Norcon 2023
2023-10-02By: Lee Towersey
Over the weekend of September 23rd/24th 2023 the annual Norcon event took place at Norfolk Showground just outside Norwich. If you’ve never visited this event I suggest you read on………
I could only make the Sunday and travelling from the Heathrow area, a 5am start on the road is tough enough without someone crashing their car outside my house at 2:30am on the same morning! The two hour drive was well worth the effort and the early start meant I was there in good time to give MOT training to Jason Harris & Tom Powell before the crowds came through the doors from 9:30am.
Tom & Jason MOT’d each others droids, both passing with flying colours and I am pleased to say we have further coverage in the UK now they have both been shown the process and proved their knowledge on various aspects of droid building. Well done Jason & Tom.
The Droid Builders area was at one end of the venue. The area you see at the back of the above photo gives you an idea of the venue size. There was an excellent selection of stalls, some of which I had never seen before. Speaking to the organisers, a lot of thought had gone in to making sure there was a good selection of stalls, avoiding a lot of repetition. The catering options were all outside where there was a large selection from various food vans in a designated area. It did get very busy at lunchtime and the wait for food was quite long. There is a picnic area as well for those who choose to bring their own food.
With an impressive display of mainly 3d Printed droids the Rebel Legion were also kind enough to loan the backdrop to create a popular photo op at the event. It was good to see such a variety of Droids, a lot of which were Dave Moog’s designs (thanks for letting me grab some of your photos for use in this article Dave!).
Most of the Droid Builders were in attendance for the whole weekend and opted to stay at the local Premier Inn which is conveniently opposite the venue. There are also a number of other hotels nearby but most builders seemed to opt for the closer option and got together for the evening on Saturday.
Floor surface is perfect for droid driving. The event does get quite busy but droids were driving around pretty much all of the time so a good driving opportunity for any of your RC droids. Loading in and out of the venue was easy with the free parking being right next to the venue and easy access from unloading your vehicle to the stand.
At the Droid Builders end of the venue there was a stage area for guest panels and although nearby was not too noisy to interfere with anything else going on. Each day finished off with the Cosplay Competition. A high percentage of the visitors were in Cosplay, the quality of which was really impressive. The above photo is the queue for the competition before they are introduced and judged on stage.
I would highly recommend this event and certainly plan on going next year. A friendly, welcoming bunch, the day flew by and was well worth the trip. I have added the event to the Events Portal here, I’m sure they would appreciate you making the effort to attend and if you need your droid MOT’ing I’m sure Jason & Tom will be happy to help.