The annual student-run festival, Vintage Days, returned in-person after a two year hiatus due to COVID-19 from April 29 to May 1, with the new Blue Shell Gaming Arena.
According to its website, Blue Shell Gaming & Collectibles is the largest video game and collectible retailer in the Central Valley, and it provided attendees with entertainment ranging from a wide variety of vendors to cosplayers like Noel Serafin, who took pictures with anyone who asked during his three days volunteering at the festival.
Throughout the day, Serafin regularly changed into different characters to make sure the crowd was entertained.
Serafin changed into 11 different characters throughout the weekend, including from Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Moon Knight, The Mandalorian and Bruno from “Encanto.”
He said that he started the first day of the festival with a full beard so he could more closely resemble Bruno for the younger children to have “someone they recognized” to take pictures with. By the end of the last day, he shaved his beard into a goatee to look more like Doctor Strange.
“I do a lot of these events because it brings happiness. It brings joy to people and just knowing that I’m making an impact at an event of this magnitude,” Serafin said.
Serafin said that as a cosplayer he understands how fun going out to different events can be and wanted to encourage students who are studying for finals at this point in the semester.
“I know it can be a hard [decision] not being out here having fun, but instead they’re setting up for finals,” Serafin said. He encouraged students to “keep on studying man and stay strong.”
In an effort to keep the crowd entertained, Serafin would DJ as Doctor Strange or dance as Bruno at the Blue Shell Gaming Arena.
Rick Gonzalez, CEO of the gaming company, said that the collaboration between Vintage Days and Blue Shell was a “good complement” to what Vintage Days has always done.
Gonzalez said the crew of cosplayers helped give families that came out to visit another opportunity to see something that’s just “a little bit different.”
“These [cosplayers] are literally out here at no charge to the school, no charge to the community, because they love doing it. They’re just trying to connect with the community,” Gonzalez said.
A huge part of Blue Shell Gaming Arena’s attraction was their variety of video gaming tournaments.
With a variety of consoles and games that stretched across decades of gaming, families and community members were able to find something that they enjoyed.
A popular tournament was an augmented reality Mario Kart race track, that allowed players to race miniature carts in real time on the floor of the festival and see the cart racing other characters on their screens.
“We had Mario Kart Live, and everyone loves it. I mean, [there are people playing who are] anywhere from two years old to 50 playing Mario Kart, so I think that’s probably been our most popular attraction here,” Gonzalez said.
After testing the first version of its booth at the Fresno Fair a few years ago, they’ve been able to improve it into the set up they brought to the festival.
“It’s taken a couple of years to get to where we are today, and we’re looking to expand it even more next year,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said he’s open to returning to Vintage Days in 2023 and said if they’re invited they will “definitely be back.”
