Every year comes a day you can live your anime dreams of catching goldfish and fishing yoyos at a summer festival. Matsuri 2018 is where the essence of Japanese culture can be found in the heart of Sydney, and of course this means SMASH’s attendance is a must! But we weren’t just there for a simple hello or a ‘please come to SMASH! 2019’ — we had a dance group and a cosplay catwalk on the stage agenda!

Despite the heat beating down on our flimsy umbrellas, our first line of attack was all the amazing cosplayers! There were beautiful yukatas and a lot of students from UA, as well as cute lolita dresses and the occasional Deadpool (we recognise and appreciate your ability to withstand the heat!). Trust us, it was a challenge trying to get you all before you went off to lunch! We had to let everyone know our confirmed dates for SMASH! 2019, July 14-15 at the ICC Sydney, which is only 7 months away so it’s time to duel– I mean, start your new cosplays already!

We were so busy enjoying ourselves, no one seemed to notice that our 2 litre bottle of water, which we had saved for our cosplay catwalk attendees, had gone missing! With the extreme heat and the pre-stage nerves it was a mess trying to find the bottles in time. Thankfully, one of our fast-thinking (and fast-running!) volunteers came back with some water and saved the day – just in time for the dance group to enter the stage!

Being right after Mews AU, the dance group had a lot of friendly rivalry (and a lot of high expectations!) but our green dancers managed to pull through spectacularly with their wonderful smiles and glittered cheeks. Not to mention our double agent who was able to get changed within the minute after her Mews performance to join them on stage! Shout out to our MC for helping us stall time!

Our smashing performance (pun intended) was followed by our cosplay catwalk, consisting of 10 lucky cosplayers who managed to snatch our limited spots this year! We had a lot of red on our stage this year, with Reimu from Touhou Project, but also some fan favourites like Totoro and Rem and Ram. Of course, who could forget our stunning last cosplayer as Puppeteer from Onmyoji with an entire paper mache doll on her back!

After a final group photo we said our farewell to Matsuri 2018 for a hearty dinner. A huge thank you to Matsuri 2018 and all the volunteers at SMASH! for organising a great day and a such an enjoyable time! Thank you to the dance group girls and our cosplayers for dedicating their time to us! We hope to see you all at our next event!