MINOT — People from all over the country are in the Magic City this weekend to celebrate sci-fi, anime, and cosplay!
The iMagicon has taken over the Minot Municipal Auditorium.
Jared Adams, one of the three primary directors of iMagicon, said the event, which has been happening for about 8 years, has been growing every year.
“A lot of our sales come at the door,” Adams explained. “We encourage online pre-sales, but a lot of people like to order right at the door.”
The pre-sale tickets are at a few hundred, trending upward, says Adams.
“We have premier and VIP bags, which are a lot bigger and lucrative, and we sell out of those really fast,” said Adams. “They’ll come with patches, stickers, random trinkets, and also sometimes photos and discounts for special guests. This year we’re selling some special additional stuff that we’ve never included before.”
Adams explained what the iMagicon is, “Our slogan is, ‘Imagine the possibilities.’ We’ve never wanted to be stuck down by one particular trend. You know, you have San Diego Comic Con which focuses heavy on the cosplay aspect. For us it’s all about, if there’s a fandom, or a hobby, or a comic or a book, or a video game or a movie that you absolutely love, this is the place to come and express that.”
Adams said it is mostly a family-oriented event, with people from toddler age to 60 years old.
“If you think about Minot, we’re a northern midwestern town, surrounded by farm fields,” Adams laughed. “And every year, even now, I’m amazed because of how close knitted the community it is, and how they rally together, and how wonderfully nerdy everyone is.”
Adams said the event usually has around 50 to 100 volunteers, helping anywhere from security to ticketing to managing the escape rooms. Those who volunteer for a four-hour day get the whole day for free.
Jonathan Hallett, from Salt Lake City, is a vendor and he sells his artwork.
“I actually work for Disney, I’m a story board artist for them,” said Hallett. “I do the TV movies, so for Disney plus, Disney channel. I did Minutemen, I worked on the High School Musical Series.”
Hallett draws everything digitally, which takes him about 2 hours each, where he then prints them off to sell at Comic Cons. He is in the process of designing a lion costume for Allison Haxton, of Minot.
“He would be making the whole custom, so I can give it to somebody to make me a fur suit,” said Haxton. “I referenced him, I was like, ‘My favorite is Lion King, so between Mufasa, Simba, Scar, have fun with it.’”
Tanner Duppong, from Bismarck, was dressed as a warhammer 40k tech priest.
“The process [of putting my costume together] was kind of seeing the cost efficiency, seeing how much time and effort I wanted to put into it, and just kind of make as much as efficiently as possible,” Duppong explained.
iMagicon has several vendors and special guests at the auditorium, with more activities for adults only happening after hours Saturday at the Grand Hotel.
Saturday hours are 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Sunday is 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tickets and information on volunteering can be found on the iMagicon website.
