So many people I tell about Dragon Con seem to have a difficult time conceptualizing the convention. When telling them about it, I get questions like: “So, it’s like a convention with panels, but it’s run by fans so there aren’t any cool guests?” Or: “But what do people actually do there since it’s a fan run convention, and a lot of the content is created by fans?” Or: “What’s fun about Dragon Con if there aren’t a lot of official press announcements made by entertainment companies like at other conventions?” Or:
If you’ve asked any of these questions, this post is for you. Instead of telling you about Dragon Con, I’ll show you some of the experiences and fun that I had as a Star Wars fan this year at the convention.
#1: Dragon Con is a great place to meet celebrities and guests, at panels, around the convention, and most especially the autograph hall! Typically it doesn’t take as much time as some conventions to line up for panels or for autographs because of the sheer number of celebrity guests there. This year I moderated a panel with Peter Mayhew and Daniel Logan, and had a blast chatting with them. In many of the years past at different Dragon Cons I’ve had just as much fun talking with celebrity guests in the autograph hall.
#2 Dragon Con is the best convention I’ve been to for the wide variety, multitude, and high quality costumes. This year I mostly focused on Star Wars cosplay at the Star Wars Costume Contest.
#3 Dragon Con has a lot of great parties, and the one I went to this year was the Last Party at Alderaan, which featured great music, a DJ, and lots of dancing and Star Wars costumes. Frankly I didn’t get a lot of great pictures because I was having too much fun!
#4: Fun with Friends: Dragon Con creates the best environment for a group of friends to attend a convention. There are occasionally long lines, but the lines aren’t as bad as many conventions, meaning you have more time to actually spend time with friends and do/see more things. Convenient places to eat, cool places to hang out, and so many events and panels make it easy to find things to do with your friends that don’t revolve around just waiting in line or sitting in panels.
These pictures capture only “one quarter portion”, as Unkar Plutt would say, of some of the reasons I love Dragon Con so much, but hopefully they still convey the fun of it, and the reason I’m so fond of this particular convention.
~Bethany Blanton
