These are pensive days for all of us, aren’t they? Friendship is Magic has officially ended as a TV show, making us all look back on 9 years of entertainment, creativity and messages that brought us together as fans. What better time than now to also look back on GalaCon 2019 – The last GalaCon to occur while G4 was still on the air. Before we delve fully into GalaCon 2020 and set sail for new horizons and a new generation, let’s revisit 2019 and all the neat statistics we’ve prepared for you!
And we start with the most important things for any event:
Attendees & Volunteers
GalaCon exists because of fans like you, offering their time, joy and also hard work to make the magic happen!
In 2019, a total of 1266 beings made it to Ludwigsburg, 1168 attendees and 98 volunteers, convention staff and VIPs. Once again, the Forum was filled to the brim with good pony cheer – All according to our convention sub-routines!
78 volunteers worked very hard all weekend to make everything you saw and enjoyed possible – As always, they deserve our serious gratitude. 449 shifts with a total of 1002 planned work hours were handled by our volunteers … and that’s just the official stuff! You can bet it ended up being more than that – For staff and volunteers, work doesn’t really ever end during GalaCon.
Where did all those great (and powerful) people come from, though?
GalaCon Visitors From Around The World
People come from far and wide to have a good time with us, and it’s astounding again every time to see all the places our visitors hail from!
Almost 52% of our attendees come from Germany, GalaCon’s home country. Spot #2 and #3 go to France and the Netherlands, at about 9% and 5% respectively.
Some special shoutouts go to:
- The 3 visitors from Australia, who quite likely had the longest trip to GalaCon out of all our guests!
- The 20 people who travelled across the “pond” from North America. Were you dedicated enough to do both GalaCon and BronyCon?
- The 1 visitor from Japan – Best wishes to Poniko!
Will we ever have a GalaCon with representation from all 5 continents? This year, we were missing South America and Africa. Maybe that will change?
No matter if you hail from near or far, you contribute wonderfully to GalaCon – And some of you do so by bringing some lovely plushies to our evergrowing PlushieCon.
PlushieCon Statistics
Thanks to the seriously hard and dedicated work of the PlushieCon team, GalaCon has had the pleasure of hosting an ever expanding “mini-convention” for our beloved plush friends, breaking some records along the way:
GalaCon 2019 featured an all-time best for any PlushieCon event, reaching a whopping 800 plushies! Believe us, space on our stage was getting tight, but the PlushieCon staff made it possible.
Our protagonists made up 303 Mane 6 entries on their own, but the biggest group actually consisted of the 348 background ponies, ranging from supporting characters to one-off background ponies. Everypony gets some love here!
Fan-created characters joined in with 85 personal OCs as well as 38 mascot characters from brony groups and conventions all over. Last but not least, 26 other assorted plushies also enriched the stage.
In general, our main/mane stage was very busy as always this year, and that leads us right into the final highlight of any GalaCon:
Charity Auction
Your generous contributions in the form of art and bits make this event the wild ride it is again every year, and 2019 was no exception!
An incredible total of 20.804,65€ was collected for animal welfare and protection this year! This is just slightly below 2018, and a really fine result all on its own. A Perry-baffling amount of 5.424,65€, a bit more than 25% of the total, went to the hat alone. A big thanks, Joker, Batman and Rainbow Dash – Just please, don’t forget to bid on the actual gorgeous artwork donated by the community too!
13.519,65€ were paid in cash, while 7.285€ came in via bank transfer and PayPal.
It’s also worthwhile to look at the average prices – Not every item has to go to turbulent heights to contribute meaningfully! The most common price point an item went for this year was 50-100€, with 100-500€ coming in second place.
Well now, what will next year bring? Truth to be told, we can’t fully tell you either. It’s a new and different time for our fandom, and we can’t predict the future (not even our patented convention technology is THAT good) – But we can say we’re excited to ride full steam ahead to GalaCon 2020, and we hope to see many of you there!
Don’t forget: It’s not over until the last fan stops caring.
