly getting back to normal. While this event gives us a reason to rejoice, Cosplay Carnival 2022 welcomed Day 1 convention-goers with a bit of a fiasco.

The great crowd at Cosplay Carnival 2022 Day 1

Cosplay Carnival is a QueueCon!

I have been to several conventions prior to pandemic such as the annual Cosplay Mania, Ozine Fest, ToyCon, and AsiaPop Comicon and i must say that this is probably one of the worst conventions I have ever attended. Don’t get me wrong! I love the event and it was truly an awesome experience to finally witness an actual convention ever since the pandemic started. However, it seems like the organizers didn’t expect to have an overwhelming crowd which resulted to a long queue of people. Aside from the tickets that can be purchased online, there’s also an on-site ticket booth allowing walk-in visitors to enter the convention. THIS is actually normal setup for any convention but it seems like they failed to estimate the crowd and handled the situation poorly.

For instance, they could have built two separate lines; one for eTicket holders and one for those who purchase tickets onsite. Instead, they formed one long and seemingly endless queue. The event was scheduled to start at around 12 noon and we managed to arrive on time. However, the queueing took more than 3 hours of our time before we finally get access to their event hall. Apparently, the organizers decided to let everyone in after the crowd screams for a refund. Imagine the sacrifice of those cosplayers wearing those thick suits, queueing in a non-airconditioned hall? Not to mention the number of times they broke the health protocols in observance of the global pandemic.

Anyway, we get it that it is the first time in two years that a cosplay convention is being organized and they were not expecting such an overwhelming crowd. Hopefully future conventions will take this as a lesson and implement a better crowd management. Despite this poor crowd control, Cosplay Carnvival 2022 was still an awesome experience. Also, i realized that I am getting too old for cosplay convention as i can barely recognize some of the characters they are trying to cosplay lols.

Genshin Impact Cosplayers from Left to Right: Traveler, Yanfei, Tartaglia, Klee, and Albedo

The Impact of Genshin Impact

Aside from the staple cosplays, every year, there is one anime or game that will stand out. This year is seemingly the year for Genshin Impact. It is an action RPG that was released in major gaming platforms (including mobile) in 2020. Genshin Impact is notably a gacha game which means that there is a great number of characters to explore. Most of the cosplayers who attended this year’s Cosplay Carnival are sporting their favorite Genshin Impact characters.

Yae Miko

Qiqi and Kaedehara Kazuha

Qiqi

Raiden Shogun

Sucrose

Keqing

Yoimiya

Raiden Shogun

Venti (Archon Outfit)

Kamisato Ayato

Plant Lily

Plant Lily is a Vietnamese Cosplayer based in Singapore who has portrayed many characters such as Virtual Youtuber Kizuna Ai, Mashu of Fate Grand Order, Atago of Azur Lane, and Zero Two of Darling in the Franxx and many more. She has also been a guest for past international events like Midori Matsuri 2017 in Batam, Indonesia, Dhani Cosplay Event 2018 in Malaysia and Next Cosplayer Event 2019 in Fukuoka, Japan to name a few.

This is also her first time to visit the country. Plant Lily was the guest cosplayer for both Day 1 and 2. She dressed up as Nurse Marin from My Dress up Darling on her first day and Yae Miko on her second day.