Steampunks, pirate queens, and a wild Dalek stormed the Ottawa Geek Market Oct. 19 and 20 to announce their love of all things geeky.
Thankfully no one was exterminated.
On the contrary, the celebration of geeky culture had a philanthropic side to it. Anti-bullying groups set up booths at the event to provide information on the services they provide.
They included the Kids Help Phone, Jer’s Vision, and the Distress Centre of Ottawa.
“We wanted to create an event that was a true celebration of Ottawa’s geeky community,” Stacey Young, co-founder of the Geek Market, said. “Geeky people are unfortunately one of the subgroups that get bullied.”
Asha Toner, a fourth-year neuroscience student, said she has been dressing up as various geeky characters for five years. At this year’s Geek Market, Toner donned a costume modelled after Catherine from the videogame of the same title.
She said she was thankful the anti-bullying booths were at the market.
“No matter where you are, people realize you don’t have to hide anymore. Events like this just spread the word,” she said. “Being a geek, it’s not about what you’re into, it’s that you can be so happy about something and you don’t have to apologize for it.”
The second annual event was held at the Carleton Fieldhouse and overlapped with the football game going on at the same time.
Rob Zedic, one of the organizers of the Geek Market, said he hadn’t heard of a single problem over the weekend, despite the concerns some of the attendees had.
“I think geek culture is a lot more accepted now than it’s ever been,” he said. “People don’t look down on it now, they know people who like it and embrace it.”
Zedic, who owns Myths, Legends & Heroes, a Vanier comic book store, said the event was a great opportunity for the geek community to interact with each other and for vendors to showcase some of their wares.
“It’s not always about the geek culture, it’s also about helping others and being supportive of others,” he said.
Bill Kernohan attended the event with his kids, toting his 5,200-piece LEGO Millienium Falcon—a project he said took him more than a month to build.
He said he loved the creativity of LEGO and hoped to attract some “kids at heart” to join ParLUGment, an Ottawa group for adult LEGO enthusiasts.
Neil Quinlan and Stephen Bakalian from Carleton’s gaming club had a table set up at the event as well.
Hoping to attract some members, the two computer science students said they were excited to have been invited to the ever-growing Geek Market.
“It’s really awesome to have a table at an event like this for a club that’s just starting out because the event is getting bigger and bigger,” Quinlan said.
Dressed up as Ash Ketchum, the perpetual 10-year-old Pokémon master, Danny Shea toured the Geek Market with his trusty sidekick Pikachu—his boyfriend Nicholas Dumoulin.
Both said they enjoyed the market. Shea, who is from Boston, said the event was different from bigger Comic-Cons and was a great way to celebrate geeky culture in Ottawa.
“I feel like it’s my life’s goal to be the very best like no one ever was,” Shea said with a laugh. “I’ve just gotta catch ‘em all, cause that’s my real test. To train them is my cause.”
[slideshow gallery_id=”1″]
