HelloFest 9, Super Crowded yet Super Fun!

HelloFest 9, the biggest pop culture creativity event in Indonesia was recently held. For a full two days, 9-10 November 2013, thousands of visitors packed Arena Kolam Renang Gelora Bung Karno. There are so many interesting activities that can be done here, yet most visitors are looking forward to take picture with cosplayers participated in the event. There are quite many cosplayers participated in this event and they’re not only from Jakarta but also from other cities as well.

Arena Kolam Renang Gelora Bung Karno area is actually a huge facilities. But since there are so many visitors, the venue feels really packed. Most events held at Theatre tent where booth for communities and participants were spread at three other huge tents, Polar I to III. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of visitor, it feels worse in the tent than the outside. The tents are really crowded and the heat was almost unbearable while the AC only helps little since there are so many people getting in and out to see the booths.

There are various booths in Polar tents. Other than booths selling toys, there are also many booths selling craft products. It was in accordance with HelloFest’s mission to help Indonesia’s creative industry – that was categorized as small and middle enterprises – to grow bigger. The products offered there are really diverse and unique too! Foodcourt area is also one of the most visited areas since so many foods and snacks sold here, making it a must-visit area for both visitors and cosplayers. There is also Vandaria’s booth in Polar II tent where they held a tournament in the second day of HelloFest 9.

Behind Theatre tent, there’s a special area resided by Indonesian Zombie Lover (IZOC) community. Here, IZOC built a Zombie Survival Game adventure area where visitors can try how it feels to be chased by zombies while finishing the mission. This area is always packed since there are so many people curious of the Zombie Survival Game that was held for the first time here.

At Pool Area, there are also many interesting activities related to movie competition. There are more than 100 finalists for the category animated, non-animated, and 8-seconds movie. As its name, 8-seconds movie is a movie with 8 seconds duration. The organizer told that they received more that 800 films and finally choose 102 finalists. International animated movie experts, Kieran Argo fromEnglandand Jun Awazu fromJapan, were present at HelloFest as the jury.

Overall, HelloFest 9 is a very positive event. We can get an idea on how fastIndonesia’s creative industry is growing, from craft products to short movie both animated and non-animated. Other than that 8-Seconds Movie category also shows that Indonesia Youtubers are getting more creative. Hopefully HelloFest is getting better and HelloFest 10 next year will be even more interesting!

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