LsCon 2018 is almost here: Everything you need to know
I caught up with the founder of Zambia’s only comic con, LsCon, Sing’ombe Mweetwa to get to know more about it and what all of us should expect from this year’s event that will be on the 5 May at from 10:00hrs to 18:00hrs at the American Dome in Lusaka Show Grounds.
What’s a comic con event? Why was it started in Zambia?
Traditionally, a comic convention was an event with primary focus on comic books and comic book culture. The term comic con, however has over the years been used to refer to events that bring together many types of creative communities and pop culture enthusiasts all over the world. Lusaka Comic Con was started to help bring together the niche creative communities around Zambia so that they all could have one big platform to showcase, interact and network as well as just have fun with others of similar interests. These niche communities include but are not limited to fine artists of all styles, video game and app developers, writers, young musicians of all genres and fans of all of these and more.
Are you the only founder?
I came up with the initial idea and sought out help from the Zhappening Team as well as the Nerd/Otaku team. Together we put our resources together to host the first event in 2015.
What are some of the costumes you’re expecting, compared to the previous LsCon, and what were the most common characters?
2017 had people come with some very creative and exciting costumes. There are no rules on whether or not one must show up in costume or what type of costume one must come with so everyone was at liberty to dress as they liked. We do award Cos-players that impress us as well as other patrons in terms of the creativity, clever improvisations or accuracy of the costumes with official LsCon trophies and other gifts from sponsors. We also recognize those that go to lengths to actually make their own costumes.
Some of the popular costumes were the Wolverine Costume, Samurai Jack, Sub Zero, Storm from X-men and we also had some young kids show up as Spider Man and Ninja Turtles. One of the most outstanding was Ursula. This costume was completely handmade and make up was done by a popular local makeup artist. Another popular one was actually an original idea – The Cereal Killer. The cosplay was dressed in boxes of cereal with some fake knives and blood. It was hilarious and very clever.
How many people came to last year’s and what else will be happening at the LsCon this year? What can newbies expect?
We had about 800 people walk through the gates last year and the crowd has been growing steadily each year. Newbies can expect to find fun activities like video games (competitive and free to play), karaoke, table top games (a.k.a board games), trivia competitions for teams, live music from new and fresh talent, great merchandise from vendors like clothes, shoes, electronics and great food and drinks. The artist alley will be packed with artists and their creations. You can buy from them, learn from them or simply interact with them through out the day. This year we are being sponsored by Liquid Telecom so everyone can expect some free wifi.
To get more details, check out their Facebook page here.
Yosh 🙌🙌🙌🙌