Rising Con report

Report from @viper67_ on Rising Con Brasil 2011

Ok, I almost didn’t go to this con because it was very expensive. Now, I know what a lot o people (specially KLZ) said: the prices were the same or lower than cons on other contries. I get that. But, hello: third world country here. We just don’t make as much as Europeans and Americans. The gold package cost more than I pay for rent in Sao Paulo and I live in a high-priced area of the city. Also, I am a 28 year-old woman, who has a regular and well-paid job and I am a HUGE SPN fan and I had no way of spending that much money on a gold or silver pass. I believe it would be a lot harder for younger fans to get that kind of money.

That’s the main reason, I believe, the con was considered a “failure in sales” for KLZ as they told us before it started. They were expecting 2.000 people and sold a little over 200 passes. I’m sure that if they lowered their prices a little or accepted parceled payment (that is very commom here), they’d have their 2.000 people.

That said, I got two simple passes, for me and my brother, who also loves the show. It was the first con for both of us.

We got there Saturday night and, I’ll admit, I almost turned away and ran. There was a lot of squealing teenaged girls and I felt 70, lol. We were also the only two people not dressed Winchestery-like. People were rocking the whole plaid-shirt and boots and I felt a little silly.

So, we got there and got our tickets. My brother asked a staff member what was our line and showed his pass. She showed us a line. After a few minutes, I realized we were on the gold members line. I told him we were in the wrong line and he said “no, they have the same passes as we do.” I said “no, they don’t”. We both put out out passes and lo and behold: they gave him a gold pass. It was his name on it and the number of the receipt he got. But it was gold. I have NO idea how this mix-up happened, since I bought both passes together. It wasn’t even a sitting problem, there were no duplicated seats, he had a reserved gold one.

So he stayed on the gold line and I went to the simple one. Once he got inside, another mix-up. A staff member got his pass and showed him a seat. In the frigging second row. He sat there, believing it was the gold area. It was only in the middle of Misha’s pannel that he realized the girl put him on the VIP area. The 500-dollar-a-seat VIP area. For which he paid absolutely nothing, because I paid the 70 bucks for his simples pass.

So: unorganized? Understatment. But we’re not complaining. lol

The con started and Misha, Chad and Matt walked it. Misha was the first pannelist. He was very friendly and very Misha-like, just as I expected. The moment I saw him, all my uncomfortableness for being such a huge nerd vanished: he’s gorgeous and I fully embraced my inner-geekdom.

There was a translator and Misha joked a lot with her. He complained about stopping to get translated because he likes to go on and on while talking. He asked people who understood English to raise their hands. Maybe half the room did and he agreed he needed the translator. So they kept going.

He said he was surprised to become God, because he thought he’d die in the finale. Said the writers told him on the beginning on S6 that Cas would die in the end. He joked a lot about the “bow down” line. He said that Cas and Dean’s relationship used to be Cas going “Dean, be my friend” and now it is “you will bow down and profess your love or I’ll destroy you”. But you guys can get all that from the tweet-summaries.

When the pannel started, I started tweeting and a girl showed and told me to turn off my phone. I said I wasn’t on the phone, just tweeting. She said ok, then. Five minutes later she came back and said tweeting was forbidden. I didn’t want to upset the people sitting next to me, so I let it go. Almost halfway through I told one of the girls I had a question and she told me to come over. I walked three steps through the corridor and a second girl stopped me. “No, you have to sit”. The first girl came and said it was ok and that she cleared me. Three steps later, a third girl told me to sit. Second one came and cleared me. I went through five girls like this until I could get to the microphone.

Misha answered my question and I got bits and pieces of the answer because I was too busy swooning.

When I got back to my seat, I had a text from my brother (who was on the second row, remember?). I went to get it and this very rude girl told me to turn off my phone. I said I wasn’t tweeting, I was just texting my brother and she said iPhones were not allowed. I tried to reason and she was very rude saying no smartphones were allowed. Ok, then. I noticed later that even though she was supposedly a paying-congoer and fan (as all the staff members are), she paid NO attention to the pannel and spent her entire time looking for phones to turn off.

Matt showed up and was cute and bubbly and so much fun. He talked about how SPN was the most amazing experience of his carreer. He said if the wasn’t an actor, he’d like to be a fighter. He said when he got to LA he went to 50 auditions and everyone told him he sucked, but he gave them the finger and kept trying and now he gets to do what he loves. He told people to always follow their dreams. He said he and his wife just got married last week and that he was spending his honeymoon in Brazil. He said a lot of other stuff, but again, you can get that from the summaries.

I left after that and missed Chad’s pannel, because I had a family birthday and a friend's wedding to get to.

On Sunday, I came back for the group pannel. When I entered the room everyone was hugging and running and singing Carry On My Wayward Son and I felt like when you are the only one sober at a party, lol. Like, “WTF are you guys doing, guys”.

I got a chair in the back and waited for the pannel. Don’t know what happened between Saturday and Sunday, but by then there was no more translation. Translator was there, but she was just translating Portuguese-asked questions to them and there was no more translation to English. Then Matt joked (in a very sweet manner) to her that he understood the questions better in Portuguese than with her translating, she got pissed and left. The translation was then done by a girl that did speak English very well but was not well-versed in translation, which I’m sure left the lady thinking “a-ha, see how I’m useful?”, lol.

The three of them were very nice and joked a lot. Matt and Misha were clearly more laid-back than they were Saturday. Someone asked about Jensen and Jared’s relationship and Misha and Chad said they made out a lot on the set corners.

This time no one bothered me about my phone or about tweeting, a girl just asked me,politely, not to live stream, which I really don’t even have any idea how to do.

They answered a lot of questions and I’m sure you’ll see the videos to see all that. In the end, they announced Rising Con 2 in Sao Paulo and squealing crying girls went running to buy passes for a price that was really not that much cheaper than the ones they had on their website for this con.

Even though I didn’t spend all my time there, I did enjoy the con and the pannels. It could be better organized, but I am confident that KLZ will do better next time, now that they know the logistics of an event in Sao Paulo (not an easy feat). My only advice, as I said, is that they parcell the payment if they want more congoers. Translation lady received a lot of flak from spoiled little rich teens, but I think she did a great job, as best as she could and did not deserve the treatment she received.

I’ll sure be there for 2012.