Hal-con prepares for warp speed return
Don’t be surprised if you see Spider-man and Wonder Woman, or maybe a posse of Transformers, on downtown streets this weekend. The fall season marks the return of Hal-con to the Halifax Convention Centre, the one-stop multiverse for fans of sci-fi, fantasy, comics, gaming and cosplay under one roof for three days packed with activities.
In 2020, COVID-19 proved to be Hal-con’s kryptonite, and the event was called off due to gathering restrictions and health concerns. 2021 saw it return with a primarily East Coast focus and virtual content for those who couldn’t attend in person.
For 2022, the volunteer team that schedules events, books guests and juggles the logistics of appealing to as many subsets of geek culture as possible has created Halcon’s version of the Marvel Universe’s Blip: the return of what was lost after supervillain Thanos snapped his fingers with the Infinity Gauntlet and wiped out half of humanity.
Maybe losing a year to COVID wasn’t a catastrophic event on the level of Thanos’s Snap, but after having a year to rebuild since the scaled-down edition of 2021, Hal-con’s organizers are confident that this weekend’s slate of guests, games and vendors will be what attendees are looking for to fill the halls and ballrooms once again.
“We were really happy to be able to put on a smaller, locally focused convention last year — focused on the Maritimes and Nova Scotia specifically — to be able to bring something to our community during the pandemic,” says Hal-con spokesman Jarrod Peckham. “We were still dealing with lockdowns and that kind of stuff, but now we’re really excited to be able to come back to the full Halcon experience that we had envisioned, and what people would be used to from the past.
“So we’re really coming back to what we were before the pandemic, in terms of the type of offerings we’re bringing forward in terms of international guests and larger events and bigger programs and being able to accommodate a larger crowd.”
Celebrity guests are always the big headline grabbers, like Cary Elwes from The Princess Bride, Firefly and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles star and Saturn Award winner Summer Glau, and rugged Scotsman Graham Mctavish who has appeared in an incredible run of fan favourites dating back to cult U.K. sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf, with roles in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy and the series Outlander, Preacher and now the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon on his resume.
But dig a little deeper into the guest list and you’ll find visitors like P.E.I. comics power couple Brenda Hickey (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic) and Troy Little (Rick & Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons), Are You Afraid of the Dark? co-creator D.J. Machale, and St. John’s-born European Space Agency rep Bethany Downer with amazing tales to tell and inspirational words to share.
“Our guest team members are always outdoing themselves trying to find great guests to have that are not just well-known, but also provide a great experience for our attendees as well,” says Peckham. “So they’re always focused on doing that.
“That’s no different this year; we really wanted to make sure they were bringing the full capacity back and taking advantage of the fact that we have a whole lot of people in the room by bringing some big names here.”
But hearing how animation voice actor Will Friedle can be Lex Luthor, Aquaman AND Star-lord, Guardian of the Galaxy, or rubbing elbows with former Cineplex preshow host Tanner Zipchen is just the tip of the Hal-con iceberg. Also consider the artists, authors and role-playing game creators that will be sharing their insight with fans, multiple gaming tournaments —including a national qualifying round for the Canadian Catan Championship — and the ever-growing community of cosplay enthusiasts ready to dazzle onlookers with their latest larger-thanlife creations.
“I’m sure we’ll have more entrants than we did last year, to be able to have a bigger show and have the big costume contest show on Sunday, like we always do,” says Peckham. “In terms of workshops ... some of them will be on cosplay basics of sewing and things like that, as well as more advanced crafting techniques like using vinyl and foam to be able to create armor and those kinds of props.”
Peckham expects he’ll be spending any free time he gets checking out Hal-con events relating to his own interests, like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, fantasy fiction and the Q&A with Mctavish, who he enjoyed on Netflix’s fantasy horror series The Witcher.
He’s also looking forward to seeing more first-time Halcon attendees investigating interests they’ve developed during the pandemic — whether it’s gaming, cosplay or a quarantine-inspired binge-watch of Game of Thrones — and didn’t have a way to share their enthusiasm.
“Now that the pandemic is winding down, and we’re getting back to reopening fully, we have a full convention happening,” says Peckham. “It’s an opportunity for those people who have picked up new hobbies to come and share them with other people at Hal-con when they may not have done that before.”
For a full rundown of Halcon events, guests and updates, visit hal-con.com or get the Hal-con app.