Hey everyone!
Welcome back to the blog! Today I have another event report for you and it’s on one of the biggest events of the airsoft calendar - Airsoftcon at the evike.com superstore in Alhambra, California! Airsoftcon is a celebration and gathering of the US airsoft community held in Los Angeles that started as an annual sale event but over the years has become a giant event of over 5000 attendees.
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| The Evike.com throne |
The event this year was on Saturday19th October, but there is a camping area for attendees and it is always packed. It’s packed for a pretty good reason! The first 200 people in line for the Con get a grab bag of goodies and the first 50 are guaranteed to win an airsoft gun! People start arriving early for the Con to make sure they get one of the coveted spots!
The event is centred around the main stage which has an event schedule and hosts the competitions and the influencer panels. The main stage hosts the annual costume competition! Where attendees are invited to dress in their best costumes for the chance to win some awesome prizes - in the past we have seen some mind-blowing costume costumes and this year was no different! The costumes were so elaborate and took a lot of time and effort. It was great to see!
New to Airsoftcon 2019 was a live show hosted by Evike Matt called ‘Airsoft Family Feuds’ which was an airsoft version of the popular American TV show. For this, we gathered on the stage and were divided into 2 ‘families’. Team one consisted of Jet DesertFox, Dayton from House Gamers, Tim Selby from Airsoft Amigos, Airsoft Alfonse and Spartan117GW Greg Wong. My team consisted of myself (obviously), Unicorn Leah, Airsoft. Obsessed Dave, Airsoftology Jonathon and Dutch the Hooligan! We had to be speedy boys and girls and answer the question first if we answered the question first our team go the chance to win all the points for the round. But there is a catch, the answer isn’t necessarily the right answer, but what was the most popular answer amongst the people surveyed. This was a really fun time for everyone involved, as someone who’s never watched the show and wasn’t overly sure on the rules - I just ended up making a lot of jokes that didn’t land, but it was still a fun time.
There is also an annual celebrity meet and greet, which this year had a different format which in my opinion worked much better than it has in previous years. In previous years the influencers would be sat on chairs/tables on the stage and Evike Matt would take questions from the crowd meaning that only a few questions would get asked to, usually the most popular influencers on the stage but this year, the influencers were asked to sit on the edge of the stage so attendees could come up to them individually and ask questions, get signatures and take selfies with their favourite influencers. This formate gave so many more people a chance to meet the creators and speak to them. I had such a fun time speaking to everyone and meeting so many of the people who allow me to do this full time.
One of the best aspects of Con for me is seeing all the vendors - attendees get to check out new gear and chat to the reps about everything and anything airsoft. Vendors included: Umbrella Armoury, KWA, Specna Arms, ASG, OneTigris - who were showcasing some new gear, Modern Airsoft, Krytac - who had their new white KRISS Vector for attendees to check out, ICS, Elite Force, PTS Syndicate, Battle Lab, Titan Power, Emerson Gear, 5.11, Enola Gaye, Tru-Spec, Armourer Works, Airsoft C3, Tag Innovations, Night Vision Inc, Holosun, DesertFox Events, G&G Armament, American MilSim. All the companies brought their various products (or information on services) and get to interact with the community.
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| Friends at the Enola Gaye booth |
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| New hoodies from EG |
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| The boys at Specna Arms |
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| Emerson Gear showcased some new designs! |
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| OneTigris showcased some new face mask designs |
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| Me and Hana from OneTigris |
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| Krytac had the new white KRISS Vector for attendees to take a look at! |
Every year Evike organises a variety of food vendors to support the event to cater to different tastes including Asian and Mexican cuisine, an ice cream truck and the good ol’ fashioned American burger van! The food vendors always provide great quality food, this year I opted for the burger van and wasn’t disappointed in my choice! It was tasty, filling and pretty affordable at $16 for a thick chunky burger and seasoned curly fries. The lines were pretty long for the food vans but don’t let that put you off, they did go down pretty quickly! For the con this year, a bottled water company sponsored the event with 8,000 bottles of water for attendees which in the heat was very much welcomed and a great shout!
The toilet facilities at Airsoftcon 2019 were not the greatest - the toilets inside the store were still in use during the convention but due to the lines to get into the store these toilets were meant to be used by people in the store. To combat the need for more toilets, Evike did provide portaloos but in the Los Angeles heat and with the sheer volume of people using them, by around lunchtime, they were pretty gross and had run out of hand sanitiser. The overall facilities at the Con are pretty good though - this year we saw improved shade in the convention area as the staff had erected enormous gazebos to keep the attendees out of the hot Californian sun.
There is also a huge raffle and this year there was a shooting competition where the participants could win $1000 and an Umbrella Armoury gun.
Overall, I had an awesome time at Airsoftcon 2019 and I can’t wait to be back next year!
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