What You Must Not Miss At AFO 10
At the tenth Anime Festival Orlando, many previous attendees already have their weekend planned out. We interviewed several previous AFO attendees and found a passion for many of the different events from the convention. Here's what not to miss:
1. The Rave
Over half of the attendees interviewed listed the rave among their favorite events. Jose Valest, who will be volunteering for the second time this year, said last year's rave included rick rolling, and a proposal.
"You will never know what will happen," he said.
Fari Hekmat, volunteer coordinator, was the recipient of that proposal. "I was proposed to in front of God and Everyone at the last rave... and we Rick Rolled the audience," she said. Talking about this year, she said, "We have 3 DJs this year. It's going to be great."
Mastermind of the proposal plan told the story simply. "I quietly orchestrated a series of events that ended with my girlfriend, on stage, hearing me propose to her. It was filled with win and awesome," he said. She said yes.
2. AMVs
Another event common among many conventions, the Anime Music Videos were mentioned almost as often as the rave.
Crystal Mariana, who has attended for six of the last seven years, spoke highly of the AMV contest. "It's wonderful to see the work that people put sometimes months of effort into, trying to get everything right," she said. "Yeah, some of them aren't that great, but there are always some that are pure gold."
3. Several Panels Were Also Mentioned
Hekmat listed three favorite panels, along with several other recommendations:
- The voice actors panel where all the guests get together, talk about the trade, and answer questions.
- The voice acting workshop. We started it a few years ago, but it became most popular when Chris Sabbat started doing it. He owns his own voice studio and will bring in parts of scripts and the video from a show (sans the audio track) and let members of the audience take a stab at voicing the clip. It's an awesome panel!
- The House That Hentai Built or House of Hentai. This is a panel by two of our staff members and has been going on for about 3 or 4 years.
- The Panel About Nothing. Two of our staff members - Angie and Chris - run this panel every year. They just talk about, make jokes, and poke fun at pop culture, anime culture, cons and con goers, Invader Zim... you name it, they've brought it up. It's always an AFO hit. Usually on Saturday night.
- Team Evil Panel (or some other name). Since the Orlandia plot started the staffer who plays the evil Prince Hesperus does a panel about being evil! It's supposed to be a riot.
- The Tavern. Not actually a panel, the Tavern is in the same place for it's third year. You can get quests, gain XP and learn more about the Orlandia RPG at the Tavern. They also do their own events in the Tavern throughout the weekend. I think they do karaoke.
- Anything in the Game Show Room. We have a large variety of Anime Game Shows including Weakest Geek, Anime Jeopardy, Anime Name That Tune, and more. These gives the audience an opportunity to participate and compete and they're buckets of fun to watch
"I think the people are my favorite parts," said Valest.
"People make the world go round," said Kelly Zonca, who has been attending cons for the past 10 years. "It's fun to see people you have known for years."
One individual, who would be identified only as 'Kikko', has been attending since the second Anime Festival Orlando and said "Basically, the mood and the energy and sense of community at AFO is unrivaled by any other con I've attended."
Regardless of what you decide to see in the end, it is clear there will be a lot of excitement at Anime Festival Orlando 10 this year.