Cosplay
events are no longer a new concept in Malaysia. Today, we see cosplay events
happening bi-monthly, as in one held at least twice a month. Almost every
average person out there would know at least one cosplayer as one of their
acquaintances, or would have known someone who would love to attend cosplay
events. Cosplay events are such a rage that there are even companies out there that
are coming up with their own cosplay events, or incorporating cosplayers into
their marketing strategies to appeal to the niche audience.
“Cosplay seems to be the new hip
thing nowadays,” said Jared Cheah Jin-Eu, the event manager at the biggest
cosplay event that happens annually in Malaysia, Comic Fiesta.
He has been involved in the cosplay
and anime, comics, and games (ACG) events since 2003, so it would be 14 years
to be exact. Based on his own experience, he states that back in the early days
there would only be around two events happening annually. Those events being
Comic Fiesta and one other that has long been forgotten. Jared said that there
used to be another event that was organised by the only ACG magazine publisher that
has been around since 1998, Gempak Starz once every two years, but the event
has been obsolete for a while now.
“Back in the day, the average attendance was roughly
about 400 people plus minus, which was great attendance back then. Fast forward
to today, Comic Fiesta now carries about roughly 45,000 people last year across
two days,” stated the 31-year-old event manager of Comic Fiesta since 2004.
It was only from 2007 onwards that more events started
cropping up. Those events were mainly organised by clubs in colleges. The
amount of events steadily grew since then, and now there would be events of
various sizes happening around every three weeks or so. It is also not uncommon
to see a few events being organised one week after another.
However, Jared does state that it is hard to say how much
longer these smaller events will last as compared to Comic Fiesta.
“As far as the future of ACG events are concerned, I
think you can sort of project how it might be by looking back at the history of
the last four to five years. You will see events that blip out, come in for a
few years, try to do it (an event), try to make it sustainable with long term
plans.
“They either make it by saying “Oh, yeah, we figured
out a way to keep doing it,” and if it is something that they like they will just
keep doing it,” Jared added.
Alternatively, there will be situations where there
are events that are organised with long term plans that eventually disappear
and fade into obscurity, due to the fact that the organisers’ realisation that
organising ACG events turn out to be a lot more work that they initially thought
it would be, or the ones who sparked the idea may have already left the teams.
Jared concluded that the longevity of ACG events
largely depends on the teams behind them, whether they would have the desire to
keep things going, and if the community still wishes to support such events. He
also revealed the key factor of what keeps Comic Fiesta going consistently. He
shared that Comic Fiesta itself has lasted this long because of the consistent
support that the community has given it. As a result, the organisation has
relentlessly tried to pay back that support by providing as much platform as
possible for the community to express themselves freely and creatively.
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