Last weekend, the new community fair Polaris celebrated its opening in Hamburg. Irina Moritz from MeinMMO was on site and took a closer look at the new event.
This is Polaris: The new event took place from October 28 to 30 in Hamburg and welcomed around 10,000 visitors during this time. Over the 3 days of the fair, you could
- watch the numerous shows on the stages,
- meet well-known personalities like Papaplatte, DoktorFroid, or the voice actor Marios Gavrilis
- try out various games
- or simply hang out with friends and chat with other visitors.
Since Polaris calls itself a “Community Convention,” I, as the community manager of MeinMMO, had to check it out.
Cozy fair where you can truly relax
What I liked: The event was spread across a total of 2 exhibition halls, where the stages and booths were located. Right upon arrival, you quickly notice that the atmosphere at Polaris is completely different from that at the large gamescom.
There were naturally significantly fewer people, there was less noise (no booming music at every booth), and everything was just much more relaxed. In fair announcements, I often read in the comments that people are not interested because there are no spectacular announcements from the big companies. No Sony or Microsoft showing off their big guns.
At Polaris, this felt more like an advantage. I could stroll leisurely between the booths and take as much time as I wanted. There was no rush to worry about only being there for one day and possibly missing out. It was really chill.
These were my highlights: Despite Polaris filling “only” two exhibition halls, there was plenty to see. Especially the stage program was packed. Across a total of 6 stages, there were so many different talks, shows, competitions, and quizzes that I often had to decide between several options.
The first quiz on anime openings with Ninotaku on Saturday had to give way to the cosplay competition. On the 28 Black Stage, the participants showcased the coolest cosplays from anime, gaming, and pop culture. For me, that was simply a must-see.
But there were also talks like “Twitch is not a dating platform” with the streamer Freiraumreh, which addressed serious issues within gaming and the community.
By the end of the day, I was really annoyed that I couldn’t watch the speedrun of Final Fantasy VI, one of my favorite games, because I would have missed my train otherwise. So there was a lot to see on that front.
Gaming-wise, the fair was more modest. Only Nintendo was represented among the big exhibitors. So if you wanted to try out upcoming hits like God of War Ragnarök or The Callisto Protocol, you were in the wrong place at Polaris. My attention was more on the indie games.
Here, the coop game Wild Woods completely thrilled me, which my colleague Anny was able to test at gamescom. It will be “coming soon” on Steam and is, in my opinion, a strong recommendation for those looking for new coop games for fun evenings with friends.
The future of Polaris could be really cool
What could be better? Although I praised the size of Polaris earlier, I realize that it can also be seen as a disadvantage. With two exhibition halls, I actually only needed a few hours to visit most of the booths.
One day was more than enough to take a closer look at the fair. Multi-day tickets as at gamescom, where many people travel for several days and book hotels, are therefore less worthwhile for most. Especially if you have no interest in the stage shows or hanging out with the community.
However, since Polaris has a lot of growth potential and celebrated success with 10,000 visitors, this can definitely change in the future.
The fair was also overflowing with cosplayers who organized photoshoots together and just had fun. This is an area that definitely could be expanded.
Give people their own chill area and cooler shooting spots. They greatly contributed to the cozy and relaxed community feel of the fair.
