Colossalcon East 2021 Cosplay Gallery And Event Report Part 1

Colossalcon East returned to the Kalahari Resort & Convention Center for their fourth annual convention on September 17-19 this year.

Like many other conventions, Colossalcon East cancelled in 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic. As much as it pains me to type “ongoing,” that is indeed the case, as here in the United States we are riding high on the fourth wave of covid-19, with the 7-day average of new cases being close to 150,000 throughout the country.

Colossalcon East’s mask policy for the convention was as follows: “We ask that all attendees wear a mask while inside the convention center area. Those who are exempted as per the CDC guidelines can opt-out of a mask, we ask that you please wear a mask for short durations in the guest autograph area. Bullying anyone for wearing/not wearing a mask will result in immediate removal from the convention floor. Bullying of any kind will not be tolerated.” This policy stops short of making masks mandatory. Likewise, the Kalahari Resort does not require its staff or visitors to wear masks.

Colossalcon East is an anime-themed convention, which features the sort of programming and activities you’d expect for a convention of its genre. There was a huge lineup of panels covering a wide variety of topics held throughout the three-day event. The Kalalari completed a major expansion to its convention center in early 2020, and the convention utilized some of this new space for the event rooms where these panels were held.

A handful of voice actors and other industry guests were in attendance for attendees to meet and greet, including Chuck Huber, Kira Buckland, Jeannie Bolet, Jason Marsden, and Jen Cohn. Musical guests Kazha, The Super Guitar Bros., and Professor ShyGuy entertained guests with concerts throughout the weekend.

Snow Phoenix provided a nice selection of arcade cabinets for the gaming area, which included games of a variety of genres including bemani, fighting, and racing games. Several video game tournaments were also held throughout the weekend in titles including Super Smash Bros., Mortal Kombat, and Tekken 7.

Colossalcon East also featured a dealer’s room and artist alley where attendees could browse a variety of artwork and collectibles. There was also a market room this year, which provided a flea market-type experience. Attendees were permitted to sell their own wares in this area, with different types of items permitted on each day of the convention.

Perhaps the biggest thing that sets Colossalcon East apart from other anime conventions is the venue itself, which includes the Kalahari’s vast indoor water park. The water park, which according to the Kalahari’s website is “220,000 sq. ft., filled with Wet. Wild. Fun.” remains a popular spot for cosplayers and photographers to visit for group meetups and photoshoots to take photos in swimsuit-themed cosplay in a unique environment.

It should be noted, however, that the water park is not officially part of the convention. Guests staying at Kalahari’s rather expensive hotel are provided with passes to the water park at no extra charge, but those staying elsewhere would have to pay up to $120 for a day pass to the water park. Unlike Colossalcon’s event in Ohio, there are no discounts offered to Colossalcon East’s convention attendees. However, there was an after hours event at the water park offered only to convention attendees, at the cost of $35 for one night or $60 for two. This is up from $30/$50 in 2019, and $25/40 the year prior.

Lower attendance, like everywhere
I spent the majority of my time during the convention at the water park, and it was clear that attendance in that area was lower than it has been in prior years. I reached out to the con chair asking about the overall attendance at the convention this year versus 2019’s event, but have not yet heard back. I will provide an update to this article if I receive a response regarding this.

This year, I took all of my photos during the weekend at the Kalahari water park. In the past I’ve made it a point to take at least a couple of dozen photos at other areas in the resort, but as I missed nearly an entire day of the event due to car troubles on Friday morning, I felt I needed to make up for lost time at the water park, as this was my only opportunity for photos at such a venue until next year’s convention. I apologize to anyone hoping for more diverse photo galleries. Hopefully, we will have more team members at next year’s event, and will be able to provide a larger amount and variety of content. (This statement may or may not be a not so subtle hint for Nerd Caliber’s editor.)

Colossalcon East continues to be one of my favorite events of the year. Although I may not have had the type of unbridled fun I had in previous years due to concerns about the pandemic, it was still an enjoyable and much needed getaway. I hope that when Colossalcon East returns next year, I won’t be using the phrase “ongoing pandemic” and we will be much closer to some sort of normalcy in the world.

Cosplayer in this first of three galleries include epicchameleon, kuni.s.cosplay, valcion, Caram3llo Cosplay, blackprincesspeach, roses_bonescosplay, gilllllllz, bunxkohh, cin_von_quinzel, AlliZ Cosplay, staticdetonator, shan.nyan, beccabuddiee, layton_props, brigandcosplay, teh_chibs, and many more.

We now use Smugmug to present cosplay photo galleries and will post all photos there, with a link to each gallery in its own gallery article. This will allow us to give you higher resolution images to download — still for free.

To view the entire gallery, just click on the image below. If you are pictured in any of our galleries, feel free to download the images and use them non-commercially on social media, with appropriate credit.

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