Midwest Mirai and Community Collaboration in the Vocal Synth Space

Magical Mirai. An annual concert series starring Hatsune Miku which takes place in Japan. The ultimate pilgrimage for any vocal synth fan. A trek I personally hope to make someday. Sure, we get Miku Expo here in the United States, but the dream of flying to Japan to be a part of the biggest Vocaloid concert of the year is too good not to think about.

Now, unlike most other mainstream musicians, all vocal synth music, art, and videos are made by the community itself. Instead of relying on one major studio or person to create all of the canon for Miku, anyone can contribute to making something. You can buy the Miku voicebank right now and start making her sing. You can download MikuMikuDance right now and start making her dance. You can pick up a pencil and start making fan art. You can even compile your own videos and make your own personal concert wherever you want. And Katze Kreations did just that.

Katze Kreations is a fellow artist, streamer, and vocal synth enthusiast. Not only does she vend at a lot of the same local events I do, but she also has a plethora of vocal synth merch that she sells. I'm a huge fan of her Vocaloid scrunchies. (I'm rocking the Meiko or Teto one almost every day at this point.) With help from Springfield Cosplay, Katze was planning to bring the Vocaloid concert experience to Nebkon. She had filled a small panel room with congoers with a basic projector screen with "We Have Miku at Home" at last year's convention. But this year, thanks to Springfield Cosplay, we were gonna move to the next step up: holograms. And for this occasion, Katze assembled a team of local artists to create unique character merchandise to sell. I was honored to get my first pick, Meiko. In hindsight, I didn't think about the fact that since Meiko is the least popular Crypton Vocaloid, I would get the smallest payout. But I don't care. I wanted to give one of my favorite synths the love she deserved, and I feel like I did her justice. The other artists absolutely KILLED it with their assigned characters, it really felt like a dream team. Pre-orders were coming in, and were extended thanks to some promotion from Nebkon's social medias and emails. Midwest Mirai was coming into fruition.

Here was my art of Meiko for the merchandise! It looks sooooo cool when it's illuminated by the penlight! Each piece of character art was not only made into penlight inserts, but stickers, pins, and badge ribbons, too!

The day of the event I spent dressed as Adachi Rei, attending some Vocaloid-themed panels and cheering extra loud at the Idol Fest. Some of us responsible for the merch also helped Katze in the hours leading up to the concert, which was at 9:30 PM. We met up in front of Ballroom A an hour and a half beforehand, and within moments of getting started, people were already lining up to pick up their pre-orders. With Katze already having a decent crew helping with setting up the table, she put me, Elliot, and Nova (the Rin and Kaito artists respectively) in charge of organizing lines and handing out some pre-made menus to those who were buying at the table. With Nova waving a pen light to signify the end of the line and Elliot directing others to the correct line, I busted out the retail manager persona, handing out menus, explaining what was going on, and answering questions about the merch.

The table finally opened around 8:30, and now three lines had formed: one for pre-order pickup, one for merch purchasing, and one just for the concert. Thanks to Nebkon staff, we moved the merch lines into the Ballroom hallway, and kept the concert line going down the hallway from the opposite direction toward the Exhibit Hall while also ensuring space to access the staff table in the lobby. While merch lines were beginning to stagnate in length, the concert line continued to stretch down the hall and around the corner. It was getting concerningly long. Like, "I don't know if we're gonna fit everyone into this panel room" long. Jacob, one of Katze's helpers, runs a smaller convention in the area, so he was assisting with the logistics side and talking to Nebkon staff about urgent concerns. At first, we heard that the Ballroom's capacity was only 150. There was NO way there were 150 people or less in this line, some of which have already been waiting 30-45 minutes. Some people were beginning to hop in the line just for the sake of being in a line. Thankfully, Jacob popped out of the Ballroom, saying that he counted around 400 chairs set up in the room, so we had a much bigger room capacity than initially thought. Thank GOD.

Now that it was less than a half hour until the show, my focus shifted from promoting merch to making sure we got as many people as possible into the room on time. Those who picked up their pre-orders or were buying from the merch table were filing into the main concert line. I almost couldn't believe that I could see the end of the merch line. Katze and her table team were flying through the wave of customers! I knew the booth was going to reopen after the concert, but the amount of customers the merch table dealt with in under an hour was enough to make my head spin. At 9:15, I got the go-ahead to let the VIPs and ADA attendees in. Us artists got reserved seats for themselves and an optional plus one, so I didn't have to worry about seats for myself or Ethan. My pals Alexis and Devon were also in front of the line, so they'd be fine to get in, too. Sure, we had a lot more seats than we initially thought, but was it going to be enough for the line that had now stretched all the way to the Artist Alley entrance nearly 400 feet away?

9:20. Ten minutes 'till showtime. The table team is wrapping up with the last of the merch customers and Katze gets a video of the massive line that has formed before giving me the okay to start letting everyone in. The retail manager persona comes out in full force. "Alright! Everyone pack in! We've only got a certain amount of chairs so we gotta file in!" An alternate door to Ballroom A behind the staff table gives me a good view of everyone filing in row after row of chairs. A few people ask me what they're even in line for, to which I happily reply with "This is Midwest Mirai! A fan-made Vocaloid concert!" At last, everyone makes it into the Ballroom. The chairs are completely full. Just enough room. The table crew closes the booth for the show. I'm so ridiculously giddy at the thought of just having wrangled 400 people into this room on time that I nearly ran to my front-row seat to meet Ethan.

A few minutes after the scheduled start time, Katze and Springfield Cosplay give the appropriate flash warnings and introductions. Despite some minor tech difficulties regarding the overhead lights that the show had to be temporarily paused for, the rest went off without a hitch. Holograms dancing right in front of you. Penlights illuminating the room. Chanting and waving our lights in sync with everyone else in the crowd. It was all of the hallmarks of any other Vocaloid concert. I told Katze to keep the setlist a secret from me, and I'm so glad I did, because the emotional whiplash of me sobbing to the final chorus of "ODDS&ENDS" by ryo(supercell) before immediately transitioning to the sugary sweet denpa of "M@GICAL CURE! LOVE SHOT!" by SAWTOWNE was way too good. And having a surprise performance from VFlower with a cover of "Unknown Mother Goose" by wowaka, knowing that white penlights are associated with both wowaka and VFlower... Damn you, Katze. You cooked with these set list song choices.

Some images of the crowd during the show. Look at how many people and penlights there are!

Katze did a lot of planning, organizing, designing, and promoting for this event. I don't want this blogpost to make it seem like I was the one who put this whole shebang together, or like I was the only person helping out with the lines and I singlehandedly got all these people into the room. I was one of many people that contributed. Multiple artists made the merch. Nebkon staff helped keep the lines organized. Springfield Cosplay provided the holograms. Katze managed our deadlines, ordered the merch, and packed pre-orders, among a lot of other things I'm not remembering.

To me, Midwest Mirai was the pinnacle example of what Vocaloid is all about: collaboration. So many people put this event together. When I went to Miku Expo in Denver last year, I don't think my favorite memories were from the concert itself, but rather the people I met. The hours in the line were spent exchanging handmade stickers, bracelets, and candy, chatting with new and old fans alike. Vocaloid lives on the creativity and passion of its community. It's constantly changing and evolving with the people who interact with it. The fandom of a show or game that's ended may shrink and quiet down as time goes on, but as long as one person is still making music with Miku, then vocal synths will continue to live on and stay relevant in the mainstream.

When I chatted with Katze on the last day of the con, she was already telling me about ideas for next year and beyond. She wants to keep bringing Vocaloid to Nebkon for as long as they'll let her. In an area where we don't get many vocal synth events, I want to keep seeing this grow as much as possible. This year's Midwest Mirai was one of the coolest fandom-related things I've ever gotten to be a part of, and I hope that we can see Miku on more Midwest stages in the future.