Comic Fiesta 2016 has come and gone, and like all conventions, there’s always stuff that we absolutely love (and kinda dislike) about it. So here’s what we think are the good and bad bits about CF2016, and don’t worry, we’re not that salty.
The Good
1. Lots of space!
Compared to last year’s location, Mines Convention Center; the Putra World Trade Center feels like it has a lot more space. Mines was quite huge in its own right, but it suffered under poor internal (and external) traffic flow. Here, it was still crowded but it was much easier to move around and there weren’t any severe obstructions due to human traffic. Definitely, a plus, though we had to walk quite a bit just to get to the main hall from the ticketing hall.
2. Loads of transport options
It’s always great when the event venue has loads of transport options and this year it was no exception. You could get to the venue by bus, LRT/KTM easily or drive.
The best part? it wasn’t hilariously jammed outside like it was during last year’s CF.
3. Better traffic flow!
On the surface, I originally thought that having one-way traffic would be a bad thing; but it certainly didn’t come out as bad as I expected. The walk is a bit long and it can be a bit tedious to get back into the halls (assuming you went the whole way out into the main PWTC building) so I imagine if you had a restricting or large costume it was a pain to get around.
However, aside from the long walk in over the river and up around the convention, there are certain areas where you can use as a shortcut back to the main hall, without having to go all the way back to the ticketing hall.
4. More booths
This year it felt like there were much more vendor booths than usual. There was also a greater variety, featuring a Games Workshop booth, card games and a gashapon area with Pokemon Tretta. There also wasn’t quite as big a presence for eSports as there was last year, so there was one less distracting space (no offence to the folks who love eSports!)
The doujin space got their own hall too! with a combination of sponsors, premium and regular doujinshi booths. Pylox, AirAsia, iFlix and Wacom were there too!
So much variety! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many booths at CF and I really hope the trend continues.
5. The stage has its own area
I like this a lot. Not only does the overall noise pollution (sorry) is kept separate from the main hall area, it keeps the massive crowd watching separate from most of the show floor. To put it simply, the people watching the stage get the area all to themselves and people outside didn’t have to worry about it being too loud. Win-win!
Now on to the not so nice bits…
