Convention Report - Purgatory Con 2016

-by guest writer, Anne

Anne attended Purgatory Con in Germany and offered to write up a report on her experience. Purcon was Anne’s first con, and this reflects her personal experiences and views. So if you've ever wondered how this convention is run and what happens throughout the day, this might help you out. I hope you enjoy her report on this, Anne's first convention adventure (she's already booked her next one!). Make sure you say hi to her in the comments. 

-sweetondean

Hey guys, so this is my view of the Purgatory Convention!

Saturday

First of all when we arrived at the hotel I was really excited because it was my first Convention! Because of the well organised registration, everything was really fast. 

At 9 am the opening panel started. This year’s guests were Mark Sheppard, Misha Collins, Osric Chau, Tahmoh Penikett, Timothy Omundson and Travis Aaron Wade. 

After the Opening they started with the photo ops.

It started really great but sadly after a while there was chaos! After the double ops everything went wrong! The convention manager sadly tried to organise, but was a bit harsh! But after a while the organisation was back in order! The actors were all trying to keep it comfortable for the fans. They didn’t rush, so you could also talk to them and say a few short words. 

The rest of the day was full of panels and meet & greets.

The panels were all great. All of them were really funny and the actors seem to enjoy the time. Mark was walking around the hall when he answered the questions, Misha was telling nice stories, and Tahmoh and Osric had fun answering the questions. After Misha’s panel, Osric had to pull him off the stage and everyone was laughing!

After the Panels there was a Raffle with Travis. At the registration everyone got raffle tickets along with his entrance ticket, VIP 4, Gold 3, Silver 2 and Standard 1 - there was no option to buy more. The raffle itself was really funny because Travis tried to say the ticket number and colour in German. Violet in German is Lila  but he called it Lili! The prizes were photo ops and autographs. Sadly I didn’t win anything....

The last open program on that day was the Cosplay Contest. First was the amateur contest. The winners of the amateur contest, chosen by Osric, were also chosen to be with him to judge the professional Cosplay Contest. 

After a break started the autograph session, which you needed an extra ticket for, and finally the VIP meet and greet the Karaoke Party started! It was a lot of fun! I sadly missed the sign up for the Karaoke. (Shame on me) but it was still a great party. A girl sang the song Monsters and Osric did the rap part. Most of the fans were really surprised and how great he was. Osric is an awesome rapper. The last song of the Karaoke party was, of course, “Carry On Wayward Son”.

A lot of fans, me and my friend included, were still not tired. So we went to the hotel bar where we also met Tim, Tahmoh, Jason (who gave a Concert  on the Friday before the con), and Osric. Some of the fans went straight to them to talk to them, but my friend and I  stood at the bar with our drinks and after a while Tahmoh and Tim sat in a quiet corner next to us. Jason joined later. After a while Tahmoh looked at me and asked how I was. At first I didn’t notice that he was talking to me! When I answered another fan cut me off, so I was just listening to all the conversations. After another two tries Tahmoh gave up talking to me! I, of course, was not happy about that, but with other fans there I always seemed to get cut off. Osric left the bar with the last of the actors, and after we finished our drinks we went to bed!

Sunday

The morning started out quiet and I had a lot of time until the panels kicked off. So we went and had breakfast. I bought a last minute autograph with Osric. At 9:30 the Photo ops started again. The organisation for the photo ops was better on Sunday. You got in line when your ticket was called out. This day I just had my Misha op left. 

When I was up for my photo I said Misha the pose I wanted, and when the photographer said that we need to wait, (because he was talking to another staff member) Misha just started dancing with me! I was so surprised that I nearly fell when he started spinning me around! When he pulled me back to himself I had to hold on to him! So when the photographer finally shot the photo I was grinning like a fool. And after the photo was done I nearly cried because I felt so lucky.

Travis was the first panel sat 11:30 am. I found it a was really touching panel. He was very open and talked about many things including his past. I think it was touching for all of us. He wrote a letter to the fans and wanted to read it but it was 15 pages, so he just said what he was thinking and feeling in that moment. The fans formed hearts with their hands, and Travis was really moved by the gesture. 

Osric´s Panel was fun. I got in line to ask him a question. "If or when he got a tattoo what would it be, and why? " So I found out that he was already thinking about a Harry Potter themed tattoo. He talked about a lot of really different things and it was really interesting.

Mark's panel was also fun, because he was walking around again and at one point a fan was walking behind him, she was trying to go to her seat. When he noticed, he let her pass and followed her and then sat down on her lap! Everyone was laughing!

Tahmoh and Tim, this panel was a bit quieter than the others, but of course it had also fun moments, like when Tim let his hair out, and he swung his head around. 

Then there was the auction. That was a lot of fun. Tahmoh hosted it, and he did a great job. It was a great surprise when Misha joined him after he was done with his photo ops. So they battled each other when they had two of an item. They wanted to get more money for it than the other! Only once Misha won, so Tahmoh was really proud of himself. The last item was a dinner with Osric. Two girls really fought hard for that! 

The last Panel of the day was Misha’s. A fan asked him if he already got the tattoo he was talking about the year before, and it turned out that Misha is a bit afraid of needles! He also told a few stories from set (like the story about the bet he lost against Jared), and some other fun stuff, there was a lot to laugh about. 

The autograph session was great. Because I changed my photo idea with Osric last minute I bought the autograph with Osric so he could sign my “Proud to be unique” t-shirt, and when I told him that my colleague first thought it was a cat on the shirt he started laughing!

Last but not least was the closing ceremony. It was great a lot of us started crying because some fans made a surprise for the guests. They made a video where fans said thank you and the guests were really touched by it. 

At the very end thy announced the three first guests for the Purgatory 3, Richard, Rob and Matt!

Summary

All in all I can say it was a great weekend, it was an awesome experience and I´m happy that I had that experience. I also already ordered the ticket for my next Con because it’s like a virus, you enter a con and you get infected and after that you want more! I still can´t stop thinking about that weekend, and I'm already thinking about what can happen at the next con!

Much love,

Your Anne