The other event...

[SephNoir]

Before I start my little rant on this I'd just like to say this in no way meant to be racisct, it just happens that it came from the foreign community.

So as we all noticed there was another event going on at the same time as expo, (some religious/society thing as far as I could tell) and I was just wondering if anyone was put off by specifically the people that went to it or if it was just us because I was really quite shocked by it.
Obviously nothing can be done about this as you can't exactly stop other events going on at the same time as expo, but I personally thought the behaviour from a lot of them was disgusting especially towards the cosplayers. We had groups of kids harrasing us on the way back to the hotel on Sunday in costume, some idiot hurling abuse at our group because we were in costume and some kids swearing at us because one of us wouldn't give them a cigarette because they were clearly underage. Aside from that the number of people who just pushed past us, bumped into us and didn't appologise and just generally treated us rudely was appaling. (And having some religious guy with a microphone shouting at everyone who walked past is more something I'd expect to see in Bristol centre.)
From what I've read here on the forum too it seems there was some sort of riot too! O.o

Suffice to say it somewhat put a downer on the end of the day and I personally think it gives a bad name to the foreign community. During the whole weekend we didn't have a single problem with anyone else when in costume, and I thought it was in all a disgusting display from a community who is suposedly coming to this country and becoming part of our society.

[Reser]

Well I already posted my problems with the other event but that thread was deleted so I guess I will again.

It caused massive overcrowding in the main areas, they booked out half the Excel centre and there was thousends of people for there event to go along with our 18,000, the place was packed and hot and i got light headed alot because of it.

Every single shop in the whole place had a 'Halal Menu' specially for them, EVEN yes EVEN the Sushi/noodle bar!?!? I found this crazy that even the Noodle/sushi place made a muslim based menu. I think some of them even replaced most of their original menu with Halal, and i 'did not' want Halal food. So i was kinda mad about that, why should the food shops change their menus specially for them.

Most of the people there for the other event did not seem very polite, I overheard them a few times calling cosplayers in general names and general rude comments about our event. They are the biggest hypocrits ever, sure 'Peace and Unity' my ., which i predicted they would be. Also they were constantly walking into me quite forcefully, and not once did any of them apologise, I ended up apologising because I felt someone should. Once i was walking out towards hotel and loads of bags and struggeling and one of the 'Peace and Unity' people were coming towards me with no bags, and I just assumed they would have the decency to move aside but it was like playing chicken they pretty much got within cm's of me when I had to jump onto a wall to avoid them with all my bags! I am sure they were doing it on purpose!

Did anyone else notice there event was a big excuse to go to a big funfair? They had a big wheel a merry go round candy floss and fair games, it was rediculous, it was like a way for them to act high and mighty about peace and unity when they are actually just having fun.

There was 2 stabbings over the weekend to do with their event, Hence the bag checks the second day. I do not know about anyone else but if there event was on again I would not feel too safe..

[SamW89]

I know one girl, won't name her, got called a "dirty f*cking goth" by an attendee of the other event, the person in question then pulled the poor girl's hair back, unprovoked.

There were numerous disputes and scuffles caused by them that I heard of, and there was even talk that someone got stabbed outside the steps on Saturday evening.

[SephNoir]

Wow I had no idea about the stabbings! I agree with you though, I think if it's on again at the same time as expo it's certainly going to put me off from going, or at least cosplaying and going out at night around there.

[Reser]

Here is a news article on the stabbings

http://www.wharf.co.uk/2008/10/teen-sta ... e-eve.html

I may have read wrong the second stabbing seems was in London but not at Excel.

[Leonie Heartilly]

I thought it was a bad clash of events and half the time I felt I was offending them and needed to go put some clothes on! One man actually sniffed in dissaproval at me whilst passing me on the stairs.
Another guy was nice though and actually asked what our event was about.

[Trialia]

Frankly, yes, I was pretty annoyed by it. I don't appreciate being harangued about religion when I've gone somewhere to enjoy myself - I am a devoted Unitarian and I told the guy who accosted me that, and he STILL insisted on trying to give me a ton of papers and articles on conversion to Islam - that is not going to happen. Like I told him, I made my decision knowing all I could research about different faiths. I don't object to other people practising theirs, but I do object to someone actively trying to convert me from something I've chosen in full knowledge of what I was doing! *facepalm*

[FuriePhoenix]

oh my god!!! I didnt realsie it was this bad!!

On the way back to the hotel on the saturday when iwas in costume some guy shouted at me "put some f-ing clothes on!" and i jsut thought about saying back (but didnt!) "you wanna live in this country? respect our people! we dont go to your country and tell your women to remove their scarves!" arghh it wound me up so much!!

I notived the halal thing too. I was even more thankful for being a vegetarian over that weekend when i saw that. I know me and mom commente don it many a times. It jsut really winds me up how they get away with so much in our country and yet we get F all back!

It amazed me how many people were obviously converted muslims there too. And yet they were the ones who were the msot rude about everything!! Im like "what the hell!?"

What amazed me was that their whole expo thing was to do with peace and unity.. where the hell was the peace and unity over the weekend!?? somewhere much farther away than in the UK.

Okay im gonna shut up now before i may upset people or something.

[Arkayen]

I know one girl, won't name her, got called a "dirty f*cking goth" by an attendee of the other event, the person in question then pulled the poor girl's hair back, unprovoked.

There were numerous disputes and scuffles caused by them that I heard of, and there was even talk that someone got stabbed outside the steps on Saturday evening.

Oh name her - I know she loves taking no . from people like that. I got asked what the f*** I was supposed to be by kids attending and my GOD they were pushing so much! Considering it was a peace event, it was anything but peaceful.

[The Fuzz]

I want to post something but at the same time I don't wana go anywhere near this subject in case it turns ugly.

[ShurikenFire]

It's like irony or sarcasm, they say peace but would gladly press their fingers in your eyes.

[xblackravenx]

i had people walking past deliberatly pushing into me, fortunatly they managed to walk themselves into my sword instead of me, but still i thought it was rude. none of them could work out the arrows on the stairs either and expected me to move out of their way when they were clearly on the wrong side ! and also i noticed when in the toilets i had them pushing me out the way so they could get to one first, now faiir enough they could have been more desperate than me but my cosplay was awkward to get off so i didnt appreciate have to "wait politely by the side cuz they were obv more important"

[Thundy]

It's like irony or sarcasm, they say peace but would gladly press their fingers in your eyes.

The irony was not lost on me while seeing the X-ray machine and "Crowd Protection" being rolled out on the second day. I believe that day there was also a gentleman shouting something about the disbelievers would be punished yadda yadda yadda through a megaphone to anyone who was walking to the DLR station.

[Reser]

It's like irony or sarcasm, they say peace but would gladly press their fingers in your eyes.

The irony was not lost on me while seeing the X-ray machine and "Crowd Protection" being rolled out on the second day. I believe that day there was also a gentleman shouting something about the disbelievers would be punished yadda yadda yadda through a megaphone to anyone who was walking to the DLR station.

Yeah on the way back home on Sunday some guy with a megaphone seemed to be shouting that sort of rubbish through a megaphone at all the people from our event.

[Freyarule]

Gee, I didn't know there were stabbings, that's really bad...

I was wondering why there were bag checks when I went on the Sunday.

They didn't really bother me too much, but on the way out at the end of the day a group of kids were yelling at us as we walked past, hmms.

[Noire]

I want to post something but at the same time I don't wana go anywhere near this subject in case it turns ugly.

I agree. But with the halal thing...the only thing that chages is the way the animals killed. And I don't believe these companies REALLY change it...Just slap a halal sticker on it and people believe it? I don't know.

I liked May...When nickelodeon was having an event too xD

[Reser]

I want to post something but at the same time I don't wana go anywhere near this subject in case it turns ugly.

I agree. But with the halal thing...the only thing that chages is the way the animals killed. And I don't believe these companies REALLY change it...Just slap a halal sticker on it and people believe it? I don't know.

I liked May...When nickelodeon was having an event too xD

Hum.. well, these halal menus seemed to be special other then the fact he meat was halal they were seemed more adapted to muslims, I cant think of one off the top of my head, but they were not the usual stuff they had in May. I did not like the sound of any of them.

[sunny1r]

Other than making everything halal and cutting out any pork related ingredients thats possibly all they would change.

all this terrible behaviour is not on, and a stabbing? this really puts a bad mood on an event, especially if they are bringing their kids and talking about peace and unity

[fia_x]

Hmmm, I think it's safe to say that the majority were all Islamic.
I know for a fact that in all religions it teaches respect, especially when I've been brought up in it myself. But they are total hypocrites, and as it was discussed in another thread about how they would be, none of us had expected it to have ended up like this.

Personally, I understand that you can't stop 2 events going on at once, but I think that ExCel should have thought it out a little, considering the two events that were going on WOULD NOT have gone on well together. I'm not blaming them, but I think a little more thought and consideration would have been better, instead of just slapping them together. It wasn't fair on us.

I was especially offended when we got called "Haram" on the way back. Don't think people don't understand what it means, It's just disrespectfful, it's against their own religion in itself. Another incident that happened, was when one of my own friends had almost tripped over someone's foot, and what a suprise, it ended up being someone from the other event, but they ended up turning incredibly nasty and threatening her, and if anything, HE was more at fault. His foot shouldn'tve been stuck out like that, nor should he have been standing in the middle of the floors where anyone could have ACCIDENTALLY run into him.

It was appauling behaviour, and we certainly did not appreciate it. You didn't see ANY of the cosplayers hurling abuse at them, even though they got abused. It was just unnaceptable, and horrendous.

Once more, respect is the key. How dare they come to a "peace and unity" event, yet do this. Not only is it hypocritical, I'm pretty sure their own God (or whatever their belief would have been) would've thought it be unacceptable. I was not impressed, not impressed at all. How would they have felt if we started hurling racial abuse at them!?!

[Ice climber]

Judging from all of the comments in this thread I think an official complaint should be placed with Excel, and any future bookings from these people should be rejected.

I did get some nasty looks as I sat out eating my lunch.

[fia_x]

Judging from all of the comments in this thread I think an official complaint should be placed with Excel, and any future bookings from these people should be rejected.

I did get some nasty looks as I sat out eating my lunch.

I grabbed a handful of complaint forms : D
Well, only like 10. But there was a lot of us.

& Aaawwwwww!! But you were just innocently eating your lunch!

[SephNoir]

I was just discussing that with my boyfriend, obviously the stabbing is going to be in the news and ExCel obviously knew about it but I doubt they know about how we were all treated. I think perhaps it'd be a good idea for all of us to email ExCel directly and lodge a complaint about them. There's a visitor feedback email that's probably going to be best to use:
visitorfeedback@excel-london.co.uk

[Leonie Heartilly]

I believe that day there was also a gentleman shouting something about the disbelievers would be punished yadda yadda yadda through a megaphone to anyone who was walking to the DLR station.

Anyone with true faith wouldn't say such a thing. You have to respect all people. There's was a guy once in my town saying if you don't believe in Jesus you'll go to hell. You can't say that to people! I'm Christian and I'll happily talk about my beliefs with people but I won't tell them they're doomed if they don't believe it too. You need to find your faith in your own way, not be forced or threatened into it.

[Moozman]

Lol was i the only one who found this mis-match incredibly funny and ironic, it ended up with some of the most lolzworthy moments:
Muslims and Scantly clad cosplay girls. LOL ID HAVE LAUGHED SO HARD IF THE ANNOYING YAOI PEOPLE GOT OUTED, BETTER YET CONVERTED XDDD, obviously the organizers couldn't see the blatant discrepancies that would occur here.
Stabbing at a peace & unity fair, i mean common..... SRSLY???? Gotta love that hypocrisy, i found the attendees quite aggressive, it was weird looking over the balcony at all the undercover police cars and security rushing to the scene, and much easier to notice their increased presence the night after.
Peace and unity fair getting metal detected and cosplayers with MASSIVE WEAPONS AND PROPS strolling right in, WOW just WOW......
As for the Halal argument, Halal just means acceptable by Muslim holy law, Halal foods are just that which doesn't contain any of the forbidden foods usually prepared by the silting of the animals throat while conscious in the name of Allah but i don't know why people are complaining ChoZen Noodles are . and overpriced anyways and there is a good Chinese just on Freemasons road which was selling a much larger and tastier selection of Chinese food anyway.

Moozman

[Rel]

I got some very rude and overtly sexual comments from the people at the other convention which I found rather ironic.