As I type this, my boyfriend and I are travelling home from MCM Glasgow and, hopefully, by the time you read this we will have arrived. The journey home has been long and filled with unexpected changes, as was the jorney to Glasgow, but MCM was worth it. We were due to leave our home island on Friday morning’s boat, but it was inexplicabley cancelled, so we flew to Aberdeen. From here we simply took several buses to Glasgow and booked into the Youth Hostel that evening. As a system of travel, flying and taking a bus works super well, however it was more expensive than what was planned initially.
Saturday morning MCM opened its doors at 9 o’clock and we headed in shortly afterwards. Having bought priority tickets, we headed to the official MCM merch table to receive our pins. After returning to the entrance to retrieve the wristbands we forgot about, we were presented with the pins and joined the swarm of people making their way around stalls. Almost immediately, the social anxiety took over and I refused to let go of my boyfriend’s hand for 2 hours, eventually that anxiety wore off. The convention had an atmosphere of acceptance. Many people had chosen to cosplay, icluding several families with small children, which is adorable. There were stalls selling LGBT flags with most stalls selling small pride badges. LGBT Youth Scotland even hosted their first panel on inclusivity in gaming, which was a joy to attend. As we wandered around the art stalls I encountered an old schoolfriend selling her merch (Datcravat on instagram), and picked up many badges. Before leaving for the night, we visited Thomas “Tomska” Ridgewell at his stall. He was clearly tired, but made time for every single fan in the queue. He’s an absolute delight to speak to and I wish him nothing but the best. That evening we caught up with a friend in Glasgow and attended a screening of IT: Chapter 2, which was good. It’s an adaptation of a Stephen King ending… so they did the best the could.
On Sunday, we looked at what panels were on that day and decided to start with the “Sneak Peeks” panel at 11am. We saw trailers for Zombieland 2: Double Tap, Jumanji: The Next Level and Charlies Angels which weren’t new but I’d almost forgotten about because I was hyped about other things. They all look pretty good. Before leaving that afternoon we took one last gander at all the stalls, picked up some of the bigger items we’d seen and bid Datcravat a fond farewell. That afternoon, we wandered the streets of Glasgow and fell asleep early. The weekend was fantastic, but we still had to get home, and that would turn out to be more difficult than planned.
After boarding a bus that would barely get to the ferry in time we decided to hop on a train. The train then failed to start, meaning we could not make it to the boat, and were stranded on mainland Scotland. Luckily, I had a friend in Aberdeen who graciously put us up for the night and after some rounds of HALO dropped us off at the boat this afternoon. The journey to and from MCM has been a lot longer and a lot more expensive than we planned. I have had several panic attacks and nearly been bankrupted, but I still consider this a good trip. I spent 2 days surrounded by some of the nerdiest and most accepting people I’ve ever met. I felt utterly content with my existance and have come away with memories that will list a lifetime. To the staff at MCM ComicCon who will never read this, thank you so much for the effort you put in. I look forward to seeing you again in the years to come.
Shakesqueer 