The Circle of Emberlight was surprisingly ‘punk

The Circle of Emberlight seemed to have a lot of points going against it. It was held in a multifunctional city venue, in a place not exactly known for being ‘cool’ in Belgium. On days that should not be ideal for a fantasy fair: Monday and Tuesday.

Granted, said Tuesday was Armistice Day, a bank holiday, and many Belgians also took the Monday off from work to create a longer weekend. But still, an odd choice.

That said, tickets were cheap and friends were going, ergo, so did I. And I was extremely pleasantly surprised!

The organization, Beurswereld, had utilized what seemed like every inch of the space. There was a stage where the Cosplay Catwalk competition took place. Bonus points for the very visible safety strips on the stairs up to the stage, and the member of staff providing assistance to go on and off when needed. That’s something a lot of conventions may take note off.

Another malaise of a lot of conventions is the lack of space to just sit and take a breather. This convention, by contrast, made full use of two bar areas. One to set up a very small café in the midst of the convention proper, and the other room had their bar unmanned but a set-up of table and chairs, allowing people to have a moment of quiet.

Another thing that set The Circle of Emberlight apart is that by now every single geek event seems to offer the same kind of merchandise: a lot of Funko, Loungefly backpacks, comics, knock-off K-pop and anime goods, Asian and American candy and drinks, and other fan merch. With usually the same small shops present alongside the bigger stores. Which has its good and bad sides, but it does rather make every convention feel like more of the same.

Here the focus was on small creators who don’t frequent every convention, but prefer makers’ markets instead. Meaning there was a lot of merch that we had never seen before, and we were able to support small businesses without effort.

The event had the biggest number of steampunks I have seen in a long time. I was having too much fun with our friends to take more photos, but there were many. You can take my word for it.

There was a downside, though. A major annoyance, and one that most disabled people will be familiar with, is looking into attending an event and finding absolutely zero available information about accessibility. Sadly, this was also the case with The Circle of Emberlight. Even the website of the venue, the Aarschot Stadsfeestzaal, has no information about accessibility whatsoever. The event itself, while warm and welcoming, was, due to the way it was set up, not properly accessible. The lanes were narrow, and I’m pretty sure that if I been using my rollator walker that day instead of a cane, I couldn’t have had nearly as much fun as I did. I understand that the venue is only so big, but I feel there is room for improvement here.

Conclusion: if you’re in Belgium, love steampunk, support small creators and this convention happens again next year, we would absolutely recommend attending The Circle of Emberlight for a day.

If you are disabled and using a larger mobility aid, please contact the organization beforehand to share your concerns. Oversights like these are seldom because the organizers don’t care, but simply because they haven’t thought about.