Venue/Location: Crowne Plaza Portland, 1441 NE 2nd Ave, Phone: 503-233-2401
Dates:
- Saturday, May 26, 2012 - 10:00 AM
- Sunday, May 27, 2012 - 10:00 AM
Wonder Northwest
Admission: $8.00/day, $15.00/weekend
Click here for a list of Guests
Click here for a list of panels.
Rolling into its second year, Wonder Northwest is back and better than ever!
Wonder Northwest, Portland’s Comics & Pop Culture Expo, returns for its second year featuring a dazzling array of vendors, guests, events, activities, music and general fun. Wonder Northwest is a wider and much more all encompassing presentation of geek and pop culture than is currently made available by the more specialized comic, anime, gaming and sci-fi shows in the area.
This year will see the addition of the MicroMini Geek Film Festival to the schedule. Presented on Saturday May 26th, this event will feature screenings of projects both long and short that all feature local talent. The inaugural lineup will include a brand new outing from the Planning to Fail (Spectacularly) web series, a sneak peak at Galaxy Sailor Productions’ Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew by Martin Vavra – an upcoming documentary on a local group of pirates and the construction of their colossal ship, a screening of last year’s Trek in the Park performance, and much more. Everything shown will be immediately followed by a Q&A session with people involved in the production of each project.
Another new addition this year will be live music in the main panel room following the daily events. Saturday will feature geeky girl duo the Doubleclicks and geeky boy band Asteroid M. Sunday night will be a cosplay dance party with Seattle area video game re-mixer the Icarus Kid, comic based entity Robot Uprise and hometown heroes the Slants.
Guests at this year’s show include street art heavy-hitter Bigfoot. Hailing from the bay area, Bigfoot will be unveiling and taking preorders for his newest vinyl figure, The Forest Warlord. PDX Yar, Portland’s local Pirate crew, will be making their triumphant return. A popular and prominent feature of last years’ festivities, they will be presenting a panel, singing sea shanties, and performing live mock-battles for attendees to enjoy. Portland’s vibrant geeky podcasting community will be represented in full force and will feature live recordings by popular podcasts Nerd Fight and KaijuCast.
Attendees will also have a wide variety of events, signings, and contests available to partake in. The most inclusive of these will be a costume contest with local celebrity judges and fabulous prizes distributed through multiple judging categories. The vending hall will be host to an impressive array of vendors from many locations on the west coast and will feature a staggering variety of toys, comics, vintage collectibles, games and more. Each night will also see a special after party hosted by local businesses. Saturday’s after party will be Heroes vs. Villains Power Struggle pub crawl hosted by local costuming do-gooders The Alter Egos Society, which will end at Firkin Tavern, and Sunday night’s will be a special performance of Critical Hit Burlesque’s Geeklesque: Destroy All Humans at the Bossanova Ballroom. There will also be a special pre-show kickoff party as a special edition of the Space Room’s normal Geek Out party.