• BronyScot 2016: A Short Retrospective

    On the weekend of November 19 and 20, there was a high concentration of pony fans walking around the northwestern parts of Glasgow, Scotland. In and around the Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor these pony fans were gathered to attend panels, buy all the pony merch, make new friends and above else have a good time.
    Friday the 18th I found myself flying over the North Sea to join these fans of colourful equines and see what this gathering was all about.

    Find a short convention retrospective for BronyScot 2016 below the break!


    After a long day of work on Friday, it was time to head to Scotland for BronyScot 2016. Since the UK and the Netherlands are seperated by a "too-wide-to-swim" body of water called the North sea, a short 1-hour flight from Amsterdam to Glasgow was the only option.

    Glasgow was cloudy, but the lights of the city centre could still be seen during the landing

    Since this was my first time in Scotland, it was my moral obligation to get a good taste of Scotland. After landing and arriving at the hotel, it was time for a quick trip to the local pub.
     Yes. That is a church converted to a pub

    The next morning was when all the convention fun began. While the panels rooms and vendor hall were being set up the attendees gathered in the main hall of the Hilton for the opening ceremonies. As at most conventions the opening ceremony consisted of introductions of the guests and explainations of the panels, but it wouldn't be a true Scottish opening ceremony without a bagpipe performance of several favourite pony songs.


    The rest of the day was filled with different kinds of panels to attend, games to play, pony merchandise to buy and hanging out with friends around the convention floor.




    Later during the day there was a Q&A Skype call with show writer M.A Larson calling in from across the pond. During this call Larson answered questions coming from the audience and talked about his past involvement in the show and his future endeavors as a book writer.


    The Skype call with Larson was followed by the charity auction, where many pieces of pony merchandise were sold to the highest bidder in the audience.


    But like all good things, this con has to come to and end as well. But the closing ceremony wasn't the end of the convention yet.


    The next day there was the so called Rock Nessie event. A music concert held at the Classic Grand club in the city centre of Glasgow. This event saw performances of several fandom favourite artists from around Europe such as:
    • Eile Monty
    • Wooden Toaster
    • RE:MAKE (Acoustic Brony)
    • Injustrial
    • CrackingLazer & Friends
    • MC Arch
    • Sketchy Sounds

     Glasow is ready for the upcoming holidays

    Everyone lining up for the event


    After the Rock Nessie event, the con officially came to a close.
    Overall, I had a lot of fun at BronyScot this year. It's always good meeting new people and being in  Scotland for the first time was a blast as well. Very friendly people all around. While conventions like BronyScot are smaller than for example Galacon, it is this smaller size that gives these kind of cons a more personal feeling. In any case, I hope to be able to return to another edition of BronyScot in the future.

    This is Gameleon, signing off!

    Special thanks to CloudaneUK for supplying some of the photographs used in this retrospective