A. Participation
1. The Cosplay Contest will be held on Saturday, July 22, at the OpenGune main stage, under the terms set in these rules for participation. Those attending who want to participate and are not present in the area designated here at the appointed time will be automatically disqualified and may not opt for the jury’s prize.
Only persons older than 16 may participate in this contest.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since this contest takes place within the Main Stage of the Euskal Encounter, it is MANDATORY to be duly accredited to access the Party. Do not forget to request your one-day ticket during the confirmation of participation at the Euskal Encounter Accreditation desk. This pass is free of charge for the cosplay contest participants.

B. Venue
1. This contest will take place on Saturday, July 22, at 18:00 o’clock, within the framework of the Euskal Encounter OpenGune, which will be held from July 22 to 25, 2023. Participants must gather together at the area surrounding the Main Stage for the jury to examine the costumes one hour before; i.e., at 17:00. After the jury examination, the participants shall line up no later than 18:00 in one of the accesses to the stage and wait for their turn.

C. Registration
1. Registration shall be via telematics starting on the date indicated until the 20 available slots are filled, and 10 slots being held in reserve, to be called in case any of the main participants withdraw.
Once the quota of 20 main slots is filled (all registration must be done via telematics), the 10 reserve slots shall be allocated in order of registration in case of no-show.
· Should any of the participants allocated one of the 20 main slots withdraw, the organizers shall get in touch with the reserve participants by order of registration.
· Hence, reserve participants must be available on Saturday the 22nd from 15:00 o’clock up to half an hour before the start of the examination at 17:00 o’clock.
· Should participants not be able to attend, they must get in touch as soon as possible with the organizers in order to be able to contact the next participants by order of registration.

Should the number of persons registered online exceed the number of slots set for the contest (20 main seats + 10 reserve), contest registration will likewise be closed. Once the slots set are covered, no other application to participate will be accepted.
2. Upon the opening of registration, which shall be announced on the event website, participants must send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject line: COSPLAY, and they will be sent a registration form that they must fill up with their personal and contact data, whether their participation is individual or as a group, what character they will represent in the contest, whether they will carry props, etc. Should they wish to include audio/video in their performance, they must attach an MP3 for audio or MP4 for video to the e-mail (should this exceed 20 MB, the participant must provide a Wetransfer, Dropbox or similar link for the organizers to download said file), which can be played using Windows Media or VLC, and which they shall hand over to the organizers. It is recommended that the videos have a resolution of 720p or 1080p for optimal viewing on the stage screen.
3. All the participants registered online must CONFIRM IN PERSON their registration at the Euskal Encounter Accreditation desk, in front of the entrance to pavilion 5, all day of Saturday, July 22, from 10:00 a.m. to before 16:30, and will be assigned a turn number and a one-day ticket for entry to the Party venue. After this deadline, no new participants shall be accepted and the participation lists shall close. For example, if a cosplayer registered online does not confirm their attendance at the Euskal Encounter Accreditation desk, in front of the entrance to pavilion 5, before 16:30, this will count as no-show and their slot will be given to a reserve cosplayer.
4. Cosplayers participating in this contest may parade solo or as a group. Participations will be assessed on an individual basis, not as groups. The maximum number of members of a group will be 4 people.
5. The order of appearances at the contest will be given by order of registration before costume examination, at which attendance is mandatory.

D. Holding the Cosplay Contest
1. Performances must have a maximum duration of 3 minutes, with the music and/or video chosen solely by the contest organizers, except for those whose registrations are accompanied by audios/videos for the performance.
2. Cosplay entries from any source will be admitted, and those based on fan arts, gender-bending, live performances and original designs will be accepted, provided a detailed reference image relating to the manga, anime, videogame and/or series, or animated and live-image film theme concerned is submitted.
3. Characters created by the participant or based on third-party creations are allowed as long as they suit the main theme of the contest and a valid reference image is presented.
4. A reference image of the character or group to be cosplayed and a natural photo of the cosplayer or the group must be submitted during online contest registration, and in the dossier to be filled up with participant data, in order to mount the presentation videos. Both photos must be in 4:3 landscape format.
5. The categories to be awarded are:
· Best Individual Cosplay Performance
. Best Group Cosplay Performance
· Special Mention: our jury reserves the option to award a special mention.

E. Awards
The prizes shall be highlighted in the Prizes section of the contest website.

F. Prohibited Effects
1. Effects that may dirty the stage, along with party supplies (projector for confetti and the like), liquids and pyrotechnics, are prohibited. Use of materials of this sort will automatically disqualify the contestant.
2. In accordance with Royal Decree 137/1993 on Weapons Regulation, the use of firearms, metal weapons and other blunt objects or imitations thereof which, due to their characteristics, may lead to confusion as to their true nature, are prohibited.
3. The use of elements physically harmful to persons, as well as pyrotechnics and flammable materials, is likewise prohibited. Only imitation weapons made of plastic, cardboard and other materials not harmful to either contestants or the audience shall be allowed.

G. Others
1. The participants fully and exclusively cede the image rights to any video or photos taken by the Euskal Encounter audio-visual team to Euskal Encounter for use anywhere in the world throughout the maximum term provided for by applicable law.
2. The Euskal Encounter shall exercise the rights of exploitation (reproduction, distribution, public communication and transformation) over the images exclusively for the event, being able to utilize the documentation on any support it considers convenient, whereby such use shall not give the participants a right to compensation or profit or any sort apart from the prizes won.

H. The Jury
1. The jury for the Cosplay Costest, which shall be held as set forth in these rules of the Euskal Encounter, shall be composed of experienced cosplayers with long and extensive experience, and winners of other international contests or with relevance in the world.
2. During the examination of the costumes, the jury shall consider the information on the process of creating these, told by the participant.
3. All the participants shall be examined before the contest. In examination, the jury shall avail of the reference image of the character to interpret, on a mobile device, or printed images in case it is required by the jury. Those participants not attaching said image on telematic registration shall not be rated.
4. The Jury shall rate the quality and spectacular character of performances at 60%, while props and performance shall jointly account for the remaining 40%.
5. The decision of the jury shall be irrevocable.

I. Fraud in Participation
1. The organizers reserve the right to exclude any participant from this contest if any indication of fraud exists with regard to participation.
2. The organizers likewise reserve the right to withdraw any contestant from participating should they say/write inappropriate comments.
3. Participants using false profiles or other mechanisms of fraud to participate in this contest shall also be eliminated from it.
4. The organizers reserve the right to request official documents to attest to the identity of participants, should these turn out the winners.

J. Causes of Force Majeure
1. The organizers reserve the right to annul the contest should reasons of force majeure making such measure recommendable arise, without being subject to claims of any sort.

K. Amendments to the Rules
1. The organizers reserve the right to make any amendments, suppressions and/or additions to these promotional rules at any time.

L. Acceptance of these Rules
1. Mere participation presupposes the full acceptance of these rules, whereby the Jury is authorized to resolve any possible unforeseen incident.