Over the weekend, I stopped by the End of Year Cosplay Festival (EOY) held at Marina Barrage in Singapore. Although I love anime, I’ve never been to an anime convention or cosplay festival for one simple reason: I hate crowds. But this time around I had a friend, who coincidentally is a cosplay photographer, to show me the ropes of treading through a people-packed cosfest, so I braved the crowds to bring you guys (and girls) some fabulous cosplay photos!
The EOY Cosplay Festival has been an annual event in Singapore since 1999. It is a small-scale event with the gathering of cosplayers as its main attraction, in comparison to the annual Anime Festival Asia (AFA) which consists of a wide range of merchandise, activities and attractions featuring popular anime voice actors, famous anime song singers and star cosplayers.
But get this: EOY is run by a non-profit team of volunteers who painstakingly put this event together year after year to share their love for Japanese pop culture and to provide a platform for budding artists, performers and cosplay enthusiasts to showcase their talents. This little festival is literally powered by enormous amounts of passion and dreams!
▼ The artist booth area was crawling with people!
Although EOY pales in comparison in terms of content variety and venue, it attracts a healthy crowd of cosplay and anime fans, as well as curious first-timers like myself, possibly due to the fact that they don’t charge an admission fee. The downside is that the festival is held outdoors, which leaves everyone at the mercy of the sunny island’s scorching hot weather (it was 32°C but I swear it felt more like 38°C) and unpredictable squalls.
But hey! These cosplayers radiate with passion even hotter than that beating sun! I have no idea how they managed to survive the heat decked in those costumes and wigs–I’m convinced that they practice some sort of sorcery.
▼ Lacus Clyne – Gundam Seed
▼ 2014 Miku Hatsune Snow – Vocaloid
▼ Rei Ayanami – Evangelion (Christmas version)
▼ Sanji – One Piece (The back of Sanji’s “box” was done up like the back of a local bus!)
▼ Miku Hatsune – Vocaloid
▼ Mayu Watanabe & Akira Igarashi – AKB0048
▼ Ritsu Tainaka & Mio Akiyama – K-ON!
▼ Shintaro Midorima – Kuroko no Basuke (Genderbend)
▼ Sakura Kinomoto – Tsubasa Chronicles
▼ Lumina – Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Returns
There was also a stage area for performers to strut their stuff in song and dance! Check out this bubbly dance routine by a group of Love Live cosplayers!
Of course, such cosplay gatherings would be meaningless without photographers to capture the moment. I was hesitant to approach the cosplayers because I felt that my rusty iPhone 4 would not do their outfits justice, but there were dozens of people everywhere we looked taking pictures with their mobile devices, so I gave it a shot anyway!
Just to illustrate the greatness of the authentic snapshot professionals, here is my own humble contribution of photos taken with my non-existent photography skills. I sincerely promise you that these cosplayers looked much more awesome in real life!
▼ Jack Frost – Rise of the Guardians
▼ Iron Man and his Iron Minis
▼ Spiderman and his hot Spiderlady
▼ We saw many Free! cosplayers (genderbenders were popular too!).
See the difference a good photographer makes? Many thanks to 8bit Wonderland for the stunning photos! Check out his Facebook page for more electrifying cosplay shots!
Images: 8bit Wonderland, RocketNews24