Arnold Sports Festival 2018 Recap

We want to welcome back our Arnold Sports Festival Columbus readers as well as any new readers!
You might be wondering why the Arnold articles now?

We wanted to give you a little recap of 2018 and start getting you pumped and excited about all that is going to go on in 2019!

The team is currently looking over the events for this year and building out our schedule of coverage.
We'll update you on anything new that is coming in a future post.

Guns and Hoses Amateur Boxing

This event was held at the Hollywood Casino event area.  Police and firefighters compete in 3 round boxing matches.

Body Painting Competition

2018 was the first official body painting competition at the Arnold Columbus.   Great artists and models came together to showcase their skills.

 

Art At The Arnold

For many years, art has been a feature at the Arnold.   2018 saw the introduction of the body painting category, other more traditional art forms continue to be made and displayed.  2018 saw the artists move to a more spacious area in the newer section of the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
New location, same great art.

Yoga

Yoga is also represented at the Arnold.  At this session, sensory deprivation is used to help block out the outside influences of the world and get the practitioners focused.

Pole Dancing

Professional pole dancing is a must see event.  We stop by every year to see the amateurs and professionals display their awesomely choreographed and athletic routines.

Scottish Highland Games

Caber tossing and rock throwing were on display in the Expo.

Toughman Competition

New for 2018, the toughman boxing was exciting and entertaining.  We are hoping that this event returns in 2019.
These fighters left everything in the octagon.

Wheelchair Bodybuilding

After we saw this event for the first time a few years ago, this has been a must see every year.  Showcasing the strong will of the human spirit.  These bodybuilders overcome some of the biggest adversities and prove that you can be whatever you set your mind to!

Pickleball

we knew very little about this sport, but it is easy to understand once you watch for a little while.  This fast paced sport is great to watch.  Definitely check it out!   This event is normally at the fair grounds along with gymnastics, cheerleading and the kids expo.

Professional Wrestling

Yes, there is that as well!  We stumbled across this high energy match whilst making our way through the kids expo.   It was so good, we stopped to get some coverage of NOW - New Ohio Wrestling!

There are so many competitions at the Arnold every year, we have a tough time trying to figure out what to cover!  There is something for everyone at the Arnold, so make sure to look over the 4 days of events and find your favorite!  Or better yet, find something you've never seen or heard of before and give that a go.

Here is a link to the 2019 schedule of events.
Official ArnoldSportFestival Website - SCHEDULE 2019

Remember, if you can't make it, checkout our coverage February 28 through March 3!

Matsuricon 2018

Written by Dani and Andrew Livelsberger

Photography by Andrew Livelsberger

Background:

Description from the Matsuricon website:

Matsuricon is an annual Japanese pop-culture event that focuses primarily on Japanese animation (known as “anime”), manga (Japanese graphic novels), and video games. We also showcase both American and Japanese popular culture, due to the natural overlap of fandom from both genres.

We are considered a “family friendly” event. Most of our panels are all ages unless otherwise stated. We do showcase certain events that are not appropriate for attendees under the age of 18, and our convention staffers check the IDs of all attendees before they enter these events. Because of our “family friendly” image, our mascots are a “traditional” Japanese family consisting of a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, and a dog.

Matsuricon’s goal is to promote the cultural awareness of Japanese pop-culture through related events, special guest speakers and cultural presentations.

Below, we waited outside and saw several eager attendees walking through downtown Columbus to enter the Convention Center and begin their Matsuricon journey.

Impression:

Those that have followed us for a long time know that we love cosplay, anime, science fiction and all the cons that go along with it.  We've covered Wizard and Ohayocon many times.  This was our first year at Matsuricon.

My initial impression is that this is not an overly large convention, which is a great thing if you have a desire to go, but do not want to be inundated with large crowds.  Matsuricon used the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the Greater Columbus Convention Center for their panels and events.  This helps spread the activity around.

Unlike other conventions, we never felt cramped, jammed, or rushed.

What you do get is the same great cosplay, panels and cultural events that we have come to love at events like this.

One of our first events was the AMV Contest or Anime Music Video Contest.   At this event, you watch and vote for your favorite anime video clip paired with a song.  These entries are submitted by Matsuricon lovers for the viewing public's consideration.  This was our first time at this kind of viewing, and we can say that there are some very talented editors out there!!  Great job to all who submitted.

Here, we can see an example of the viewing facility as well as fans watching and enjoying the videos.

And what would an anime convention be without the awesome work and dedication of the cosplayers!

Check these out!

We next took a trip into the vendor area.  Here you find all your favorite videos, manga, costumes and cultural items you won't find at your local WalMart or Target.   Not going to lie, we did find some stuff we wanted and bought it (we are suckers for DragonBall - even after all these years).  Good thing we are the bosses and can take breaks whenever we want!   :D

Now, before we wrap up this Visual Ohio Matsuricon, let us express once again our admiration for those that participate.  They put in countless hours on their costumes and their performance routines.  You can tell they really have found a passion and an outlet for their creativity.

This young lady really can play the violin and well.  It was not just a prop for her cosplay outfit.
I remember hearing her start playing, and thought it was a bit out of place where we were.  I looked over and saw the crowd starting to perform.

She had her eyes closed for most of the performance.  When she completed the piece and opened her eyes, she was greeted by applause and cheers from the other attendees that were blessed with her spectacular performance.

This blondie was part of a duo that performed a choreographed dance to some of their favorite anime themes.

We had wrapped up our coverage for the day and were about to leave, but when we got right to the door we heard lots of cheering and applause.  Of course, we had to investigate what was going on.  Walking into the meeting room in Section A, there were about 30 people sitting around and cheering on their friends as they performed.

This is a great community and everyone bonds together to support each other in their performances or just being there for each other in general.

I'm very grateful for organizations like Matsuricon that provide an outlet for these creative minds to express themselves.  Visual Ohio is grateful to Matsuricon for providing us the opportunity to cover the event this year and hope to return in the future to expand out coverage now that we know what it is all about!