What is the Costume Parade?

The Costume parade is a welcoming and inclusive place for Costumes and Cosplay of all types where a Jury of international expertise in the costuming, makeup and prop-making world will select the winners of amazing prizes, in many categories.

For the first time, the Costume Parade will be upgraded with screens!

Do you have a costume that you’ve been working on for years, months or maybe just weeks or days?
Are you proud of your creation and would you like to show it off during Elfia?
In that case, you are welcome to join the most magical Costume Parade ever!

More information about the categories and the prizes can be found on the website under the “Categories and Prizes” section.

Rules

• The Costume Parade will take place on Saturday
• Due to the high request, the Costume Parade will only be able to welcome a total of 30 participants, make sure to make a chance at a spot by using the pre-registration form!

• • Pre-registration will open on the 1st of August and close on the 15th of August.
  • From all the applications received, 30 candidates will be selected to participate in the Elfia Costume Parade. The selected candidates will be notified as soon as they have been chosen.

• Make sure that your performance and music will not exceed 1 minute in total
• When you are pre-registering, please specify if you are competing with a Cosplay or an original Costume to be sure to be selected for the right prizes category!
• If you want to include a description for your character you are welcome to!
  Please make sure that the description will be in english; characters descriptions will be read by the host before the contestant walks on stage and not during the performance

• Remember to include reference pictures (in case you are competing with a Cosplay character) and inspirations pictures (in case you are competing with an original character) when submitting the form for pre-registration, these are the pictures we take into consideration when selecting!This year, participants with a performance or show/act will be prioritized during selection since we are looking to provide the most magical show ever to the audience!

Prejudging

To offer the contestants a better judging experience, we are introducing the prejudging!

During the prejudging session, contestants will have a one-on-one moment with the Judges to privately show their costume and have the chance to talk about the material they used, techniques, inspiration or anything they think will help the judges to better understand the idea and construction behind your creation.
Every contestant will have a total of 3 minutes in front of the judges, no performance or act is required during the prejudging.

Prejudging will take place on Saturday in the Giostra Fortunia Backstage between 10.30 and 12.30.

Contestants will be divided in two blocks:

• Participants with a number from 1 to 15 will start prejudging at 10.30
• Participants with a number from 15 to 30 will start prejudging at 11:30

Contestants will be called in in ascending order (from 1 to 30), please make sure to be ready on time in full costume behind Giostra Fortunia (based on the group you are in) otherwise we can’t guarantee access to the prejudging, unfortunately.

Pre-registration

Make sure to have your place in the costume parade by using the pre-registration form! To ensure a fair experience, we can only accept contestants that entered the Costume Parade via pre-registration.

We kindly ask the participants to be at the Giostra Fortunia  30 minutes before the start of the parade to confirm that they are present and to get your contestant number.

Pre-registration will open on the 1st of August and close on the 15th of August.

Your costume is not complete but you want to pre-register anyway? No problem! Be sure to include a few pictures of your work in the form so we can have a sneak peek of your work!

How does this work?

You will come to the location where the parade will take place, 30 minutes before the start of the parade. Contestants gather there and get a sticker with their number,the sticker is to be placed between neck and hip.

The contestants are taken to a backstage area where they will line up in order, members of the theatre crew will provide them with further instructions.

Additional information

You’re not allowed to participate in the Elfia Costume Parade when:

• Your act (costume/character) has won a prize in previous editions, you can still participate with a different costume and act
• Your costume has been worn by a king or queen of Elfia
• This also applies for acts and/or costumes that only have (minor) alterations.
• Make sure that your act is suitable for the audience, acts that are considered vulgar or too explicit will not be accepted.

When any of this happens, we are forced to ban the contestant from participating in future Elfia’s Costume Parades unfortunately.

Prizes

When you’re announced as a winner, it is important that you are present to collect your prize. When you’re not present, you forfend your prize. In case you win a prize, please do not leave the backstage area before you talk to a member of the Elfia Crew.