The second annual Fan Expo Vancouver returned to the shores of Burrard Inlet under the iconic sails of Canada Place on the weekend of April 20^th – 21^st, 2013. Boasting additional floor space for larger crowds this year, plus a beefed-up list of celebrities, it’s not surprising there would be a huge turnout. And a huge turnout it was. There’s no doubt that Fan Expo Vancouver was the place to be (except fo maybe the Vancouver Sun Run).

With an array of big names in the comic and sci-fi industry, arguably, none generated more buzz than the legendary Stan Lee. Behind popular characters like Thor, Spider-Man, the Hulk, X-Men, and Iron Man, Lee drew the crowds in. Of course, there was also David Prowse (the body beneath Darth Vader’s helmet), Sean Astin (the hobbit and goonie), Nichelle Nichols (that’s lieutenant), Brad Swaile (aka Kira), Veronica Taylor (the one and only Pokemon trainer) and Sonny Straight (have you seen the latest pictures of my daughter, Elicia?). The list goes on.

Like last year, I purchased my two-day deluxe pass for $55 CAD online. Had I splurged on the more expensive premium pass, I could have saved myself the mess that was the line-up to get in. As much as I’m sure the organizers work hard to bring an event of this calibre to our fair city, I would have hoped they had put a little more effort in to crowd control for people lining up to get in. It was just poor planning.

My friend and I arrived at Canada Place just after 10:00 am and didn’t get inside the convention centre until 1:00 pm — almost three hours. Fortunately, our rainy reputation decided to make itself absent; many people, myself included, had arrived in cosplay. In what was reminiscent of a game of Snake, the throngs of people who lined up just to hand over their pre-printed ticket or drop off their cash to get in, meandered along the west promenade of Canada Place, crossed through the line going in, then down to the east promenade, and finally back over to the west side before there were actually people trying to separate us. During this wait, I had made a few tweets and left some feedback on Fan Expo Vancouver’s Facebook pleading for someone to come out and provide some form of direction. Even though my printed pass said I could get into the event by going to Exhibition Hall A, I wasn’t allowed to unless I had doled out the money for a premium pass. Inside, it was the same number of booths from last year (seven), and I asked the gentleman who was giving out wristbands to us who I could talk to about this lack of organization. He replied that he was trying to get everyone through as quickly as possible and was aware of the “disaster” outside.

Once that debacle was over, the main hallway that runs along the west side of the convention centre was choked with attendees trying to move up and down between the main exhibitor’s halls and the smaller panel rooms and lobby. The exhibitor’s hall was massive; everything a geek would need could be purchased here, be it comic books, figures, apparel, and even tattoos. Of course, all of the booths were overshadowed by Stylin’ Online’s Tower of T-shirts. Regardless if you want a Star Wars, Naruto, Spider-Man or Kingdom Hearts shirt, they had it. Heck, they even had a Naruto belt… In the far corner, a DeLorean DMC-12, made famous by Back to the Future sat parked, and for a donation, you could sit in it and have your picture taken. Local actor Michael J. Fox was nowhere to be found, however.

There was plenty of costumes parading about — both professional and fan-made. Many dressed up as their favourite Avengers, peppered with a few Lokis, numerous Spider-Men, Doctors (fourth, tenth and eleventh regenerations), multiple Heroes of Time, variations of Stormtroopers and so on. And, just like last year, I donned Soul Evan’s outfit (I didn’t feel like wearing Naruto sandals on transit or carrying another pair of footwear). Sadly, I didn’t capture many of the costumes I wanted to photograph, mostly being thwarted by the massive crowds. For those that I were able to take, are visible on Gallery.

My friend and I decided to call it a day after we saw the line up for the Sean Astin panel in the early afternoon. This creative queue strung itself along the interior wall of the main hall, looped back and flowed right down into the lobby of the convention centre. There would have been no way for us to get in and listen to Sean speak with the number of people waiting. That, we had both had our fill of lines for the day.

Sunday turned out to be much better after deciding to show up later rather than around the 10:00 am opening time. While the venue was still packed, there weren’t any lines to get in like last year. I only wound up spending a few hours wandering the exhibition hall and checking out items for sale in detail. I didn’t purchase much this time around, except a first volume copy of the Fairy Tale manga and a t-shirt. Additionally, I didn’t visit any of the panels as there wasn’t much that interested me and the guests I wanted to see had long waits just to grab a seat.

I’m debating over returning to Fan Expo Vancouver for 2014. I can’t really seem to justify pre-purchasing tickets online and then waiting a couple of hours just to get inside. Perhaps they’ll get the whole crowd control issue sorted out and make everyone’s experience just that much smoother. Aside from that, I did enjoy the selection of vendors and artists. Maybe next time the Lego booth will be something more than just a handful of cool looking displays and maybe some mini-kits or individual figures for purchase. Hours after I left Fan Expo Vancouver, I received an email from the convention announcing next year’s dates — that’s April 18^th, 19^th and 20^th, 2014 — and that it will be held over three days instead of two. We’ll just have to wait and see what they have in store for us.

The photos that I did manage to take are available on Gallery.

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