TouhouFest 2024

[Funbil]

Recently found out that TouhouFest was coming up next month. Figured we could use a new thread for this year's event rather than trying to repurpose the one from last year. Anyway, I ran the numbers and found out it'd be pretty easy for me to go – this'll be my first time at a convention! Who else is going? Feel free to use this thread to share any plans or organize meetups, and of course discuss the event after it's wrapped up as well. It'll be super cool to see some of you there!

[akudan]

I would love to go (never been to a Touhou, or really any, convention) but it's literally the week before finals and I don't really have the money to spend on a trip to California. 

Looks super cool, though, and hopefully I can go in a year or two!

[williewillus]

I'll be making me way down again this year. Would love to hang out with anyone (message me on Discord and tell me you want to meet up for Touhoufest).

Very excited to see how year 2 goes, many people that were probably on the fence last year might be going so I'm looking forward to a noticeable step up in activity.

[degradingwindow]

I'll be making me way down again this year. Would love to hang out with anyone (message me on Discord and tell me you want to meet up for Touhoufest).

Very excited to see how year 2 goes, many people that were probably on the fence last year might be going so I'm looking forward to a noticeable step up in activity.

Are you going to do a panel for this year's Touhoufest? I know you did one last year and iirc you mentioned the possibility of you doing a touhoufest panel on danmaku and music syncing.

[williewillus]

No, I couldn't think of a good way to make that idea work that wasn't just "sit and watch clips for an hour". I didn't have any other good ideas until after the deadline, when I came up with two :P Maybe in 2025.

[williewillus]

Just got home last night, this was super fun! I'm going to make another long post here like I did last year, stay tuned.

[williewillus]

Uploaded a bunch of video highlights of the concerts:

• Shihori
• Odyssey Eurobeat
• A-One Records
• TAMusic

Text post soon? idk I'm procrastinating.

[williewillus]

This year was my second Touhoufest and I had tons of fun! This post isn't going to be as long as last year's, just some brief thoughts and some photos.

Things that Could Be Better

• Linecon was still a mild sh*tshow this year. Lines for both pre-reg on Friday and for doors opening on Saturday were quite delayed.
• An unfortunate regression from last year was that badges no longer had attendees' names
  printed on them, instead just "Full Weekend" was written with sharpie. I'm repeating my
  suggestion that all badges for pre-ordered tickets (say, up to a week out) should be
  premade and preprinted, and anyone buying on-site can have a nametag printed and stuck to
  the badge. It's a bit disappointing to not have my name on the badge to make the memento a
  bit more special.
• It was a bit disappointing to not have PoFV in the tournament (while having two fangame tournaments), so I hope it returns next year.

Things that Got Better
Quite a few things were addressed from last year.

• I only tried one of the food trucks, but that was some good tacos for not-that-bad of a price.
• No major technological troubles with TAM's performance.
• Having a proper schedule website was AMAZING. So much better than the jank Google Sheet and paper program that was used last year.
• The panel room was expanded to use the full size, and larger panels were put in the big indoor stage. Microphones were also provided in the small panel room.
• A 50% Touhou content rule was enforced on artists and 25% on vendors, up from 25% and 0% last year. Although I saw one or two artist booths that were a bit sus in meeting that requirement, it was overall definitely a good thing and every vendor seemed to get a good amount of traffic.

Things I Really Enjoyed

• The Shihori/Odyssey/A-One concert was surreal. I liked that it was now open space (nonseated) this year, that made the concert feel a lot more lively. Also, hearing people do Japanese style calls in person was amazing, I thought that was something I would only hear in Japan or China
• The jam with TAM session was really cool (I say, as someone who went up there and did it)
• The mini-izakaya and drink stand were really nice but could do with some more decoration.
• The art I got overall was of a lot higher quality, I felt like.

Next post will just show some highlights from my time there.

[williewillus]

Day 0

Linecon for prereg


Dinner at Ko-Ryu Ramen. It was alright.


Dessert


Day 1

The community booth area


The vendor booth for Dichroic Purpillon, the developers of Mystia's Izakaya. This line was LONG and for good reason.


The fangame jam showcase area, located where the artist alley was last year


Best Western gang got a shoutout on the hotel's monitors!


In the garden, ran into another flutist and we jammed together for a while


Lunch on Day 1, Lupitas Tacos. Quite good, decent portion size and price, though the burrito stuck to the foil and was a pain to eat.


Booths of the music guests


Really cool Nazrin cosplay


All the guests on stage for opening ceremony


Menu for the Underground Izakaya. I only had the brownies but they were good


My dolphin ready to rave at the concert


Day 2

A view of the artist alley


The really cool artwork on the drinks stand



Noodles for lunch


Merch Haul

eggu_v and okamijy


kureihii


sirmasterknight


Dichroic Purpillon (Blooming Chaos and Mystia Izakaya devs)


haiyun (these pins are SO adorable oh my god)


I forgot where these came from >.<


Old tickets to Yunnan THOnly. In China, lots of cities hold their own THO (Touhou-Only) events, one of the organizers for the Yunnan THO was at Touhoufest and gave these out.


Anazel (and Lensed Night Sky in the background). That Cirno was hand-drawn, not a print!

[jankop]

Thanks for all the pictures! For people like me who live literally on the other side of the world it's the only way we can take a look at this event

[williewillus]

No problem! People post a lot of highlights on Twitter and Discord but both of those are ultra locked down platforms, so I like posting them here so that people 10 years from now can see how things were.