If you wanted a cure for the post-summer blues this past weekend, you could have done a lot worse than the fifth annual Penti-Con.
Positioning itself as a pop culture festival, Penti-Con is also a place to see and be seen. A place to unleash your inner self. And for a photographer, well, it's a straight-up feast for the senses.
This year, that feast began even before we walked in, when we spotted a pair of enormous red wings from across the parking lot.
The person wearing those wings, it turned out, was 22-year-old Pentictonite Vincent, doing a bang-up job portraying Keigo Takami (Hawks) from celebrated Japanese "manga" series My Hero Academia.
At least that's what he told us. And we have no reason to disbelieve him.
Vincent, who said he's attended every Penti-Con except the first, explained that one of his big incentives is the event's inclusivity.
"If I'm outside," he said, "I'm either going to work or in costume. So coming to Con is really good for not getting weird looks for my costume and for getting a lot of positive attention."
This year, he explained, he'd participate in both the cosplay and talent show contest, adding with a laugh that he figured stage fright might bite him along the way.
We wished Vincent well and ventured inside, where we ran into the obvious star of the show, celebrated voice actor Matt Hill of Vancouver.
PentictonNow knows the amiable Hill primarily for his involvement in the world of endurance sports, where he's been a seven-time Ironman finisher and ultra-marathon runner and more recently a volunteer at the start-finish lines of a host of Penticton-based endurance events.
But Hill's real deal is his voice acting. Indeed, for the better part of four decades, he's been one of the busiest voice actors around. And at his booth at the 2023 Penti-Con, he was the recipient of some seriously big love.
"When I was 11 or 12," said 34-year-old Joanne Huebert of Penticton, who came to Penti-Con solely because Hill would be on-site and insisted she was so keyed up when she met him that she could "barely speak," Hill is a "hero."
"My absolute hero," she said. "He voiced Kero in CardCaptors and even hearing him talk now, he's the voice of my childhood. All of my friends would watch it. I was so excited. It (his booth) was the first place we came when we walked in the door."
Later, we interrupted Hill between fan interactions to ask how he got involved in this acting thing in the first place. And his story felt like it was pulled from a movie plot.
"At 13," he said, "I decided I wanted to be an actor. So I told my mom and dad I was too sick to go to school and as soon as they left for work, I hopped a bus to Vancouver (from his home in Tsawwassen). I'd already booked the interview. And there she was.
"She had this gravelly voice. She was a chain smoker and she asked, 'Who are you?'" And I said, 'I'm Matt.' She asked if I had any experience, and I said I didn't but that I'd wanted to do this my entire life.
"And she said, 'I could be delusional but I've got a feeling about you, kid.'"
Hill's brand new agent fronted him the bucks for an acting course, and three weeks after he'd completed it he was playing a starring role in the Christmas display at the downtown Vancouver Woodward's store – a huge accomplishment back in the day.
"She took a chance on me and it literally changed my life," said Hill. "Down there I was doing voices without even realizing I'd do voices in the future. I made enough money to pay her back and I'm now in my 42nd year of doing this professionally."
Hill doesn’t take any of it for granted, especially the folks he's impacted along the way.
"That's what’s so humbling to me," he said. "As an actor I've always really grateful to get a job. But when people come to me and thank me for helping them get through a tough childhood or helping inspire them to believe in their dreams, well, that's why we're here. To connect with people."
As we chatted with Hill, Madison Fowler and friends sauntered by wearing homemade TV sets on their heads.
"Cuz, why not?" Fowler laughed when we asked why. "These are original characters we've developed. We actually just finished them last night. We'll probably wear them at Halloween too."
Two of the most impressive costumes of the day were worn by couple Celestia and Kaiden Sao.
Originally from England, Celestia played the part of Hatsune Miku. Her makeup, she said, took "about an hour" to apply. For her costume, several of her friends were enlisted to help put it on.
Sao portrayed Mike Spiegel from and an "old, old anime" called Cowboy Bebop. He said he acquired all the clothing from Value Village and his prop gun from Wal-Mart and then dyed most of it.
Like we said, impressive.
Lir Waid, 18 years old and a cosplayer for the past decade, blew us away not only with her costume but her gun made of used energy drink cans.
"This is my sixth Penti-Con," she said, "Today I'm dressed as a gremlin (from the 1984 film Gremlins) who's been doused in Monster Energy. So I'm all hopped up and crazy."
Waid ultimately wants to be an actor.
"I want to be involved in theatre acting, prosthetic arts, I want to be seen on camera and have my face be there and my name in lights, either for makeup artistry, acting, sewing even – anything I can, really."
Raised in Penticton but now living in Gibsons, Shannon McLaughlin was painstakingly painting Dungeons and Dragons "miniatures" so small we could barely see them.
"I'm a huge nerd," she laughed, "and I'm here to teach and play Dungeons and Dragons to new and old players. I'm running a charity game tomorrow where all proceeds go to cancer research."
As we departed, the afternoon was in full swing. And there'd be another full day Sunday. In the end, said Penti-Con founder Lily Knelsen, 1,400 people attended this year's version.
"The numbers are awesome," said Knelsen when it was all said and done, "but the response we've been given to what we've created has been indescribable. We're so excited about the future."
