Boston Masquerade Cosplay Ball was held on January 10, 2015 at the Red Room Cafe at Berklee College right in dowtown Boston. The event was hosted by Fox Project, the brainchildren of AlterniCon. This is the third year that the cosplayers ball was held in Boston. The event continues to grow and find themselves a new home. The Red Room Cafe was akin to a black box theatre - a lobby for attendees to mingle and a dance floor for about 100 or so people to get their groove on. Music was provided by DJ Links Ratchet Cosplay. Scarlet Rhapsody team members Scarlet and Jared volunteered for the event. Luckily this year's ball had a Victorian theme, so we went as The Help from the Phantomhive estate. As someone pointed out, you don't see much of Black Butler cosplay these days.

The event certainly has grown from a small club room at Lesley College to the Red Room Cafe. Prior to the event, a few attendees were quite confused what to wear. The even can be described as a cosplayer's winter formal. Some attendees went in canon formal variations of characters, while others wore an old prom dress (or in one case a repurposed wedding dress) and styled their wigs to represent a formal interpretation of a favorite character. Because this was a masquerade ball, masks were encouraged. If one did not have a mask, a complimentary mask was provided.

The dance floor was smaller than previous years. However, there was a lounge where people can mingle and talk. Food was provided by donations from attendees. Most of which were baked goods and sweet treats. The macaroni and cheese plate went out in seconds. For savory food, some people went to the Prudential food court for dinner. Volunteers were going back and forth to Walgreens fetching water to hydate the masqueraders. There was no panel set list this year; hopefully next year, there can be some programming and games for people who want to take a break from the dance floor.

Music was a mix of popular anime songs and things found on the Internet. The doors were let open to the Phantom of the Opera Original London Cast Recording's rendition of "Masquerade." (Anime Expo's cosplay ball used to use the Japanese version to let the dancers in) Your typical Rickroll was played. Waltzes from Studio Ghibli films such as Laputa, The Wind Rises, Howl's Moving Castle, etc were played for some of the more mellower moments. As usual, there was a huge sing-a-long to "Let it Go." The night concluded to DaRude's "Sandstorm." As our copy editor put it, "Are we in that rave scene from The Matrix?"

Towards the end of the ball was the cosplay contest. People lined up to have their character formal coordinates judged. Prizes were a mix of donations from volunteers and things bought at Anime Zakka. Our Scarlet Rhapsody staff donated copies of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII. The top three winners were announced at the end of the night. Chii from Chobits took top honors. Also towards the end, we had a raffle door prize to three lucky winners.

Many thanks to Fox Project Events, for coordinating this event. It was a fancy celebration to kick off the 2015 convention year. We hope to see you all at Anime Boston!

Boston Masquerade Cosplay Ball 2015 Gallery

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