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"All-Con’s costume competition will take place 8:00pm on Saturday March 18th, 2006. Winners in every division of each category will receive certificates, ribbons, awards, trophies, or cash prizes.

The purpose of the competition is to provide an organized venue for individuals in costume to showcase their talents and efforts with a large number of attendees in a fun and friendly environment. The event is designed for individuals who wish to show off sewing, creativity, or craftsmanship skills in their qualifying division."

This is the first year All-Con will be going beyond our ribbon-and-trophy prizes for convention competitors. The winner of each category and division will go on to be judged for prizes, up to the Convention first prize of $200.00 cash.

Anime, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Fashion, Cultural, and Period costumers, bring your best for your chance to end the night with cash and prizes.

All-Con has also removed our policy on presentation of costumes during the convention. Public display of costumes prior to the event will no longer disqualify the costume from being judged in competition.

Registration of participants will be held at convention registration / check-in. (Convention membership for Saturday is minimum requirement for costumed competitors.)

Any questions about the event's operation or judging should be referred to: Info@All-Con.org.

Notice: Hotel-operated Cash Bar will be available to those convention attendees of legal drinking age

Costume Categories:

2D (animation / CG)

Anime / Manga / JPop

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Historical / Period

Monstor / Horror

Humor / Parody

Creative Casual (Junior and Novice divisions only)

2D Costumes
Costumes based on or representing creatures, characters, or objects which only exist in a 2D art format such as animation or computer generation formats.

Kenny from SouthPark, Scooby Doo, Poke'Mon, Nintendo's "Super Mario" or any other video game characters fall into this category.

Anime / Manga / JPop Costumes
Manga and Anime are specific styles of art and animation developed in Japan, characterized by stylized colorful art, futuristic settings, violence, and sex.

Competitors in this category should bring a color picture reference of their character copied from a primary source (manga, magazine, screen capture, etc.) at least 5”x7” in size. For best scoring, the judges need to see what the official version of the character looks like.

Science Fiction Costume Category
Costumes based on or representing creatures, characters, or objects from science fiction based television, film, theater, or novels.

Fantasy Costumes
Note: In this competition Fantasy does not refer to sexually suggestive or explicit costumes.

Historical / Period Costume Category
Costumes based on styles of specific historical eras or events.

Uniforms, actual or replica, of any modern or active military are not considered costumes and will not be eligible for entry. Uniforms from any historical military must be crafted replicas, or they do not meet the criteria of a "costume" for competition.

Monster / Horror Costumes
Traditionally this category has been the focus of make-up artists more than crafters and costumers who sew.

Humor / Parody Costume Category
Costumes which are solely designed to entertain or over-exaggerate.

Impersonators, appearing in either humorous or sincere roles, also fall into this category.

Creative Casual Costume Category
In the spirit of community fun, All-Con has opened a new category for the general public of traditionally non-costumers to participate in the competition on equal footing.

Many youth and adults have their own favorite costumes assembled for Halloween parties, masquerades, or Mardi Gras; or enjoy the creativity of costuming without ever have ventured into a competition. This category levels the field to allow casual costumers to participate without having to compete directly against experienced costumers.

The untapped creativity of casual costumers often reveals ingenuity, insight, and range of idea that is not possible in the more theme restrictive categories.

To maintain the integrity of the spirit of this category, only costumers in the Junior and Novice divisions will be eligible to compete.

Divisions of Costuming Experience:

Junior

Novices

Journeymen

Crasftmen

Masters

Junior Division
The Junior category is for contestants 12 years of age or younger. Contestants must make their own costumes, and cannot wear costumes constructed by adults.

(Contestants ages 12 and under are welcome to participate wearing a costume constructed by an adult, but must register as a "model" for that costume. See Rules for details.)

Novices Division
Novices are costumers who have never competed at a convention, or who have not won any prizes or awards in competition.

Journeymen Division
Journeymen have won three or less awards at the novice level, or have chosen to compete above the level of Novice at their own discretion.

Craftsmen Division
Craftsmen compete to attain the Master competition level, but have won fewer than three Crasftmen level awards. "Regional Masters" (from convention competitions) with fewer than three awards will compete at the Craftsmen level.

Master Division
Masters have won three Journeyman awards, or have chosen to compete above the level of Journeymen, or work professionally in the field of costume.

The Costume Contest Rules

All participants and must be registered in advance of the event.

No store-bought or rented costumes will be eligible to participate. Contestants must appear in some form of legitimate costume. Event staff reserves the right to determine what actually constitutes a legitimate costuming effort. No nudity allowed - “no costume” is not a costume.

Store bought props and/or pieces are allowed. What goes on the stage with you, comes off the stage with you.

Costume must be at least 50% crafted.

Each participant must show his or her costume on stage at the Costume Contest in "catwalk" style. A model may wear your costume if you don’t want to physically enter. State that the person wearing the costume is a model, and not the creator, on your registration form.

You may enter as a group. For a winning group there will only be one prize, and the group leader gets it. Please keep that in mind when entering and registering.

Stage Fighting: Any sort of stage fighting is to be limited to half speed-quarter strength, and one foot must remain on the floor at all times. (No jumps, leaps, flips or rolls!)

On stage time will be limited to 30 seconds. Make sure that you pick a couple of poses to strike while on stage. You’ll want to make sure that the cameras can catch you! Remember, no skits, lines, or routines.

Only one entry per person. This means you may walk across the stage once, and you cannot appear in more than one costume for the event. If a model is presenting your costume, you may not appear in another.

Weapons. If your costume has a prop weapon or a costume weapon secure it and use it only as a costume piece. Security staff will take threatening others (even in play) seriously. All weapons will be peace-bonded and any brandishing or otherwise aggressive behavior will be dealt with according to security's discretion. All decisions regarding weapons ultimately lie with event staff, hotel staff, or hotel security. Please respect all decisions regarding this policy.

Keep it PG-13. No nudity or risqué costumes or gestures.

No substances that can be harmful to you, the staff, or the audience will be allowed. This can include, but is not limited to: silly string, water, flames, explosives, and paint. Make sure that anything that comes onto stage with you leaves with you.

Surprise the audience, surprise the judges, surprise yourself! But do not surprise the contest staff. The Costume Contest event staff has absolute authority to disqualify any participant if necessary, and these rules are subject to change.

All decisions by event Judges decisions are final.

Event staff reserves the right to reject any entry for any reason.

Failure to comply with these rules or failure to follow the instructions of the event or security staff will be grounds for disqualification.

Contestants that have been disqualified or rejected will not be eligible for any prizes or awards.

Helpful tips:

Eat, drink, and use the restrooms before the event. Don't starve yourself. The stage and staging area are hot places to be dehydrated. Especially if you're in a hot stuffy costume.

Bring a crisis kit for your costume! Through an accident or other act of fate part of your costume may become loose, damaged, or worn. A small package of thread and needles, tape, scissors, safety pins etc. can go a long way.

For cumbersome costumes - be sure you can safely get on and off the stage.

Costume Contest Judging

Costume Competition participants must be at the hotel and signed in at registration before 6:00 p.m.

Participants are to come to the Costume Contest staging area in FULL COSTUME at 7:00 p.m.

When you arrive at the Costume Contest staging area, you will be lined up and assigned a number.

Pre-judging will take place BEFORE the contest. This way, the judges can ask you questions about your costume and see your work up-close. The “catwalk” is for you to display your costume for the audience, and maybe earn some bonus judging points with your in-character presence and conduct on the stage.

When you’re pre-judged, the judges will spend a minute or two looking at the construction, attention to detail, overall character likeness (if applicable), and originality, among other things. Since the judges will be seated with the audience when you walk across the stage, this will be the only chance for the judges to see your costume up close.

When you are introduced for the audience, relax and have fun! You’ll have 30 seconds to pose however you want. There will be markers on stage for you to stand on and pose. PLEASE stop for just a second of two and pose for the cameras. Too many excellent costumes loose their chance to be photographed because they get nervous and hurry off stage. These markers are there to help remind you to strike a fashionable pose! And for the best effect, make sure to do poses that the character does, or something that seems in character.

After you exit the stage, that’s it! You’re all done! Return to the staging area. Awards will be announced and presented after the conclusion of the event.

Costume Contest Scoring

Pre-judging points may be awarded for:

Construction: Sturdiness of costume, quality of sewing, difficulty of assembly

Technical Achievement: Props, moving pieces, invention and ingenuity

Attention to Detail: Minute detail, finishing and trim, props, going the extra mile

Character Likeness: Overall likeness; attitude, costume, and appearance

Originality: Rareness of character, interesting ideas, creative takes on a costume

On-Stage bonus points may be awarded for:

Audience reaction to poses selected while staying in character

Costume Contest Awards and Prizes

A variety of awards will be given to recognize excellence in costuming.

Judge’s Awards - Each judge will have one award to give to whomever they choose, for whatever reason they choose. These awards, usually given in the spirit of fun and for the amusement of the audience, honor those participants who do the best job with their costumes, and at the same time, may take the competition a little less seriously. (Framed certificates)

Every division of each category will have up to three awards:

3rd runner up - ribbons

2nd runner ups, awards

Division winners, trophies

The division winners will remain on stage for the announcements of:

2nd runner-up of division winners, $100 cash

Best of show, $200 cash