Many of us within the Malaysian ACG community travel abroad to attend events. Some notable overseas events that you might be familiar with are Anime Festival Asia in Singapore, Comifuro in Indonesia, Comiket in Japan, and maybe even Fancy Frontier in Taiwan. However, there’s one region that seems to not get as much attention – Vietnam.
Today, we will be looking into one such event in Vietnam, Hobby Horizon Beyond, that happened back from the 4th to the 5th of November 2023. Let’s see what they have to offer for ACG events.
Getting There
The event venue, the Sky Expo Convention Center, is situated quite a distance away from the city center, but it’s nothing a quick Grab can’t solve. Once you reach the venue, the event itself is also easily reachable with clear signage everywhere, so we never found ourselves lost or confused.
Getting into the event was also really easy. Perhaps due to us visiting on the last day of the event, there were barely any queues to purchase tickets and everything went smoothly. The volunteers and staff members were all helpful as well, and pointed us in the right direction if we ever needed help.
The Overall Vibe
The event had a truly ‘for fans by fans’ vibe. If you’ve ever felt that recent events seem very commercialized, this would be the opposite of it. There’s an abundance of artist booths, alarge space for cosplayers to hang around, and even a wall for anyone to write or draw on. There were also big commercial booths, such as Gank’s, but these booths often felt fun and appropriate to the event, and never felt ‘cash-grabby’.
On-Stage & Off-Stage Activities
There were plenty of activities for con-goers to enjoy. There were even 3 separate stages to cater to these different activities. There was a Main stage, where all of the highlighted activities were held; a Valorant stage where Valorant matches were being showcased; as well as a small stage for smaller-scale events such as a ‘random dance’ activity. It felt like there was a little something for everyone, and no one was left behind.
Speaking of something for everyone, even the indie gamers and board game enthusiasts weren’t excluded. There was an indie games showcase happening which featured indie games from all across Southeast Asia, including titles from Thailand, Brunei, the Philippines and even Malaysia. As for the board game enthusiasts, there were Warhammer painting workshops, learn-to-play sessions for Force of Will, and a small area to play other board games.
Cosplayers & Special Guests
The variety as well as the quality of cosplayers attending the event is top-notch. The detail and accuracy of the cosplayers are some of the best we’ve seen, and due to the spacious event venue, they could walk around within the hall instead of being relegated to a small area like in most local events. This allowed just about anyone to be able to interact with the cosplayers even while browsing the various doujin booths.
The guest list was quite stacked as well, with some really well known cosplayers such as Byoru, Knite, Rithe, Hasuka, RuRuSama and many more. You would even have a great chance to interact with them personally if you buy some of their merchandise.
Our Thoughts
All in all, it is quite an interesting event. The attendees were friendly despite the language barrier, the cosplayers were all really chill, and it was generally a pretty relaxing experience, especially when compared to other events that can be more intense and hectic. It is a nice change of pace, and it’s great to see and experience a much more relaxed ACG event that is filled with just as much fan passion as any other event out there.
Last but not least, here’s an awesome Spider-Punk cosplay to end this piece!
