Entertainment
Anime Festival Asia (AFA) Returns To Singapore After A Long COVID Hiatus
(CTN NEWS) – The annual Anime Festival Asia (AFA), hosted in Singapore over the weekend for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak started more than two years ago, attracted tens of thousands of cosplayers and anime enthusiasts.
The three-day event honours all facets of Japanese popular culture.
Japan-born anime, a subculture that has expanded globally in recent years despite the epidemic, is partly thanks to its extensive online presence and devoted fans.
Due to Covid-19, it was held online in 2020.
The most recent AFA in 2019 attracted 120,000 attendees.
The actual number of tickets sold won’t be known until a later time, but festival organizer Shawn Chin told Reuters that he anticipates the Singapore event to equal or possibly surpass that figure.
Since I was in frequent online touch with individuals here, being in Singapore feels like a reunion of old friends, said Hiko, a featured Taiwanese cosplayer from her booth at the exhibition hall.
The majority of Singapore’s COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed this year, and in recent months the city-state has welcomed back several foreign events.
On Saturday (Nov. 26), long queues were seen at the festival’s entrance as anime fans from the region thronged the convention center.
The Queue To Get Entry Wristbands Is Long
As multiple queues merged into one main line at the event, a Mothership reader reported, people were pushing each other. To retrieve his entry wristband, which must be worn at all times in the festival area, he queued for an hour.
People queued up to enter the festival area in photos and videos posted online.
Twitter users described the queue as “all over the place”.
https://twitter.com/xtemujin/status/1596355120497057792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1596355120497057792%7Ctwgr%5E14f806dd0431441e94d494abcfcb000ee859c075%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmothership.sg%2F2022%2F11%2Fafa-2022-crowded%2F
The Festival Area Was Just As Crowded
Inside the festival area, the crowd seemed to be just as congested.
Image via Mothership reader.
https://twitter.com/comrade_walther/status/1596364673586106368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1596364673586106368%7Ctwgr%5E14f806dd0431441e94d494abcfcb000ee859c075%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmothership.sg%2F2022%2F11%2Fafa-2022-crowded%2F
Due to a large number of people, one Twitter user felt “a bit dizzy.”.
A bit dizzy now… Too many people @@#わためいと #AFASG2022 pic.twitter.com/mb33agC2fU
— Amai Kuma (@AmaiKuma_) November 26, 2022
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