Superheroes, mermaids and Ghostbusters were among the folks who animated downtown New Westminster on the weekend.
Brian Hughes, show director of Northwest Fan Fest, said thousands of people attended the three-day event at Anvil Centre. During the May 29 to 31 celebration of fandom and pop culture, people enjoyed musical performances, comedy shows, contests and tournaments, attended workshops on a variety of topics and interests, met with celebrities and shopped at a variety of vendors.
“It went incredibly well,” Hughes told the Record. "Everyone loved the space. It’s a beautiful convention centre. It is conveniently located. Everybody unanimously agreed this was an amazing space.”
While the event has been held at the University of British Columbia in the past, Hughes hopes to bring it back to Anvil Centre next year.
“I am pretty sure it is going to be Anvil Centre for the future,” he said. “It just comes down to the level of city involvement at this point.”
Northwest Fan Fest organizers are in talks with city about ways of expanding the event in the future.
“The only complaint would be that it’s still not big enough,” Hughes said about Anvil Centre. “We still need more space than what Anvil currently has. We have been talking to the city – next year we are potentially looking at shutting down the street, but there’s a lot involved in that.”
Hughes is no stranger to New Westminster, as he’s the owner of Gamedeals Video Games on Columbia Street and also runs the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo that’s held at the Columbia Theatre.
Vali Marling, general manager of Anvil Centre, said the Northwest Fan Fest was a different event than the centre has hosted in the past.
“It was a great event. It was more a consumer-based show, which we do less of. We are definitely a conference centre. It was absolutely fun for us to do. The attendees, so many of them dressed up as video gaming characters,” she said. “They had some really interesting breakouts with professionals in the industry. They had fashion shows, they had keynote speakers, and they had classes. For us, with conferences we can’t really animate the foyer, but with this kind of event everyone can see what’s going on.”
Throughout the weekend, attendees mingled on the sidewalk in front of Anvil Centre and in Hyack Square. Aside from the museum and new media gallery, Northwest Fan Fest utilized most of the spaces in Anvil Centre.
“It was a full-building event,” Marling said. “They were in the arts studios, the music studios, the digital studio, all of the foyers, the ballroom. They even rented the restaurant space. They had their marketplace in there, all their vendors were selling in there. It was very cool. There was not an inch of the building that wasn’t in use.”
