Costuming Track is excited to be a part of the second Chôsen Cosplay Competition held during Dragon Con’s Night at the Georgia Aquarium. Each year, Dragon Con ascends on the Aquarium on Saturday night where con goers enjoy the beauty of one of the world’s largest aquariums with the added geek atmosphere and excitement that only Dragon Con can provide. Last year, Dragon Con raised the bar by bringing their greatest costume and cosplay competition to the event.
Dragon Con management arranges for the space and the advanced ticket sales. From there, Dragon Con Night at the Aquarium is and has always been the product of the Special Events Team. They host the event at large, including a fabulous VIP experience held in a stunning sea-themed ballroom with a unique view of the massive aquarium and its many exotic inhabitants.
When the Chôsen was added to the roster, the evening turned into one of the largest collaborations of the Dragon Con world. From the beginning, Costuming Track was involved in shaping the overall competition experience, from registration and pre-judging (or as we like to call it, show casting) to the actual stage portion of the competition.
Early on, it became clear that the success of the competition was dependent on various components operating like clock work: with each objective executed absolutely smoothly and starting and ending on time. To make everything happen and insure a production value worthy of the global cosplay community many other teams were pulled into the project:
- There is the Georgia Aquarium Technical and Event Managment Teams that will handle all the tech stuff like staging and lighting and will take care of the important facilities management aspects that add to the overall show experience.
- DCTV will be on hand running videography (You know, those large projections screens showing us an enlarged view of the action? That’s them!) and show sound quality and music.
- The Masquerade Team is stepping up to handle show casting photos and act as stage managers moving contestants on and off the stage.
- Dragon Con’s Production Team (usually handles production of the ballroom events) will be on hand to handle house and back stage details.
- Main Programming negotiated with the show talent: pro emcees and judges.
- And we, Costuming Track, handle the logistics of contestant registration and judging and design portions of the show format.
The end result is a world class cosplay competition with each team doing what they do best; moving in tandem with one another.
For the avid cosplay competitor, this is an exciting opportunity. Note: the competition is stiff. Only the top 20 looks will be selected as finalists and move on to participate in the show portion of the contest. But the winners are rewarded: the Chôsen offers the largest prizes of any costume contest at Dragon Con with a grand prize of 3 nights paid hotel reservation for Dragon Con 2017 and an offer to return as a 2017 Chôsen judge to include 2 tickets for that VIP experience that was mentioned at the beginning of this article!
Interested?
- You must have tickets to the GA Aquarium to participate.
- Registration takes place at the Aquarium starting at 6:00 -7:00 PM (Sorry, we cannot extend past 7:00 PM and start the show on time. No exceptions. Thanks for understanding.)
- Curtain call for the show is at 8:00 PM
- Show starts promptly at 8:30.
Save time, don’t wait in line! Click on the link below to download an advanced copy of the registration form and bring it to pre-registration with your information already completed:
The Chosen Competition Contestant Form
(Note: we will be playing music selections at pre-registration. You can make your final music selection at that time.)
For more information please visit Dragon Cons official Night at the Aquarium web page.