HallyuCon Toronto was a rather small-scale event held at the Korean Canadian Cultural Centre on August 31, 2013.
There were probably a total of about 10 booths, each selling merchandise from a different K-Pop group or company. These booths were set up by volunteers; certain artists that didn't have booths dedicated to them as there weren't enough volunteers to start one.
After going for physio in Markham, me and my mom (I am completely aware that this is incorrect grammar, though I find that this is the way that I find most comfortable when writing on a personal level.) went for lunch at Sushi Mori in the First Markham Place plaza.
The "gym" was small; you could basically capture a photo of all the booths in one panoramic swipe! But I wasn't about to get let down just yet.
There were huge lineups for the The Face Shop booth, as they were giving out free samples, in addition to the EXO booth (Check out my VLOG to see the line). After doing a quick walkthrough, taking as many photos as I possibly could while doing so, I felt my heart drop: there wasn't a B.A.P booth in sight! I had been crazy excited the night before (and even the morning of!) and had hoped to hunt down a B.A.P and NU'EST poster at the event.
That in itself was a huge letdown, but since I was there I though that I might as well make the most of it. I lined up for the EXO booth for what seemed like an eternity before I got there and realized that the remaining items they had were some banners for Lay (made from a material resembling that of eco-bags) ($2), a banner for EXO on which someone had spilled soda on and soiled with their filthy fingers ($2 but the girl said she'd be willing to sell it for $1), wallet cards of the members that looked as if they were downloaded off of tumblr (1 for $3 and 2 for $5), and clear folders ($12). They originally had mini fans with the members' faces printed on them as well, but I guess they sold out before I even made contact with the booth.
To be honest, the other booths weren't all that great either: it was all just a bunch of limited and overpriced merchandise.
I mean, let's get real - $6 for a pair of socks?!?! I could probably buy a pack of 20 for $4 at Wal-Mart or Target of the same quality! Not to mention that they were selling K-Pop socks at the Richmond Night Market for 7 for $10. *Sighs* My fellow Torontonians/GTAians didn't even know they were getting ripped off D;
But what did cheer me up was that I found a couple of girls from my uni that also decided to check out the convention and I was able to enjoy the various dance cover performances with them before calling it a day.
Though it was much less than what I expected, I walked out with a smile on my face, a The Face Shop sample pack in my bag, a EXO poster (from the Tumblr giveaway), a Lay banner, a Park Chanyeol face mask (though the B.A.P I wore for the event was much much cooler), an EXO-K / EXO-M fanart postcard, and a B.A.P fanart postcard (I got the last MWAHAHAHAHA!!).
In case you were wondering what I wore to HallyuCon, I was decked out in full B.A.P =D
Don't believe me? Here's proof in the form of awkward smiling and bad indoor lighting:
For all my photos, check out THIS LINK. right here! =]
And for details on my trip to see B.A.P perform LIVE (EEEEEEKKK!!), check out the detailed post on Quirky Aesthetics ^ _ ^ /