FumaCon promotes local costume development through Guyana’s 1st participation in Caribbean Cosplay Championship

Seishonen Guyana is an arts & entertainment business known for planning FumaCon – Guyana’s leading anime & comic convention. In its first year, FumaCon was held on November 27th, 2022 at the Guyana Marriott Hotel. At FumaCon, there were close to 2000 patrons in attendance supporting 50+ youth-led businesses, participating in scavenger hunts, cosplay competitions and more. This year, FumaCon will be held on October 14th, 2023 at the same venue as last year’s event (the Guyana Marriott Hotel).

Prior to hosting FumaCon, Seishonen Guyana organised several mini-events to encourage commerce and to support the local creative arts industry. For FumaCon 2022, there were over 100+ people that signed up to participate in our cosplay competition. Most notably, our cosplay competition had many entries whereby young Guyanese created their own costumes impersonating a popular character. Participants also utilised pre-made costumes to demonstrate their skills in acting as their favourite character. FumaCon was the first event in Guyana to host several cosplay categories with the main category attracting a $100,000 GYD ($500 USD) grand prize for the best cosplayer in Guyana.

The Caribbean Cosplay Championship is organised by Alias Entertainment, a Trinidad-based business. This tournament enables 43 Caribbean and Latin American territories to participate in its championship. Through FumaCon, Guyanese creatives will have the opportunity to compete in four categories: Cosplay Visionary, Craftsmanship, Performance and Tiktok.

This year, FumaCon will be promoting the creative arts industry outside the shores of Guyana through the Caribbean Cosplay Championship. For the first time ever, FumaCon (through Seishonen Guyana)  will enable Guyanese cosplayers to participate in a regional competition. Fumacon will serve as the sole event entry designation for local creatives to participate in this championship.

Leading up to FumaCon 2023, we will be facilitating the online submissions for the cosplay visionary and Tiktok categories. The submission form will be available on Tuesday, May 30th, 2023 at 8 pm. Interested persons can apply through the link attached on our social media pages. The deadline for submitting your cosplay photos or video impersonations would be June 20th, 2023. If you have any queries regarding your submissions, you can send us a message on one of our social media pages @seishonengy, or via email seishonenguyana@gmail.com.

However, the other categories (craftsmanship and performance) will be facilitated at FumaCon. Seishonen Guyana is expanding its cosplay categories and prizes for this year’s FumaCon. In addition, the winner of the best performance category will represent Guyana at next year’s Caribbean Cosplay Championship in Trinidad and Tobago. Besides the performance category, the winners for the other three (3) individual cosplay categories at FumaCon 2023 will be representing Guyana virtually in next year’s competition.

Seishonen Guyana has always strived to create platforms for Guyanese entrepreneurs and creatives. With this recent addition to the local creative arts industry, FumaCon (and by extension, Seishonen Guyana) continues to emphasise the importance of supporting and nurturing our young talent. (Seishonen Guyana Press Release)