ThunderCon brings celebration of pop culture back to Thunder Bay

From mingling with the stars of Star Trek: Discovery and Galaxy Quest to cosplay and games, this weekend's ThunderCon convention has plenty to offer and is expected to draw crowds of all ages.

The 2024 edition of ThunderCon runs Saturday and Sunday at the CLE grounds in Thunder Bay.

This year's celebrity guests include:

• Patrick Kwok-Choon of Star Trek: Discovery and Wynonna Earp;
• Jes Rees, who played Teb in Galaxy Quest, and also had roles in Deadpool, Lake Placid, and season four of Pretty Little Liars;
• Linda Ballantyne, a Canadian voice actor known for voicing Serena Tsukino/Sailor Moon, as well as roles in Avengers: United We Stand and Totaly Spies, and
• Toby Proctor, who voiced the role of Darien/Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon, and also had roles in Flash Gordon and Ranma 1/2.

But as big a part as the celebrity guests play at ThunderCon, there's plenty more to see and do, according to chair Amanda Capar.

"Diagon Alley is happening again," Capar said. "We've got lots of stuff going on in what we're calling Smuggler's Cove this year, which is the Heritage [building]."

That includes games, stage performances, a kid's zone, Science North demonstrations, a chess tournament, an escape room, and a Jack Sparrow run.

The Star Wars costuming club will be doing a big presentation in the Heritage," Capar said. "They'll have dark side, light side cookies."

And, of course, cosplay will be a big focus this year.

One person who will be showing off her work is Thunder Bay's Candace Twance, who's been making cosplay costumes for several years with her family.

"It just sort of moved away from Halloween costumes to just the love of cosplay and a love of attending this local event," Twance told CBC News.

Twance said she works a lot with EVA foam, glue, and fake fur.

Her work includes Batman, and characters from Five Nights at Freddy's.

A personal favourite is Huggy Wuggy from Poppy Playtime.

"I really enjoyed making the Huggy Wuggy, which didn't incorporate a lot of that foam at all," Twance said. "I think I liked it so much because it was just different from the foam building. I also just think it turned out really cool. Kids really love it."

When Twance spoke to CBC News, she was working on Ennard from Five Nights and Freddy's, and intended to have it ready in time for this weekend's convention.

"It's my most ambitious project, so I'm pretty excited about it," Twance said.

Twance said her kids have done well at ThunderCon cosplay competitions in the past, and are planning to hit the road and bring her creations to some other conventions in other cities, such as Winnipeg.

And Twance had some tips for people who are looking to get into creating cosplay costumes of their own.

"There's a lot of info online, especially like tutorial videos on YouTube," she said. "When I first got into it, I didn't realize what a big hobby this is for a lot of people."

"If you're just wanting to get your foot in the door and you don't have a lot of skill building, a lot of people show up in their store-bought costumes, super heroes, things like that, and it's always just for the love of it."

"You might find that you're going to get swept up in it and feel inspired and really get into it, because that's kind of what happened to us as a family," Twance said. "It's just such a good community."

"If you show up and you've done your best with cardboard and duct tape, everybody's just here for it. There's no judgement."

While the main ThunderCon event gets underway Saturday, things kick off on Friday night with a special screening of Galaxy Quest at Silver City, with Rees. That's scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

For more information, visit thundercon.org.