CyPhaCon 2022!

Their Ten Year Anniversary

2019 was the last time that CyPhaCon was able to have an event. Between COVID-19 and Hurricane Laura, the stars just would not align for the Lake Charles, LA convention. Finally, things came together for CyPhaCon to take place at the Lake Charles Civic Center over the first weekend in April. The event broke the previous attendance record (something CyPhaCon seems to be making a habit of every year) and took place in its traditional area of the the civic center and in the arena.

The convention was broken up into three primary areas: 1) The vendor/celebrity guest area in the arena, 2) The fan group area on the second floor of the civic center and 3) The gaming (video and board games) area on the first floor. I spent most of my time in the fan group area on the second floor because I was helping out at the Lake Charles Film Festival table but I was able to visit the vendor and gaming areas as well.

The gaming area, especially the video game area, was busy all weekend long. The vendor area stayed jam packed from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. Based on a few friends that I talked to who were vendors this year, everyone seemed to be doing a great job on sales. I purchased a shirt from my friend and excellent artist, Vo Nguyen. I also snagged a USB drive of the Suzaku 7’s latest album. I’ll be giving that album a listen soon and will review it in a few days.

As far as the fan groups are concerned, there were plenty of visitors to the tables. Other conventions, model building groups, Facebook clubs, and more were all well represented in the area. The Lake Charles Film Festival had a number of people visit the table and we passed out flyers for our upcoming event.

Anime dominated most of the convention. Vendors had everything from manga to statues from different animes. Tons of cosplayers dressed as their favorite anime characters and the anime panels were well attended. The celebrity panels also drew large crowds. Science fiction, comics, and fantasy did have a presence at the convention as well, but they were definitely overshadowed by anime. That’s a good thing for CyPhaCon, as they seem to have found their niche in the pop culture convention world.

CyPhaCon already announced the date for their 2023 event. I plan on being their once again. I hope to meet some of you next year on March 31st!

Thanks for checking out my post. I had a great time at CyPhaCon this year. More convention reviews are on the way!