Casually clad warriors battling for a duct-taped Excalibur, Jesus and Buddha train riding and geeks being sold to the highest bidder — if you’re thinking, “What the hell?” then you’d be right.
Feb. 28–March 2 marked yet another annual iteration of the What the Hell?! Convention.
So WTF is What the Hell Con?
“It’s people in the Yachting Club, doing Yachting Club things,” answered first-year Nick Reynolds.
WTH?! Con delves into everything from cosplay to anime, human auctioning to amtgard to even more cosplay. It’s a place where a person can immerse oneself in worlds riddled with culture.
“The story I’ve heard is that people basically sat down and watched a bunch of crappy stuff, and it sort of just blossomed from there,” said frequent attendee Russell Alterman, host of the anime room. “(The story is) nothing too romantic,” said frequent attendee Russell Alterman, host of the Anime Room.
The con has been up and running for a long time and continues to draw in people from all age groups and genres who wish to come to the land of Quaker folk in hopes of unleashing their inner geek.
This would be the case for artist and vendor Meesha Walker who found herself at the con for her third time.
“I came to check out What the Hell?! Con two years ago when they had it set up,” said Walker. “I heard about it from a friend and thought it was an awesome con and wanted to participate in it myself.”
WTH?! Cons in the past have generated good turnouts, although that has not always been the case. After fewer attendees showed up than usual last year, the con came back strong thanks to hard work in advertising.
Fans flocked from all over Greensboro and beyond to invest their time and energy into the con while in the process creating chill vibes that could make Iceman shiver.
Participation was hardly an issue this year as regulars meshed with the new attendees through an assortment of anime-infested antics and the crushing defeats of Super Smash Bros.
“So I thought WTH?! Con was pretty interesting,” said senior and first time con attendee Levi Goodridge. “I was definitely exposed to some stuff that was intriguing and definitely some things that made me go, ‘What the hell?’”
There was no discrimination between first-time and true believers as they gathered to witness the juggling of flames, the slashing of duck tape swords and the battling of superheroes to the death.
The festivities continued on to Saturday where the convention’s key guest, author Suzanne Adair, provided a writing seminar for all interested in the craft of fiction.
The geek auction, a favorite of con guests, took cosplay to a new level as people were auctioned off to raise money for charity.
With all of the manic activities during the con there were more chill vibes in abundance than free con giveaways.
“Chill … would be the best word to use to describe this con,” said senior and con financial guru Emily Eadie. “This has been one of the most relaxed cons I’ve been at since I’ve been at Guilford.”
Although chill may be an accurate term for the feeling of the con this year, another word comes to mind that could just as easily describe WTH?! Con 2014 — generous.
This year, the Yachting club will have $3,000 dollars excess in their budget due to the con’s special guest who took less money than the group imagined. With this excess money, the club will try to begin a start-up fund to clean the Guilford College lake.
“We thought, since we have the extra money, that we should give back to the community and what better place than to do that to than the lake?” said Eadie.
