Caped Crusaders, Costumes & Doctors: Supanova 2011

UPDATE: Hit the jump for our Day 1 Coverage... Day 2 coming soon!

The first thing I noticed as we walked up towards the Dome, the location for the 2011 incarnation of Sydney's Supanova Pop Culture Expo, was the array of colour. Everywhere I looked were people dressed up.. I counted 4 10th Doctors, 6 11th Doctors, at least 3 Chell's (The Protaganist from Portal) a detachment of Umbrella Corp soldiers, and a few Stormtroopers. We hadn't even got inside, and you could feel the atmosphere.

Inside was a similar experience, albeit more tightly packed. It was literally impossible to move more than three feet without running into a character of sorts. Luckily, this meant I got to fulfill one of my lifelong dreams: I shook hands with Batman.

Okay, so i actually shook hands with three Batmen, each dressed slightly differently, but still. I also witnessed something I'd never have believed if we didn't catch it on camera; a Conga Line of Doctors & Companions (Footage we'll be bringing to you very soon!).

I've also come to the conclusion that there's two ways to look at an event like this... There's DEFINITELY a sales vibe that runs rampant inside the Dome here... Mostly because just about every stall has something for sale... from toys, to replica weapons, costumes, clothes, and of course comics, dvds and books.

I contemplated lining up to grab photos with the special guests (Really just James Marsters, if i'm honest), but that was shortly before finding out that an autograph was gonna cost me $30. Each. So there's that. And if I wanted a photo? Even more.

However, there's another way of viewing an event like this... Inside this room, are over 20,000 people, who all have something in common. Each and every one of them is a nerd... and I don't for a second mean that in a bad way. That alone creates it's own atmosphere... people dressed up are more than happy to take photos with strangers, and every stall has someone bonding with someone else, over a favorite TV show, comic or book.

And that's what it's really about... It doesn't matter whether you're a nerd, a geek, a Doctor, a Tardis, a gamer, an anime nerd, a writer, or a dude in a Wookie outfit (There were three, by my count). Supanova is somewhere you can meet your favorite characters, whether real or imaginary, and share a moment.

Like I said... Shook hands with Batman. Three different times.