“Masquerade!
Grinning yellows,
spinning reds . . .
Masquerade!
Take your fill –
let the spectacle
astound you!
Masquerade!
Burning glances,
turning heads . . .
Masquerade!
Stop and stare
at the sea of smiles
around you!”
~Phantom of the Opera, “Masquerade”
On the one hand, you are welcome to wear pretty much whatever you would like. You don’t have to wear any particular thing in in order to be accepted at our events. (Or hopefully, at any events without a specific costume theme.)
Furthermore, even if you do want to dress up, you don’t have to enter a contest for it. You dress up for you, and to delight the people around you if you want.
But!
Since the days of the first scifi conventions, with William Shatner riding that subway to get there…we’ve loved our costumes. And where would Renaissance Faires be without characters? And where would Steampunk conventions be if we didn’t glue a few gears to our hats?
In that fine tradition, our costume, and cosplay contests are some of the most beloved aspects of our show. And we are amazed and kind of overjoyed to see how much creativity these things inspire.
You do NOT need the world’s fanciest costume, nor the world’s most expensive costume!
(But if you HAVE those, worry not – we’ve a category for that as well! And we’d love to see it!)
Basically, what we’re saying is: If you’d like to enter our costume contests, please do. They’re open to all!