BLOCKBUSTER: Tift Theatre hosts flagship Tift-Con

Published 7:00 am Saturday, September 2, 2023

TIFTON — The Tift Theatre hosted a different kind of event than its usual showings last weekend but one that was still a blockbuster.

Envisioned as the Friendly City’s personal little Comic-Con, the first-ever Tift-Con premiered at and courtesy of the Tift Theatre Aug. 26, inviting local residents to mingle with their fellow geeks and experience a pop culture convention in their hometown.

“It’s really nice to get to meet people in the community as someone who’s into nerdy stuff,” said Fox Gray of Fox Foot Crafts, a local artist operating out of The Zone Collectibles. “You think, ‘Oh, yeah, no one’s into that,’ and then you go to an event like this and you meet so many people that are also into similar things. To know there are members of your community into the same things is just awesome.”

Tifton’s three comics and collectibles shops were among the headline exhibitors of the event, setting up booths in the theatre lobby for attendees to sample their store merchandise.

Joining them were local vendors and organizations such as E.T.’s Crochet, the Tifton-Tift County Public Library, the Society for Creative Anachronism and Epic South Entertainment, making use of the theatre’s additional space on the second floor and near the stage to market handmade crafts, information on local pop culture clubs and their own business services.

Throughout the evening, convention organizers partnered with their exhibitors to host a variety of events onstage, beginning with a tutorial of card game “Flesh & Blood” from Gray Ghost Comics. After a brief overview of the rules, guests were invited onstage to play the game for themselves.

Members of international living-history group the Society for Creative Anachronism took the stage, putting on a series of mock battles demonstrating a collection of weaponry from the Middle Ages and the diverse matchups created by each pairing of swords, spears and shields facing off.

Volunteers from the audience were invited onstage to take a few swings at the knights and test their mettle.

Vendors also contributed to a raffle held around the midpoint of the convention, with attendees being awarded books from the library, limited edition Funko Pops and gift cards.

Attendees of the convention were encouraged to cosplay for the event, and several guests came in full costumes reminiscent of their favorite movie, game, anime or cartoon.

Several cosplayers participated in the convention’s cosplay contest held as the finale. With participants young and old, the contest was split into youth and adult categories and judged by representatives from Gray Ghost Comics, S.E.T.S. Games, Cards and Hobbies, The Zone Collectibles, and cosplay crafts shop Mercer Cosplay Fitness.

Though the judges had to select first-, second- and third-place contestants for the junior division among the five cosplayers, they made sure all five of the kids went home with a prize.

Among the 15 competitors in the adult division, veterans and newcomers alike showed off costumes based on anime, video games and movies, with even Santa Claus making an appearance.

Though Kheryn Smith walked home with first place for her cosplay of Link from “The Legend of Zelda” series, winning a full-size Funko Pop of Star Wars character Grogu – better known as “Baby Yoda” – every competitor walked away with a prize, earning a Tift-Con T-shirt from organizers and stickers from attending local artist Fox Foot Crafts.

Tifton’s comics and collectibles store representatives expressed an interest in helping with the next showing of the event, as did many of the vendors, and while plans for a future showing are still up in the air beyond a few scheduling changes, Alex Joyner, theatre manager, said he is excited to keep the event going for years to come.

“We had a really good turnout and I had a lot of people come up to me and to my volunteers, to even the vendors, and say how much fun they had, what a great time they had, that they look forward to next year,” Joyner said. “This is definitely going to be something that we do annually around this time.”