Animania, the touring anime and manga convention, is returning to Sydney this weekend. The event list is exstensive with classes and panels on anime, live bands, karoke, cosplay, art, human catapillar races and much more. It looks pretty massive.
Animania is taking place the Australian Technology Park (Locomotive Workshop Exhibition Hall, Locomotive Street in Eveleigh) on this Saturday and Sunday (August 23rd and 24th). If you're over 16, Animania costs $51 for the both days or $35 for one day.
Hub of the New Zealand larp scene, nzLARPS will be running their larp convention called Chimera. It's three days of Live Action Role Playing goodness with multiple games running each day, so you have a choice of what to play. Games include horror larp Nightmare Circle and the 1930s adventure larp Flight of the Hindenburg. For those of you unfamiliar with larping you may want to check out this article covering larp culture and gaming in New Zealand.
Chimera is taking place at Motu Moana Scout Camp (Connaught Street, Green Bay) from Friday (August 22nd) to the Sunday (August 24th). The full convention costs $45, but you can spend less if you're only attending some of the games.
This week (from August 16th to 24th) Australia celebrates National Science Week. All around Australia there are over three hundred events running.
Just click on a state or territory on the front page of the National Science Week website to see what events are happening in your area. There are talks with scientists, careers seminars, exhibitions and workshops. If you’re in ACT you may want to check out the Cartoon Workshop, which seems to be part drawing session and part examination of how our brain responds to cartoons.
Very soon you South Australian geeks can enjoy nine days of awesome with the Adelaide Pop Culture Festival.
The convention starts Saturday, August 16th and runs until Sunday the 24th of August. On the first Saturday and Sunday (August 16th and 17th) they’re running workshops on alien makeup, prosthetic construction and creating fantasy costumes – and these workshops are free to attend. On Sunday 17th they’re also running a screening of classic science fiction films. To be honest, I’m not sure what else is running for the next few days (aside from an exhibition of pop culture memorabilia), but the whole thing finishes with a three day Star Trek convention.
All of this is happening at the South Australian Museum (North Terrace, Adelaide). More details can either be found on Starship Mawson or Terra Nova Events. Admittedly, these websites aren’t too well laid out – so may just have to go there to find out more. Article art created by many awesome people on this forum thread.
Just recently in Melbourne we had Doujicon - an indie comic convention that has been running for three years now. This year saw even less artists than previous years; about forty. In the back of the Doujicon booklet organiser Avi Bernshaw wrote that he admitted he was disappointed with this years event. And yet, despite the organisers own misgivings and the fact that the number of artists attending Doujicon seems to halve each year, I would argue that this years Doujicon was the best yet.
The success of Doujicon springs largely from the change of venue. In 2006 and 2007 the comic convention was held in a hall at Monash University. It was spacious but fairly plain and nondescript location. This year saw Doujicon taking place at the Victorian Trades Hall Council. This is one of many wonderful old buildings that can be found in the city of Melbourne. Created in 1856, Trades Hall had an abundance of old-timey charm with its huge rooms and wooden…well, wooden just about everything. The addition of a bar was just the start of the improvements the new venue offered.
