Pensacon returns for 10th year uniting friends, fun and fandoms in pop culture bash

Pensacon is back for its 10th anniversary this weekend and it is every nerd’s fantasy.

At the annual pop culture convention, attendees can dress up as any pop culture character, go downtown with their family, friends or loved ones and feel they have found their community, if just for one weekend.

Approaching the Pensacola Bay Center you could meet Chewbacca walking alongside stormtroopers on N. Alcaniz Street, hurry past a couple wearing Joker and Harley Quinn costumes, and stop and watch people posing in their favorite anime characters' famous poses.

Attendees like Joe Carter, 31, dressed as Ichigo Kurosaki from the show "Bleach," hails from Flomaton, Alabama, and is attending his sixth Pensacon.

“I like cosplays and I like coming with my friends,” Carter said.

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Cosplay, or a performance art where people dress up and wear accessories to represent their favorite characters, is popular with Carter and hundreds of other people who come in for the convention. It is not just about dressing up, but an opportunity to interact with people with the same interests, find new friends and be the characters they love.

Carter has been watching anime since he was 13 and ever since he has been glued to the storytelling, the action, the villains and the simple but memorable lessons the medium teaches about life and friendships.

His favorite parts of Pensacon are meeting people with similar interests, buying the newest merchandise and meeting the voice actors and celebrities who attend.

Pensacon has over 160 celebrity guests ranging from Matthew Lillard, a star of "Scream" and "Scooby Doo," to Erik Estrada, who played Francis ‘Frank’ Poncherello in the hit show "CHiPs," to Dante Basco, a voice actor known for his role as Zuko in the animated show "Avatar: The Last Airbender."

These celebrities and many others could be found stationed around the Bay Center laughing and taking photographs with fans.

Two-time Pensacon attendee Andrea Nguyen woke up Friday morning and headed to Pensacon dressed in a floral blouse, long skirt, Vans with flower designs, and a butterfly headband which she calls her ears. She perfectly fit her Twitch streamer tag: Bug_Lady11.

Coming to conventions like Pensacon is where she can be her true self — expressive and outgoing — and she feel others are on that same path of finding what fits them.

“I was thinking about the fact that I'm not gonna be the only one in a costume, and I'm not going be the only one who decided to wear something, to put something on, to get glittery, to get weird or to become someone else to dress up in cosplay,” Ngyuen said. “This is a collection and creation of tons of people collaborating and also coming together with their imagination, creations and dressing up as things they either aspire to be or things that they connect with.”

Many attendees said they've enjoyed how smooth Pensacon has gone so far this year. There have been past nightmares of waiting hours in line to purchase tickets the day before, but on Friday things moved much quicker.

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Some suggested improvements such as making the event a whole week, so that vendors can come in and out and people can choose the days they attend. It would also allow people who work late on Friday or on the weekend to attend on one of the weekdays. Others want the convention to have hours past 8 p.m., since other pop culture conventions have late night events.

Even with the congestion in the merch area, where people's elbows and shoulders were bumping and sliding past people constantly, fans said Pensacon is an unforgettable experience that creates irreplaceable memories.

Chris Smith, dressed in a long green tunic of the Earth Kingdom from the show "Avatar: The Last Airbender," came to Pensacon with his nephews. It is his fourth time attending and he started because his nephews were interested in Pensacon. He wanted to share the same interests as them and it became something he enjoyed along the way.

Smith has always enjoyed "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and anime when growing up in the late '80s and '90s.

For him, Pensacon gives nerds the access to celebrities and people they have watched their whole lives — a chance to get their autograph, take pictures and feel they too are finally a part of something bigger than themselves.

“It's just a great event, even if you're not cosplaying, just to sit and look at the cosplay. You got a lot of voice actors that come here, big actors, I mean, we've got Matthew Lillard here right now,” Smith said. “And it's really easy just to get in line and see them even without having to pay this or the other. So you have a lot of access to these big people who you never thought you would see in your life.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacon convention downtown Pensacola has photos, events, cosplay