Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, cosplay, entertainment, geekout

30 Cosplay Shots From GeekOut 2016

Published Tue, 23 Aug 2016 10:30:32 -0500

Last updated Wed, 24 Aug 2016 05:48:46 -0500

Jonathan Rich writes for Bleeding Cool

GeekOut 2016 took place Aug. 12-13 and saw not only a change of venue for Western North Carolina's annual celebration of nerd culture for its fifth year, but a sharper focus on cosplay among the sci-fi aesthetic always on display at the annual gathering.

Three previous iterations of "Asheville's Fan Arts Festival" were held at the larger UNC-Asheville's Sherrill Center, but the 2016 event returned the festivities downtown at a smaller location on three floors inside and in the parking lot of New Mountain dance hall. This year's theme"Indie, Meet Tech" also put a spotlight on art that added technology to everything from steampunk to superheroes.

A new addition to Saturday's events was a Cosplay Fashion Show organized by WNC runway mainstay Ginger Wilde and three finalists in the mid-day cosplay competition were invited to participate in that evening's more formal affair.

"GeekOut offers Asheville a chance to experience top-notch art and performances from around the country right next to fantastic local talent," said GeekOut Program Director Janae Elisabeth. "With this shift to artistic focus, our guests are musicians, print and graphic artists, fashion designers, podcasters, technophiles, as well as geeks like us."

While GeekOut 2016 was a smaller affair this time than in years past, it did have more of an intimate party atmosphere with costumed fanboys and fangirls congregating in Prichard Park for the brisk GeekOut Promenade to New Mountain with many guests participating in some Pokemon catching along the way. Electronic musicians RBTS_Win and Phutureprimitive provided late night sounds for the 21+ crowd and fans of more adult fare also enjoyed the return of Geektastic, a vaudeville-themed burlesque review.

Some guests embraced the changes proposed by GeekOut 2016 while others lamented the differences, but geeks/nerds/fanboys/fangirls are known to have strong reactions to the things they love and no matter what your take on the new direction for the event the force of fandom showed up for this event.
Jonathan Rich is a freelance journalist, high school educator, and self-professed comic book nerd working in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. He writes about entertainment and pop culture for various print and web publications, including bleedingcool.com.