What is the bar at TFNation?
The easy answer is: it’s the hotel’s bar, aka The Lounge, serving food and drinks, both hot and cold. The better answer is: it’s the social hub of all things TFNation, where guests, attendees, family attendees, dependents, carers, artists, writers, toy enthusiasts, comics nerds, early birds, and anyone part of the convention (and not, more on that later) gather throughout the weekend!
Breaking it down, the area – which is just opposite the reception desk and next to the main entrance – consists of a coffee shop, serving Costa products, an actual bar with soft and alcoholic drinks, snack food and actual meals, plus seating area, and a second smaller bar stop next to the ATM machine (which – note – charges a fee, and can be depleted fairly quickly). At odd angles, you can also see the hotel’s pool area.
As the main food point and watering hole (literally: tap water is always available, including lemon and mint infused giant jugs of free water in the evenings), everyone attending our convention and any other event in the hotel will inevitably end up here – staff included. We’ve had the famous quilting convention attendees (our neighbours in the hotel) mingle with the likes of robot fans and fan-creators, next to artists Kei Zama sketching and JP Bove entertaining his child while colouring away commissions, all while juggling multiple conversations with star-struck fans and casual passerbys, and the voice-actors pranking newly made friends from the conventioneers.
There are no restricted areas, there are no exclusive groups, there are no requirements. If this is your first time, or you just find yourself needing a friendly face to get things going, talk to someone you recognise, or a member of TFNation staff, and they’ll be happy – sincerely so – to introduce you to anyone at all. If drinking is not your thing, you’ll find plenty of like-minded people among both guests and attendees, without reserve or judgement; if you want to chill over a beer, many will also gladly join you – including at the Corona Terrace Bar; if you’re the partying type, there’s space for that too. The only limits are the times of the facilities themselves!
The buzz we expect, both at the bar and the event overall, is the one that comes with socialising.
5 weeks, folks!
The TFNation crew