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slycatI realise this event took place a month and a half ago, but I've been a bit behind updating this journal. Inevitably Twitter is to blame, but I didn't want RBW to go without a mini report of sorts.
So anyway, as I had attended the Eurogamer Expo on the Friday of the convention, I only had a one day pass to RBW but that included the boat party which I was most interested in. This meant that after the expo, I had to return home from London and then set out again to London the next morning. In the end, this wasn't really a problem. I had free travel to London anyway due to having an annual ticket. Getting to the hotel was rather simple from Canary Wharf tube station, I could tell it was the right place due to the people outside with tails smoking cigarettes.
Once inside the hotel, I didn't really know where to go, so I just wondered upstairs and bumped into the furries. I soon located the dealers room and picked up my badge from a rather busy![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
graafen. I left my bag hidden in the dealer's room as I couldn't check in yet and then went for a wonder of the conspace. This turned out to be rather small and there wasn't much going on so I ended up just loitering around the 1st floor bar. One thing I noticed was that there didn't seem to be many furries about as everything seemed a bit sedate and quiet but I assumed this was because most people were still sleeping.
I had planned to participate in the Fursuit Parade as I had brought my fursuit with me. A very helpful Rallicat(badgerguy) helped me with my fursuit. As I had only brought my suit as a partial, I needed to attach the sleeves to my t-shirt. Fortunately, Rallicat had some safety pins that we both speedily attached to the t-shirt. It seemed to work rather well and now fully suiter, I headed downstairs for the parade.
Unlike all non UK conventions I've been to, the parade wasn't around the hotel, it was around the local area. As a result, a large number of fursuiters wandering around alerted the attention of the police, but it seems that after someone spoke with them, they were OK with it all. The walk was to a rather scenic area where there is a fountain, which presumably would make for some good photos. During the walk, I found one of the downsides about being partially suited was that I was having to constantly take my paws off and pull my jeans up... I hate to think what would have happened had they fallen down! Also, I had forgotten my contacts so I didn't have the best vision tho this wasn't a major problem as I could easily follow those in front.
At one rest stop, another fursuiter was saying I should be more active, running around making whooshing noises because I was wearing a Freakazoid t-shirt. However truth be told, my breathing wasn't that great with the head and so I found myself feeling rather exhausted from all the walking. One thing I will say is that the sheer number of stairs on the walk was potentially lethal... Very hard to walk up and down narrow steps with gigantic feet. The walk in all was rather long and so I was relieved to get back to the hotel and take my head off after it. However, I was quite pleased with the number of photos that were taken of my suit during the walk.
After the walk and having de-suited, Rallicat, Stu The tiger, another chap and myself went in search of food. We ended up in a nearby shopping centre where everything seemed rather posh, but they had a food area with a Nando's and a Gourmet Burger Kitchen. As I had had Nando's the day before, we opted for GBK where we had extortionately expensive but rather tasty burgers.
On returning to the hotel, the next event on the schedule was the talent show, which had maybe one good act and the rest were dodgy at best. Due to lack of participants, the stage was opened up to anyone who wanted to make a prat of themselves and this ended up with 3 guys doing endless improvised jokes which seemed only funny to themselves.
Needless to say, most people evacuated the hall while this was going on and so I ended up mingling until the boat party was due. Again, it seemed there wasn't many people around on the 1st floor, but I soon found out that a large number of people were at the downstairs bar area.
Soon enough, it was time for the boat party, the event everyone was looking forward to. We wondered down to the pier en-mass to go wait for the boat to arrive. During the wait, a number of people ended up leaving me their bags while they ran back to the hotel for something or other and they were still nowhere to be seen while we were boarding. If they weren't there by the time the boat left, they wouldn't be getting on. Fortunately, they arrived at the last minute to recover their bags.
Now, I've been on boat parties before but never have I been on one as good as the RBW party. Basically, the boat was 3 floors, with the middle floor being the party floor. The party floor was illuminated by an impressive multicoloured ceiling which was operated from the DJ booth. The music was great and everyone had a great time. My favourite track of the evening which really got me dancing was Printer Jam by Mistabishi.
After the party, everyone headed back to the hotel. While doing so, midnight had arrived meaning it was the 1st November, my birthday :) Once I arrived at the hotel tho, I headed straight for the hotel room and showered due to feeling sweaty, and then I ended up just going to sleep.
The next morning, my brother and I went in search of the free breakfast which came with our rooms. I had previously spotted a buffet like area on the 1st floor and so went there in search of food. The lady on the door said our room number wasn't on her list but as we insisted we had breakfast with our room, she let us in. The day before, I had been informed that the breakfast was an awesome buffet selection of fried meats, eggs, etc however when we got to what we thought was breakfast, it was just a continental breakfast meaning bread, cheese and cereals. We later found out that the breakfast we were looking for was in fact on the ground floor...
Anyway, after saying goodbye to a bunch of people and collecting our baggage and checking out, my brother and I made our way home.
In reflection, I felt like I didn't get the most out of the convention. I seemed to miss where most of the people were and as a result, it felt like a rather empty convention to me. I probably would have enjoyed it more had I had the full 3 day ticket. The hotel was great and I ended up chatting with a bunch of new people though the events while running on schedule, seemed a bit lacking. The highlight was obviously the boat party which was simply fantastic and the best party I have been to in many years.
I did film some footage of the party and made this into a video seen below. However I didn't get much decent footage and also due to me having a new PC, I didn't have access to a decent video editing program at the time. Anyway, was good to get what footage I did record online.
So anyway, as I had attended the Eurogamer Expo on the Friday of the convention, I only had a one day pass to RBW but that included the boat party which I was most interested in. This meant that after the expo, I had to return home from London and then set out again to London the next morning. In the end, this wasn't really a problem. I had free travel to London anyway due to having an annual ticket. Getting to the hotel was rather simple from Canary Wharf tube station, I could tell it was the right place due to the people outside with tails smoking cigarettes.
Once inside the hotel, I didn't really know where to go, so I just wondered upstairs and bumped into the furries. I soon located the dealers room and picked up my badge from a rather busy
graafen. I left my bag hidden in the dealer's room as I couldn't check in yet and then went for a wonder of the conspace. This turned out to be rather small and there wasn't much going on so I ended up just loitering around the 1st floor bar. One thing I noticed was that there didn't seem to be many furries about as everything seemed a bit sedate and quiet but I assumed this was because most people were still sleeping.I had planned to participate in the Fursuit Parade as I had brought my fursuit with me. A very helpful Rallicat(
badgerguy) helped me with my fursuit. As I had only brought my suit as a partial, I needed to attach the sleeves to my t-shirt. Fortunately, Rallicat had some safety pins that we both speedily attached to the t-shirt. It seemed to work rather well and now fully suiter, I headed downstairs for the parade.Unlike all non UK conventions I've been to, the parade wasn't around the hotel, it was around the local area. As a result, a large number of fursuiters wandering around alerted the attention of the police, but it seems that after someone spoke with them, they were OK with it all. The walk was to a rather scenic area where there is a fountain, which presumably would make for some good photos. During the walk, I found one of the downsides about being partially suited was that I was having to constantly take my paws off and pull my jeans up... I hate to think what would have happened had they fallen down! Also, I had forgotten my contacts so I didn't have the best vision tho this wasn't a major problem as I could easily follow those in front.
At one rest stop, another fursuiter was saying I should be more active, running around making whooshing noises because I was wearing a Freakazoid t-shirt. However truth be told, my breathing wasn't that great with the head and so I found myself feeling rather exhausted from all the walking. One thing I will say is that the sheer number of stairs on the walk was potentially lethal... Very hard to walk up and down narrow steps with gigantic feet. The walk in all was rather long and so I was relieved to get back to the hotel and take my head off after it. However, I was quite pleased with the number of photos that were taken of my suit during the walk.
After the walk and having de-suited, Rallicat, Stu The tiger, another chap and myself went in search of food. We ended up in a nearby shopping centre where everything seemed rather posh, but they had a food area with a Nando's and a Gourmet Burger Kitchen. As I had had Nando's the day before, we opted for GBK where we had extortionately expensive but rather tasty burgers.
On returning to the hotel, the next event on the schedule was the talent show, which had maybe one good act and the rest were dodgy at best. Due to lack of participants, the stage was opened up to anyone who wanted to make a prat of themselves and this ended up with 3 guys doing endless improvised jokes which seemed only funny to themselves.
Needless to say, most people evacuated the hall while this was going on and so I ended up mingling until the boat party was due. Again, it seemed there wasn't many people around on the 1st floor, but I soon found out that a large number of people were at the downstairs bar area.
Soon enough, it was time for the boat party, the event everyone was looking forward to. We wondered down to the pier en-mass to go wait for the boat to arrive. During the wait, a number of people ended up leaving me their bags while they ran back to the hotel for something or other and they were still nowhere to be seen while we were boarding. If they weren't there by the time the boat left, they wouldn't be getting on. Fortunately, they arrived at the last minute to recover their bags.
Now, I've been on boat parties before but never have I been on one as good as the RBW party. Basically, the boat was 3 floors, with the middle floor being the party floor. The party floor was illuminated by an impressive multicoloured ceiling which was operated from the DJ booth. The music was great and everyone had a great time. My favourite track of the evening which really got me dancing was Printer Jam by Mistabishi.
After the party, everyone headed back to the hotel. While doing so, midnight had arrived meaning it was the 1st November, my birthday :) Once I arrived at the hotel tho, I headed straight for the hotel room and showered due to feeling sweaty, and then I ended up just going to sleep.
The next morning, my brother and I went in search of the free breakfast which came with our rooms. I had previously spotted a buffet like area on the 1st floor and so went there in search of food. The lady on the door said our room number wasn't on her list but as we insisted we had breakfast with our room, she let us in. The day before, I had been informed that the breakfast was an awesome buffet selection of fried meats, eggs, etc however when we got to what we thought was breakfast, it was just a continental breakfast meaning bread, cheese and cereals. We later found out that the breakfast we were looking for was in fact on the ground floor...
Anyway, after saying goodbye to a bunch of people and collecting our baggage and checking out, my brother and I made our way home.
In reflection, I felt like I didn't get the most out of the convention. I seemed to miss where most of the people were and as a result, it felt like a rather empty convention to me. I probably would have enjoyed it more had I had the full 3 day ticket. The hotel was great and I ended up chatting with a bunch of new people though the events while running on schedule, seemed a bit lacking. The highlight was obviously the boat party which was simply fantastic and the best party I have been to in many years.
I did film some footage of the party and made this into a video seen below. However I didn't get much decent footage and also due to me having a new PC, I didn't have access to a decent video editing program at the time. Anyway, was good to get what footage I did record online.
