Victoria Archives | Otaku No Culture

An Island Fancon Report and Why Greater Victoria Needs More Nerdy Events!

When Greater Victoria is home to Island Fancon, can this event grow to replace the huge gap that nerds living in this region need?

When Island Fancon becomes the event for pop culture enthusiasts to congregate in the Greater Victoria region, let’s hope this show will keep on going. The convention takes place in Langford, British Columbia, and chief organizer Lonnie Eckardt is committed to keeping this celebration going. He is aware of the challenges and will do his best to make it work.

After last year’s news from Capital City Comic Con that they cannot continue, no other party with similar offerings exists. And I discussed the problems this city faces in a separate editorial. In a nutshell, this region has trouble with keeping a convention going after three or so years.

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[Victoria, BC] Capital City Comic Con Is Sadly Not Continuing

When Capital City Comic Con shares its name with a fandom event in Michigan, that’s not the reason why it’s been cancelled.

Capital City Comic Con Thank You Card Victoria, BC has lost another pop culture convention, and it’s not due to some fiasco. Earlier this week, Capital City Comic Con announced they are unable to continue putting on future shows and thanked the community for their support. Whatever the reasons are–to which a some Facebook posts asked–they did not disclose.

After attending and taking part in many similiar events in my home city since the 90s, I’m aware of the challenges, hurdles, and problems. In the past, I helped organize the video programming for the video screening rooms, ran role playing game sessions, and even presented a few panels. I know coordinating so everything goes off without a hitch can is not as simple as many may think.

We’re a small city, plain and simple, with perhaps a lower than average percentage who are hard core pop culture enthusiasts. And without the tourism numbers (and dollars) on top, to grow past year three is tough! That’s my theory because the geeky events I’ve attended tend to shut down at or after that cursed numerical count. Gottacon is an exception, and based on what I heard from the grapevine, the move to the Victoria Conference Center led to new difficulties; they eventually folded. Even after many long years as a local fixture, LANtasy, announced their closure.

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Dave Morris’ Sentimental 52 Stories Returns For a One Night Engagement

In what makes this live-theatre monologue style show special is that Dave Morris has 52 Stories to tell, and he manages to breeze through them all in a tight act!

Playing Oct 5, 2024
Georges P. Vanier Secondary
4830 Headquarters Road
Courtenay, BC

Tickets available through Eventbrite

Who needs the Bard of Avon when Dave Morris is around? After a successful run at the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival, he’s confirmed his latest work, 52 Stories, will not be shelved, but rather be transformed into an autobiography, and he’ll bring this show back upon request and quite possibly when his book is ready to hit shelves!

Although most of his improv and Paper Street Theatre productions are offered to residents of Victoria, BC, first, there’s a handful of acts that do tour, depending on when he’s been asked to guest lecture elsewhere or hired to. His stage presence can only be described as down to earth, and the tone he uses to engage audiences with his tales is melodic. Whether he uses that in his magic act, or during an improv moment, it all depends on engaging the audience in amusing ways. And when he’s a hard core nerd, that helps a lot too!

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The Best Five Genre Films to See at the Victoria Film Festival’s 30th Anniversary

Not every milestone year can be perfect, but I try to be fair about what the Victoria Film Festival offers, especially when the 25th didn’t live up to my expectations.

While there aren’t enough movies to make a top ten picks of nerdy films playing at the Victoria Film Festival‘s 30th year, that’s only because I’m selecting works that I haven’t seen before and am truly interested in. My expectations after experiencing their 20th are hard to top and what I’ve witnessed over the decade is like a sine wave. Their 25th showed them trying to include new venues and making sure there’s works that’ll appeal to non film buffs.

I’m surprised that even now, they and Tsukino Con (the Uvic Anime Club) haven’t decided to partner up. This anime event takes place after the festival, and to work together to offer up the latest Japanese animated film feels like a missed opportunity to help each other out.

It’s tough to offer an movie event celebration that has a bit of everything to cater to all levels of tastes and genres. There was even a year where the organisers experimented with the next wave–with the use of virtual reality–but now there’s little interest in choosing your own adventure storytelling; at least this show is adaptive. As for being a place to find niche genre works, it’s tough to call dibs not to get those films that matter–which I’ve seen elsewhere.

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TheNFB at Victoria Film Festival 2024 News

In what’s special about this year’s spotlight on TheNFB’s programming is that they are staying current on what’s important that locals should really know about this province and Canada’s future.

February 2 to 11, 2024
Victoria, British Columbia
Various Venues

The 30th edition of the Victoria Film Festival (VFF) will soon be here, and this year, the National Film Board of Canada (TheNFB) have four works being presented. Two are documentaries, and the other are shorts to be offered in their respective programs.

The Girl with the Red Beret Poster I’m particularly interested in The Girl with the Red Beret by Janet Perlman. It was named Best International Short at the Los Angeles Animation Festival and may well check this out along with the mini documentary, Modern Goose. Both are part of the “Returning” program (ticket link), playing Feb 9, 2024. This showcase’s theme is simply about coming home, going back and unfinished business.

Details on the feature length works are as follows:

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Instead of the Same Ol’ Same Ol’, This Year’s Scary Victoria Halloween Event Guide Tries to Be Different

Only the most loved events are mentioned in this year’s Halloween Event Listing for the Garden City is considered.

Halloween Event Guide with a Skull Looming over the The Parliament Buildings The season for trick or treating is right around the corner, and instead of listing the usual staples that take place around Victoria, B.C., what’s offered in this year’s Halloween Event Guide are either new events and activities that sparked my interest. The lists I’ve published in prior years are generally still valid, and should be listed as related articles following this post. Because variety is important and not everyone is inclcined to revisit the same old thing every year, even I want something different to try!

Not listed are murder mysteries, themed board game nights and other similiar store hosted events where there’s limited seating. This list will be updated as more events get advertised. If you know of one that should get listed here, please do not hesitate to comment or contact us.

FAMILY EVENTS

Empress Kids Haunted Hotel–Shaughnessy ballroom
721 Government Street
Oct 23, 2023

For a taste of the upper class and also being in a haunted hotel, The Fairmount has this unique event for locals and visiting tourists to partake in during the season. Not much information has been made available, but it sounds promising!

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