tell us more about hoyofair!!!
It was really fun, we were in the main room of Le Grand Rex, there were a lot of people obviously with a lot of cosplayers (great GREAT majority being genshin and HSR) both invited and in the lines. We had to wait for a while but it wasn't nearly as bad as other events I've been to. I talked with the Hi3 fan behind me a little bit and we tried to convince his HSR friend to play Hi3. A Columbia cosplayer was going up the line with a "what's the best Hoyo game" board and some stickers to vote and obviously I put HI3 (which got the minority of votes unfortunately 💔). There was a really kind guy going up the line with tons of free stickers of all games except Hi3 for people to pick out as well.
When we got in we all got some free goodies (transparent plastic photo cards and some event postcards but Mei was on it which is a win) and I finally started to spot Hi3 cosplayers (there was one love elf Elysia). It turns out they had a lot of empty seats in orchestra (the most expensive tickets) and they upgraded me to one! (Which felt like an apology from the universe for how few Hi3 songs there were) the view wasn't the best but it wasn't gonna stop me from crying and the seats were so comfortable it was great. They were looping old Hoyofair videos while waiting for the show to start and I almost cried just from looking at the 2023 Hi3 one I am so normal about this game. Also got to spot a few Mei cosplayers in the crowd and one Kiana with one of them which made me really happy.
These were all live performances, and the artist's performances were all AMAZING regardless of my opinion on the set list. Because I'm petty and an elitist hater when it comes to these games I was a little bit pissed at all the Phainon cheering during the HSR section, but most of the fan songs were really cool even if not really my style and they played some official music which was so hype, I had my HSR bat lightstick with me and I saw a few more as well as normal lightsticks in the audience which really made it feel great.
There were only three songs for the Hi3 section (same with ZZZ. For reference HSR and Genshin had 12 EACH) and they were all official (Da Capo, Rubia, TruE) and oh my god I cried. It was so amazing to hear them being played live I was so happy to see my beloved characters on the big screen. I sang all three of them and I cheered and I cried and I waved my light stick and it was amazing but criminally short. There was another Hi3 fan one seat off from me who I could also hear sing along it was great. However you could tell from the low volume of cheers that there were almost no Hi3 fans here which was a little hurtful.
Because of the aforementioned pettiness, the genshin section really got on my nerves, the fans were acting like rabid animals screaming like they skinned alive every time a popular character was on screen, and I know this was basically a pop concert and I should be expecting it but the ear piercing shrieks right after the lukewarm reactions to the much superior music was very aggravating. So being the petty creature I am I didn't cheer for any of them and I saw the other Hi3 fan doing the exact same thing and looking deeply disapproving like I was the whole time which was deeply validating.
The ZZZ section was fine, it was very short and all fan songs, the second one had the coolest animation video, but you could tell there were more ZZZ fans in the crowd than when Hi3 was on because of the volume of cheering.
The artists all came out to introduce themselves in the end and sang one last song which we were permitted to record so I'm putting it on my YouTube and adding the link here if you want to check out the artists. It's not very good quality and the camera is shaky but it was fun.
And here are the set list and featured artists
Afterwards we walked out and I proceeded to talk with the Hi3 fan who was close to me and we both complained about the lack of Hi3. We found a bunch of Hi3 cosplayers in the lobby and I took some pictures which are in a previous post. The Mobius and Ely cosplayers had AMAZING pin badges and keychains collections for their respective cosplays it was great. We also saw the Columbina cosplayer and her board again which thankfully had better ratios this time (although the Kallen cosplayer voted for HSR which is treason.)
I got a few compliments for my beautiful flamechasers badges collection which felt great and overall I had a great time this was really awesome despite the disappointing list. I saw at least three people with Kiana prodigal girl jackets and I've never wanted to beat someone up and steal their clothes more in my life, but one of them was the Ba-Dum Kiana cosplayer and I couldn't do that to her obviously.
I hope they come back next year with a better list (we had a survey to fill out and I said I was disappointed with their song choices so hopefully they will)
But yeah it was really awesome and I'm so happy I went.