Amsterdam Comic Con 2018

Comic Con Amsterdam!

Sunday 2 September, 2018

Earlier in the week, I was chatting with a friend of a friend and they were planning on going to Comic Con Amsterdam on Sunday, so we arranged to meet them there.

HP shirt, TARDIS tights, and comfortable skirt = dressed in the Dutch flag colors.

I went with a Harry Potter themed shirt (“My muggle friends just don’t understand”), a comfortable white skirt, and blue TARDIS tights. Billy pointed out that I was dressed like the Dutch flag. My subconscious integration continues. I added Hufflepuff socks and a Hufflepuff hair bow to the ensemble.

We left the house around 10:40 am, walking to the Central Station in Arnhem (which takes me about 15-20 minutes on foot). We took a train through Utrecht to Amsterdam, getting off 1 stop before Schiphol Airport and then took a Metro one stop, arriving at Amsterdam RAI (a large convention hall building) around 12:30 pm. Another convention/conference was happening inside the closest doors, so we walked around the building to the right side to another set of doors. They were checking tickets outside, but we needed to buy ours for that day, so they directed us to a table inside. They didn’t give us a physical ticket, just stamping our hands in case we wanted to come in and out. We later noticed that the vendors and staff/volunteers had badges but we didn’t see them on attendees, so the hand stamp was probably normal.

After paying, we passed through security (which was one person standing by the entryway) and took an escalator up. There was a candy stall with candy by weight, which was tempting, but I decided to pass for the moment.

Map of the hall where the entire con was being held.

We then entered a large exhibit hall. The entire event was in this one room, which was interesting to us. We are used to things like the cons we run and attend, where there are a few large rooms with vendors and stages for the main attractions, and a handful of smaller rooms for discussions and presentation, so this was a new experience.

The vendors were mainly in the middle – and there was a TON of Harry Potter collectible merchandise! – info, photo ops (which cost extra), autographs (also additional charge), and food trucks were around the perimeter. There was a smaller stage kind of in the center, buffered by author & artist stalls, and the Main Stage was in the far right corner. There was an area of video gaming and karaoke in the middle, which was very popular with the teen crowd, and it got louder as the day went on. They were having a good time. 🙂

Another photo op area! One vendor booth was a display of Harry Potter themed items, and you could take a picture with the props.

We found my friend of a friend and walked with her and her friend for a little bit. They were both dressed for the event. Then we walked around on our own, saw the vendors and other cool things, including chatting with the Dutch Doctor Who fan club. They of course brought a TARDIS. 🙂

A super cute food truck selling steak sandwiches.

We went by the food vendors and didn’t see anything “safe” for me to eat. Billy got a pair of meat sticks covered in bread. I’m sure they have a Dutch name which I will find out later. 

Newt and Queenie cosplay from Fantastic Beasts, at Comic Con Amsterdam 2018.

I was astounded at how much Harry Potter cosplay was there! I definitely felt among my people.

The self-proclaimed “Dutch Dumbledore“. He was definitely interesting and definitely eccentric!

I wanted to get a good seat for the 3:15 pm item on the Main Stage, so we went over about 45 minutes early, figuring we could sit and work on the crochet project we had brought with us, but they were playing really loud music, so we went to the smaller stage. There was an artist being interviewed. It was all in Dutch, so Billy asked what I hoped to get out of it. I said, “A few rows of crochet”; he said, fair enough, and we sat and listened for a bit.

That finished up around 3 pm so we walked over to the Main Stage. The seats were filling up, but we were still able to get an aisle seat for me, yay. I tend to sit on the aisle so if someone tall is in front of me, I still have a chance at leaning around them to see. At 3:15 pm the Game of Thrones actors, Jack Gleeson (Joffrey Baratheon) and Vladimir Furdik (The Night King), came onstage for a chat. It was pretty much Q&A; they didn’t do a chat beforehand with info they wanted to share, as we’re used to, but the session was only 30 minutes so I guess they had to get going!

While we were at the con, we got a message from a friend in Arnhem asking if we were available for gaming that evening. Since the con was relatively small, we figured we could see everything and make it back in time easily. The panel finished on time, so after a quick chat with Jack Gleeson about Worldcon in Dublin 2019 (he lives in Ireland), we made our way out.

Before we left, we got a few videos. Here’s a 360 degree shot of the room.

And here’s a pan of the area where you could get photos taken. They did a photo shoot with Jack Gleeson with the Iron Throne, so he’s actually there in this video (although you might not be able to see him).

Regarding the con as a whole, on the pros side, it was easy to find things and re-find them, and finding people at the con was pretty easy. We split up from our friends and found them again a few times. It was also reasonably inexpensive at €20 per person for the day. I also got to talk to one of the named stars in a reasonably casual fashion, and that was cool. It was an intimate con.

On the cons side, it was all concrete floor, so that was hard on the feet and allowed noise to travel far. We were at the Main Stage in one corner and had a hard time hearing the guests over the karaoke happening behind us, in the center of the hall. I also would have enjoyed more conversation opportunities, like in side rooms or some other European style solution.

I still didn’t buy any candy on the way out. I was nervous, not knowing what each thing is, so I figured I’ll wait until some time when I have someone’s children with me to give me a tour.

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Metro Station outside RAI

We really love the transportation system here. We walked back to the same Metro station without worrying about when the next one would come. It was running about every 6 minutes; so nice! We we made our route back home in reverse order, taking the trains back to Arnhem, arriving around 5:45 pm.

Sitting outside at the Mantra Indian Restaurant.

We like going out to eat and trying different foods, but of course we have to be careful with my celiac/gluten allergy. There is an Indian restaurant we’ve been wanting to try called Mantra, and we had two hours until gaming, so we stopped by for dinner. It was still a beautiful day, so we sat outside. I was worried we were dressed too casually, but they didn’t seem to mind at all.

Dinner at Mantra Indian Restaurant. Yummy!

I debated so much over what to order. The food all sounded really yummy! I finally settled on the Lamb Sashi Korma and Billy had something a little more spicy (I don’t recall exactly what). We ate it all and were super stuffed and very satisfied when we left. 🙂

We then walked to our friend’s house for gaming at 8 pm that night, ending around midnight. Thankfully the 4th player had driven over so he gave us a ride home (only our 4th car trip since we arrived).

All in all, a pretty good day. 🙂