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SaikouCon Welcomes Cosplayer Hazel Dayze to 2015's Ranks of Featured Guests

Convention Also Happy to Announce 2015 Artist Alley at Maximum Capacity Faster Than Expected

1/29/15 Bethlehem, PA – SaikouCon, which means "best convention”, is the Lehigh Valley's first and only large scale, annual anime convention. Boasting a dedicated staff of longtime Japanese anime and manga fans, SaikouCon is excited to be the only annual convention dedicated exclusively to anime, manga, and Japanese culture and pop culture in this area of Northeast Pennsylvania. The convention grew out of the now defunct, but soon to be relaunched, webzine Anime Ate My Brain Magazine; the sibling webzine to Tastes Like Rock! Music Magazine. Both journalistic endeavors fall under the newly renamed Nerdy Rock 'n Roller Publishing, which will be growing in diversity in 2015.

The convention promises to remain very hands on and attendee friendly every year, while also maintaining a safe atmosphere for attendees to enjoy the convention to their carefree fullest. As always, Cosplay =/= Consent is a very important issue to the staff of SaikouCon, and the same rules and regulations that made SaikouCon 2013 and 2014 a safe haven for cosplayers will be enforced just as strictly at SaikouCon 2015. SaikouCon 2015 will feature many diverse and entertaining panels, workshops, activities, events, screenings, gaming tournaments, and much more!

SaikouCon adds to it's Featured Guest roster for it's 2015 show with model and cosplayer Hazel Dayze! Hazel is well known in Virginia, but is beginning to branch out in the convention scene as a cosplay guest and SaikouCon is happy to have her join their third year as a Featured Guest. Hazel grew up in Roanoke, VA while always feeling awkward around others. Her mind would constantly dream of fantasy and science fiction worlds. She became the stereotypical band nerd playing the trombone in symphonic, jazz and marching band and excelling in school and college. She started modeling early on and found it to be fun but lacking. So she tried acting and loved it, however, responsibilities always seemed to get in the way. Her first cosplay was back in 2006, for Anime Mid-Atlantic in Richmond, VA; it was the first time she got to see the cosplay world and immediately fell in love. In 2012, she was asked to be the superhero, Baroness, for local comic store B & D Comics. Her heart melted with the fans and realized just how much she could encourage people through cosplay. Shortly afterwards she began making other superheroes like Zatanna, Seven of Nine, Iron Fist and Cammy. By traveling to many different conventions every month, she got to melt into the great con community of where she now calls home. She has had award-winning costumes and has many ideas going forward. She can be found on Facebook and at www.hazeldayze.com.

SaikouCon is also happy to announce that their 2015 Artist Alley has reached it's maximum capacity for this year! SaikouCon, while filling both it's Artist Alley and Vendor Room capacity each of its previous years, has never filled either this quickly before having only opened merchant registrations in mid-November of 2014. As of this press release there are still 49 out of 70 spaces available in SaikouCon's 2015 Vendor Room, visit www.saikoucon.com/vendors.html.

SaikouCon 2015's list of Guests to date is as follows:

Guests of Honor:
RuffleButt Cosplay (Jessie Pridemore)
Voice Actress Leah Clark

Featured Guests:
The Gamer's Edge Comics & Gaming
Sci-Fi Photo Guys
Hazel Dayze

Musical Guests:
The Adarna
Mike P

For more information on all of SaikouCon's Guests, visit www.saikoucon.com/guests-of-honor.html. Stay tuned for more guest announcements coming through February!

To Pre-Register as a guest of SaikouCon 2015 visit www.saikoucon.com/guest-registration.html and make sure to note the new designations for Teen and Adult badges to attend the convention, the new designations do away with the need for parental consent forms for SaikouCon guests under the age of 17. To book a room for SaikouCon Weekend 2015, call the Best Western Lehigh Valley Hotel Conference Center, SaikouCon's new home located at 300 Gateway Drive, Bethlehem PA 18017, at 1-888-222-8512 or 1-610-866-5800 and request a room in the SaikouCon block of rooms for the discounted rate! The Best Western is offering SaikouCon attendees a block of 50 rooms available until July 25, 2015 or until the block is booked solid. There will be limited overflow rooms available for booking after the Best Western block is filled at the Hampton Inn right next door to the Best Western. Amenities from both hotels are open to attendees that book sleeping rooms at either hotel including the Best Western's outdoor pool and the Hampton Inn's indoor pool as well as gym facilities at both hotels.

The convention will always feature some of the best live entertainment themed to Japanese culture and pop culture, as well as the best in J-Rock, J-Pop, and nerd/geek culture musical acts from all over the US and beyond.

All of this plus top creators, writers, artists, distributors, industry insiders, English dub and original Japanese voice talent, some of the best cosplay talent, shows, masquerades; and so much more!

To get the latest up-to-the-minute updates follow SaikouCon on http://www.saikoucon.com, http://facebook.com/SaikouCon, http://twitter.com/SaikouCon, http://saikoucon.tumblr.com, and SaikouCon's listing on animecons.com: http://animecons.com/events/info.shtml/5461/SaikouCon_2015

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