Fantasy Fest 2025

In the second weekend of October, Fantasy Fest 2025 took place in de Broodfabriek in Rijswijk. Fantasy Fest is a large event for fans of fantasy, sci-fi, anime, manga, comics, and video games, basically everything remotely fantasy related. Sebas and I are both really into fantasy books, and other nerdy stuff, so we decided to go. The theme of this particular edition was “Night Time Circus”, but I still do not know how that really impacted the experience. Maybe if I go next time, I can compare the editions and see the differences.

The Vibes

I have been to conventions before, specifically anime and Pokémon conventions. People dress up in cosplay at these events as well. However, at Fantasy Fest, the amount of people in cosplay was on a whole other level. You are definitely in the minority if you are not dressed up in some way. It does not have to be extreme or anything, but it definitely can be extreme. From fairies, to vikings, from pirates to steampunk, from furries to cosplays, everything was there. People looked absolutely stunning. It is also worth mentioning that the diversity of people attenting was also very high. There were old people and little children (both often dressed up). There were also a lot of people with disabilities, more than I have seen at other events. All body sizes were represented as well and all looked great in their outfits. All in all, the vibes were very positive and welcoming.

The event is mainly focused on stalls where you can buy all kinds of fantasy related stuff. But there were also some activities that you could do. For starters, there was a stage with live folk music. I discovered I really like folk music, it is surprsingly catchy. At some point you can attend one big folk dance lesson, where a large group of people attend to learn some basic folk dances. I did not participate, but it looked so fun!

Medieval combat was also one of the activities. Not that you could participate, but you could watch. There were different kind demonstrations, from choreographed (I think?) fights to actual sword sparring matches. The choreographed fights were just kinda fake, which is understandable, but that made it really funny. The actual sword sparring matches were actually really cool to watch though. There was one guy explaining the different techniques and strategies they were using. Because of this, it was actually educational to watch as well, since it compared the techniques to actual medieval combat.

Other activities included archery and rat throwing among other things. However, we did not participate in any of these. One activity we did participate in was a quest from one of the stalls. However, the quest was to make selfies with wise-looking people and I was too socially anxious to do that.

The Stalls

The main attraction of Fantasy Fest are the stalls. There are so many stalls, not really it is quite insane. There are a lot of stalls selling fantasy home decoration, accessories, clothing, merchandise, and more. The range of the stalls was also really wide, you had fairy stalls, medieval stalls, steampunk stalls, gothic stalls, witchy stalls and so much more. The aesthetic of these stalls was so cool, and I had so much fun looking at everything. We have basically looked at all the stalls at least three times.

The two most memorable stalls were the clothing stall and a witchy stall. The clothing stall, because it had so many beautiful dresses, cloaks and other clothing items. And you could fit them all if you wanted. The witchy stall, since it was partially manned by a booktuber I follow, and it was fun to meet her. Sebas was specifically mesmerized with all the D&D stands, since he is a big nerd. One thing I was disappointed by was the lack of book stalls. There were some book stalls, but not nearly as many as I expected.

The Haul

Of course, we bought a lot. First of all, we spent a shit ton of money on food which was decent but very overpriced. One of the things we are addicted to is mystery. So we bought two mystery dragon eggs containing one d20 each, and one surprise dice bag. In addition, I also bought a mystery book containing some art of the artist of the stall as well. Sadly enough, I already owned the book (Brandon Sandersons’ “The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England”) And lastly in the mystery department, we also bought a mystery bag containing miniatures (one of them being a cute Mudkiop) and some other random goodies. Sebas bought some D&D books for a good price, which he could not find online, so he was really happy. We also bought two super cute mugs, one Bulbasaur and one Eevee, in addition to a cute Eevee bookmark. But the most exciting item I bought was a blue princess dress. I bought it at the clothing stall, and the people were so nice. They all complimented me a lot, saying that I was the first person that could actually pull off the dress. I felt so pretty in it, and I cannot wait to wear it again. That is why we are definitely planning to go to other Fantasy events as well!