History Con Philippines 2017

Last month, my family and I attended History Con Philippines for the first time. I was super glad we did because we almost missed it. We all really wanted to go but had second thoughts because of budget issues. But during the second day of the event, I saw other people posting about it online and got really envious.

Hubby finally convinced me that we should attend. We decided that it would be a nice field trip for our homeschooled son, Ziggy. Plus, it will be a bonding activity for our whole family as well. And so we gathered our four kids the next day, August 12, and brought them to World Trade Centre for History Con Philippines 2017.

We arrived at the venue around 12:30 p.m. and immediately got tickets. The Day Pass cost Php 250 per person, whether adult or kid. Only our baby Zander was free of charge. I like how easy it was to find the ticket station and how organized they were. We were done in only a few minutes.

Our first stop was at the FYI Home & Living Fair. I love watching History Channel shows with my family but to be perfectly honest, I really wanted to go to History Con because of FYI. FYI is my favorite channel these days and my most favorite TV show of theirs is Tiny House Nation. I knew that Tiny House Nation hosts, Zack Giffin and John Weisbarth will be at the event, specifically on that day, and that’s the main reason why I wanted to attend. Haha!

Anyway, since Zack and John’s turn on stage wasn’t until 2 pm, we decided to have lunch first. There were lots of food stalls available surrounding the FYI stage. The only downside was that there were no chairs to sit on. There were only some bar tables available, which was challenging for us because we had little kids with us. We didn’t mind it much though especially since, while eating, we got to watch Adam Liaw from the show, Destination Flavour, while he was cooking on stage.

While we were waiting for Zack and John to go on stage, I suddenly spotted them standing on the sample Tiny House within the area. I immediately ran to them with 3 of my kids, Zoe, Ziya and Ziggy along. Hubby was left trailing behind pushing Zander in the stroller. Haha!

You see, I love Zack and John. I am obsessed with Tiny House Nation. That’s why I really, really, really wanted to go to History Con. But since we only got a Day Pass, I didn’t expect to be able to see them up close. Only those who got pricier tickets were supposed to have the chance to go on a Meet and Greet with them. However, because they stood for photos in front of the Tiny House display, we got a chance to not just see them up close but to meet them too. AND, we got a photo opp with them as well!

I handed my phone to Zoe, who was supposed to take the photo. But John actually offered to do it instead saying that he has longer arms. Zack, on the other hand, gave Ziggy a high five. It just sucks that the photos are a bit blurred and grainy (blame it on my phone!). But, at least you can still see all of us. We actually stood there for a few more seconds while I blabbed to them about how big fans we are. I shook their hands too. I could hear their bodyguards warning us to hurry up. It was a bit embarrassing but I didn’t really care. Haha! Hubby was only a few feet away, amused by what he saw, he actually took a video of us there. It was so obvious I was fan girling. Haha! But I couldn’t help it. Zack and John were so friendly and nice. Plus, Zack has really nice eyes. Hahaha!

Anyway, we got to watch them on stage after that. They were asked to take part in a challenge building a Lego house with two female contestants. They were super funny. I knew they were funny because of their show but seeing them actually do it in person was such a treat. I enjoyed their 20+ minutes on stage. I even filmed the whole thing! Haha! I don’t normally act like this with celebrities. My only fan girl moment was with Lea Salonga 10 years ago when I asked for her autograph after watching her on Broadway. Aside from that, this time with Zack & John was my only fan girl moment.

Now, enough about Tiny House Nation. Let me tell you about the other things we saw at History Con. We went to the History Channel area as well. There were a lot of booths featuring all sorts of vehicles, some modern and some antiques. Ziggy and the hubby enjoyed those.

We saw some futuristic looking vehicles as well at my alma mater, DSLU’s booth.

We also visited the booths of The Pickers and also Pawn Stars, where we saw a lot of cool antique finds.

We experienced a blast from the past at this area that featured World War II. We saw these standees with so many facts about what happened during that time in history.

There were some men dressed in World War II attire in the area. Ziggy even had his photo taken with one of them.

Little did we know they’d have a mini reenactment of a World War II scene. That was fun to watch.

We saw a lot of other stuff inside but I wasn’t able to take a decent photo of all of them. There was a basketball court wherein a couple of basketball players were trying to break a world record. We also witnessed an auction. There were also programs on stage that we weren’t really able to watch because we were busy walking around. At one point, some “ninja” people handed Ziggy a sword and pretended like they were going to attack him. Ziggy played along and “killed” them all. Haha!

Outside there were a lot of other fun stuff happening as well. We saw Phoemela Barranda and others from Celebrity Car Wars. They were having fun riding ATVs. I was able to take a photo of Simon Yin of Hidden Cities Extreme riding an ATV too. We also saw him inside playing beer pong.

Ziggy also got to have his photo taken aboard the big yacht outside and also on the giant skateboard.

There were so many other talks, demos and activities during the 4-day event. It’s just too bad we weren’t able to witness them all. But we’re happy we got to experience at least some of them. It was definitely an experience we will never forget. We’re looking forward to History Con next year!