As we drive around the winding way of Ghent, we see the billboards promoting this glamorous event called FACTS.
FACTS being one of the biggest geek and anime franchised events of Belgium, and a forerunner of cosplay events, we couldn’t help but wanting to take another gander at all its marvel, as FACTS 2023 really left a wanting expression on our souls.
Arriving at the parking lot, we finished up our own make-up as we prepared ourselves to enter the hall.
As we go in, a friendly greeter awaited us and took our ticket and adorned our wrists with the glorious band of FACTS (that Stacy immediately covered).
Walking through the hall, we arrive at the geek market where our fellow companions converged around a tree. To be more precise, a wishing tree!
Here you could write your wish and place it upon its bark – though the tree was barred off and we could only put it in a letter box. Proceeding further, we started to make our arduous track through the winding pathways (read gathered crowd) to find some trinkets in exchange of some precious gold. It wasn’t long after that we found such a stall that appeased to us. In the distance, we could already detect our beloved French cardboard seller. To be more precise, a seller of Magic The Gathering goods. A few singles later, we gathered our loot and happily marched further to loot some other stalls (Asian candies? Here we come!). Stumbling onto a lot of shops that keeps on coming back, certain stands were a bit out of place. Of course we love fast internet, but hello Proximus? Why are you promoting Fiber on FACTS? We’d like more geek please?!
Though almost an hour in, we started to notice that some things were … missing. We loved FACTS for its openness, for the cosplayers wandering around, for the huge boardgame play-area and the friendliness of the geeky crowd. Indeed, the cosplayers opt for the huge and marvellous cosplay contest that FACTS organises each year, causing cosplayers to stay backstage for the entirety of the day – the competition is a nice add-on, but it takes away the magic FACTS brings to this world as you wander and cross your favourite characters wandering through the stalls.
Another big disappointment for us, was indeed the almost barren boardgame section, which made way for Bouncezilla, a great play area for little kids, but big kids like us were disappointed to see the boardgame/creative area in the geek market. Not only is it very crowded, it also has less possibility of seating and thus less chances to test out a boardgame. If you could manage to steal a spot at the boardgame/creative spot, don’t think that you can enjoy a game in peaceful environment. The sound of the crowd speaks well above the tone of the speaker. The D&D stand lost a bit of value this way as you barely could hear a word he uttered. Looking back at the Bouncezilla hall, it felt as if the organizers of FACTS tried to fill the hall with extra photobooths and other bits and bops, which in turn felt a bit out of place since they didn’t align with the hall being for kids. Or is a horror prop section suddenly for kids and have we missed a note?
Now, going back to the friendliness of the crowd. Not a lot of attention is given to the few cosplayers wandering around. For the few people that asked for a picture with a cosplayer and in those moments, other gents (cosplayed or not), just walked in front of the camera. The mood of the general crowd wasn’t too peppy as well, and that felt like a little black mark on the entirety of the experience.
We ended our afternoon at FACTS with a little drink and a bite from the VIP area. A nice and cosy resting place if you want to skip the endless waiting lines from FACTS itself.
All in all, this spring edition of FACTS left us feeling a bit disappointed. Let us hope that FACTS fall edition will rekindle the FACTS fire!
