Real Talk by J. Valdez

If you’ve been sleeping on Tekko, it’s time to wake up.  Hosted by the Pittsburgh Japanese Cultural Society, Tekko is a 4 day con, celebrated its 14th year with record attendance numbers, and what in my opinion was, an amazing weekend.

I had first heard of Tekko last year, but it was pretty late for me to plan a trip, so I forgot about it.  It wasn’t until I saw their booth at Ohayocon this year that I really started paying more attention.  Not only was this con growing and doing well, it was also close enough that I was ashamed it hadn’t been on my radar earlier.  At that moment I decided I would attend this year, and I’m glad I did.

Location

Tekko was held at The David L. Lawrence Convention Center, in Pittsburgh, PA. Honestly one of the cooler convention centers I’ve been to in general, the design offers plenty of natural light, and a roof area overlooking the city and Ohio River. In other words, great for pictures all over the center.

Programming

About two days before the Con, I decided to look up the schedule, was only going to be there Friday and Saturday, and wanted to make the most of it.  I was actually impressed with everything that was going on.  The schedule had some panels that even interested me, and I never go to panels. The Main events that I attended were all very well organized and on time, if I remember correctly, only one was delayed by a bit, but that happens at every con and it didn’t cause any inconveniences that I noticed.  I spent a lot of time in the Dealers room, which had a great selection or vendors and merch, even the chocolate sweets shop, which seemed to be a favorite among attendees.

The Dance Competition on Friday night might be one of my new favorite events, it’s always fun watching people dance, and everyone in the competition did really well.

The Masquerade was full of incredibly talented cosplayers, new and old.  As well as entertaining skits, and even a wedding between cosplayers that met at Tekko.

The final event I was able to attend before leaving was a concert by Back-ON.  A Japanese Hybrid rock band that put on an extremely good show.  The energy at the concert was what made it a definite highlight of the weekend.

Final Thoughts

Even with how unpredictable my work can be at times, I’m glad I was finally able to attend.  The staff I encountered were all friendly, and if they couldn’t help me with something, they always tried to point me in the direction of someone who could. Something else I wanted to comment on, that I talked about with a few friends as well because frankly, we were amazed. Thank you con goers for a ZERO Con Funk weekend. Best smelling con! Till next year Tekko, I leave you with a small gallery, and a link to the full 335 picture gallery on Facebook where you can tag yourselves and your friends.