Last year, the UBC Anime Club execs estimated there would be between 300–700 people at Pop-Up Hanami — a cherry blossom-themed event with a Sakura cosplay cafe, an artist and vendor alley, stage performances and free-play arcade games for raffle entrance.
But it ended up being a bigger deal than they ever could’ve dreamed, with around 1,100 in attendance.
Now, the club is planning their second year of the event, and is anticipating an even bigger turnout. Since last year, they’ve established five lead organizer positions — or “big bosses,” as the club calls them — and hired upward of 100 volunteers to help the function run smoothly.
Fifth-year English and education student Nick van Gruen is the cafe big boss and will be cosplaying as Sanji from One Piece, “because that’s very in theme with being in charge of the food and the restaurant,” he explained.
With the help of 40–50 volunteers, van Gruen will be recreating the “cosplay cafes and maid cafes [that] are really popular in Japan and … in the anime community.”
van Gruen said in the Lower Mainland, cosplay cafes are “not really something that's done all that much.” By organizing this cafe, he hopes “people can finally fulfill their dream of being or having a cosplay server, [and eat] some anime-themed food served to them by a cosplay server and [go] through that whole experience.”
Before serving them to customers, van Gruen and his volunteers will plate and decorate baked goods with berries, leaves and chocolate sauce to “really up the ambience.” The Anime Club has ordered almost $1,000 worth of croissants from bake shops like Hazukido, and animal-shaped bread from Kanadell Japanese Bakery.
Fourth-year computer science student Jenny Zeng is the exhibition big boss and is in charge of organizing the artist alley, the games and the raffles.
The UBC Anime mascot characters, Yubi Shani and Ushio Tano, will be on merch sold in the artist alley.
“That's something you're not going to find at FanExpo or anywhere else,” Zeng said. “This is a very niche area, but I'm personally super passionate about the club mascots, and I love going to the artists alley to buy stuff that I'm never going to see in any other events.”
In this year’s raffle, there are some pretty big prizes lined up, including one worth upward of $800 — it includes a mechanical keyboard with customizable keycaps, as well as a desk mat and an anime figurine.
“[There are] countless other prizes from our sponsors,” Gruen added. “You’re basically guaranteed a prize no matter what.”
“Last year, and this year, we're focusing on cultural thinking. We're taking traditional Japanese games that children play [then] making them accessible and also giving them a pink Pop-Up Hanami twist,” Zeng said.
Naomi Loy, Pop-Up Hanami’s event director, plans to be “dressed up as cute as possible” during Pop-Up Hanami, especially since she’ll be on stage.
Loy will be performing a set with Cloud Town Dance Club, an idol and traditional Chinese dance group.
“The idol group section of us is going to be performing at Pop-Up Hanami,” Loy said. Using popular Japanese songs that have come out recently, they'll be doing a combination of original choreography and dances that trending online right now.
“It’s taken so many people to make this happen,” said van Gruen, noting that the marketing big boss Ray Raffaele and stage big boss Prudence Kelly-Andrews, as well as all the event volunteers, have also been working behind the scenes to make Pop-Up Hanami a success.
“I think the UBC Anime Club legitimately has the most talented group of people working on events at UBC,” he said.
Non-member early bird tickets for Pop-Up Hanami are $8. They are available to purchase here.