Gaelcon 2007 Review
Gaelcon is over for another year, and I had a great time. I can't tell you how the organised events went, because as usual, I didn't play in any of them. But I hung around, talked to lots of people, played the EVE card game, bought stacks of cards for it, bought Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and generally enjoyed things.
The charity auction raised some €34,000. That thing never fails to amaze me, both in terms of the amount of money raised and what Colm gets away with as the auctioneer (although this year he got a well-documented slap from one of his assistants). It was an excellent evening, and next year, I am resolving that I am going to actually acquire something from it - I've bid on things a few times, but the bidding always shoots past what I can actually pay for the items I want. Bidding crossed the €1000 mark on several items, and hit €2000 on two - a pillow accompanied by entry to any gaming convention, anywhere, and two of the three original "brown book" D&D books (which were handed back in immediately to be re-auctioned, and raised another thousand).
I've no idea if numbers were up or down on previous years, but any time I looked around, it looked busier. And even when we arrived in the early afternoon on Saturday, there was a queue for tickets - I haven't had to queue since the con was in Kilmainham.
Trade stands - not the best year ever, unfortunately; there were really only four traders, and one of those was dedicated to the Prince August Miniatures. I'd like to see more variety in the traders, and particularly in the "stuff" category of LARP gear, tshirts, and odd accessories like that. And second-hand books, because there's a hell of a lot of gaming stuff that's out of print. I have a vague idea about getting together a second-hand goods trade stand for next year, and absolutely no idea if it's practical.
All in all, a very definite success. Looking forward to next year already!
Posted by Drew Shiel at October 30, 2007 11:48 AM
Sounds like a great event; didn't even know this event existed or I probably would have made the trip. I'm a gaming fiend myself so I'm sure I would enjoy this
Posted by: Matthew Anton at November 5, 2007 10:47 PM