Weekend in Review: Dragon Con 2024

Another Dragon Con in the books! Despite this being our sixth year attending, it still managed to hold a ton of firsts for the Calamity Crew. In that spirit, I’ve decided to switch things up with the format of this recap. Instead of my daily adventures, I want to break down the main aspects of Dragon Con and why it keeps me coming back each year.

We had a change-up in the crew this year. Sammie unfortunately couldn’t join us. She’s great at bringing the good vibes while helping to keep the boys in check. We sorely missed her many times over the weekend. In her place, my brother Mikey (@nighthawk7785) rode along with Harry (@harry_james7910) and I for his very first Dragon Con. We’ve shared the experience with several first-timers at this point, so we were happy and well-equipped to help him navigate downtown Atlanta.

Fair warning, there were a lot… and I mean, a LOT of frustrations surrounding this year’s Dragon Con. Overall, our personal experiences were great. Unfortunately, several friends had a pretty rough time. The Dragon Con Facebook page is riddled with bad experiences, ranging from hotel issues to crime. I will briefly touch on those where appropriate. Just remember, all adventures have their ups and downs.

THE JOURNEY: TRAFFIC AND SPITE

As many of you know, we’re commuting from St. Louis. It’s about a nine hour drive with the usual construction zones and stops. This year, we made the entire drive down only stopping once for lunch, gas, and relief. 

Even leaving early to arrive in Atlanta before 4pm, we were still stuck in traffic on the way into the city. It took 20 minutes to drive the mile between the highway and the Marriott. I swear, some year we’ll figure out a good time to arrive. For those of you commuting, prepare for the city gridlock!

Luckily, getting out of the Marriott at the end of the weekend was a breeze. Unfortunately it was after about 4 hours of sleep, so I took that drive with the power of energy drinks, loud music, and pure spite.

Travel is one of the most difficult parts of the trip, but the drive is pretty familiar at this point. We recognize just about every place we stop at both ways. The worst part of the journey is navigating downtown Atlanta and this year, actually getting checked into the hotel…

THE STAY: HOTEL STRUGGLES

The Marriott has been our hotel of choice for each year since 2018. Staying in the center of the action is a ton of fun, and offers a lot of perks. This year was probably the most frustrating experience I’ve had with the hotel itself.

Last year we made the choice to start our stay on Wednesday, as opposed to Thursday while the con was underway. It seems like everyone also made that choice this year, as it took me an hour and a half to even check-in. This particular Marriott does NOT make it easy for their frontline staff either. A lot of people working the front desk were brand new or in training.

And the room upcharge… I don’t want to use the word “extortion”, but that’s exactly how it felt. Last year, we opted to stay on the fourth floor for an extra $125/night. This year, floors 1-9 were all an extra $200/night. After the frustration of even getting into the hotel and through the check-in line, I did not want to lose hours waiting for elevators. So basically, everyone on those floors paid an extra grand for the “convenience” of using the stairs all weekend. And no, you can’t use Bonvoy points for it. After it took 4 people to figure out how to apply the upcharge, I can imagine switching to points would have been a whole other ordeal.

There were also more reservation issues this year. A couple of our friends reserved an ADA-compliant room. Upon arrival, they were informed there were none left available. So they’re good at taking the reservations, but not so good at holding them. Luckily they were able to move into an ADA room, but 24 hours after a complaint to the corporate office. Not a good look for the Marriott. Not providing ADA accommodations to people that reserve and pay for them is literally illegal. And it certainly doesn’t help when the hotel management is hostile in response to their own mistake.

We have discussed staying at other hotels, but with the Hilton and Hyatt being dominated by legacy reservations, and the massive list of complaints about the Courtland Grand, our options are limited if we want to stay in the action.

It’s very nice to be able to walk out of the room and watch the crowd each day. It’s also nice to pop back up to the room at 11pm for a quick snack before a concert starts at midnight. And to bring friends up for a quiet drink and chat away from the hot craziness of the atrium. It’s a steep price, but it sure does have its perks.

THE FOOD: KEEP THE FURNACE RUNNING

As is tradition, we chose BoJangles as our lunch spot on the drive down. I was very excited to introduce Mikey to it, as he’s yet to attend a con in the south. Just like Harry and I, he now loves the spice of their cajun chicken. We also bought a pack of their new Bo-Berry cookies, which amazingly stayed fresh all weekend! If you get a chance to try them, I highly suggest it. They’re like a chocolate chip cookie, but replace the chocolate with blueberries.

Being the designated con dad, I once again brought a ton of food to have available in the room. With more contributions from Harry, Justin, and Mikey, we had way more than we needed. Everyone that visited our room walked away with Nuka Cola or a pack of Pokemon graham crackers.

Surprisingly, I only visited the food court once through the whole con. While showing Mikey around, we stopped at the classic noodle place tucked away in an elevator alcove. It still remains to be one of the most affordable and quick places in the entire food court. And just as good as any other year! If you’re wandering the food court and do NOT want to wait in the lines, go try the Noodle Cafe.

Mikey went to the food court a couple more times over the weekend to get Dairy Queen. Before he picked me up one of their chicken tender baskets, I don’t even remember the last time I had DQ. It was a great snack while I applied my Malak makeup on Friday.

In an effort to escape the norm and try something new, we looked for an option we haven’t tried before. The week before the con, Sammie found the Red Phone Booth online. It’s a speakeasy across the street from the Peachtree Hub. Since we’re all Fallout and noir fans, we jumped at the opportunity to dress up and check it out. Stormy (@tiny_villain_cosplay) and Ted (@tengutri) joined us as well. The atmosphere was fantastic, a nice dark and cool interior away from the hot humid Atlanta afternoon. They painted their titular phonebooth blue in honor of Dr. Who, and relaxed their dress code to allow for con-goers to join them in costume. You need a code to get in, which you dial into the phone to unlock the door. During Dragon Con, all of the host hotels know the code. Visit the concierge to ask for it!

Despite the severe lack of staff, our service was great. We got our cocktails pretty quickly, and all of the appetizers we tried were amazing. Honestly some of the best fried calamari I’ve ever had. Mikey doesn’t usually like any kind of seafood and even he enjoyed it. Harry partook of the cigar options. I would have also, but my throat and voice were already rough from three days of yelling over crowds. We are absolutely returning next year. Maybe we’ll assemble some costumes for it. At the very least, we’ll be bringing more people!

After cocktails at the speakeasy, we went across the street to Tin Lizzy’s Cantina for a full dinner. There was a slight hiccup in the food order, but it was just as good as I remember from last year. Spicy margaritas were on point! It was just what I needed to kick off a night of partying. Ted and Stormy also thanked us for showing them, because they had no idea it was so close. It’s just outside the upper exit of the food court.

We also hit the classic Metro Diner for brunch on Sunday. As usual, it was absolutely packed and the service took a while. They’re going full-swing all weekend, so I get it. I was excited to share their chili cheese fries with Mikey, which are in my opinion, legendary. And if you want to be weird about it, try dipping them in maple syrup. It’s oddly good.

Another yearly tradition, we met up with Des (@desireecosplay) and Christine (@pattern.pixie) after the Fallout shoot to get some boozy ice cream from the lower Hilton lobby. This year, the Hilton was entirely Beetlejuice themed, as was the ice cream! If you can get it early in the weekend, do it! They will sell out of the best flavors before Sunday, as Des found out the hard way. Despite missing out on the s’mores option, the other choices were fantastic. Mine was a Henessy creme brulee with big chunks of bread pudding in it. Great way to decompress after a wildly sweaty photoshoot.

Finally, on the way out of Atlanta, we stopped by Roasters again. Unfortunately, Stormy and Ted weren’t able to join us this year. But Harry, Mikey, and I took the opportunity to fill up on some great chicken and buttery cornbread muffins before the long drive home. I highly suggest stopping by on your way into or out of Atlanta. It’s just outside of downtown, so you don’t have to deal with crazy traffic or tons of people.

THE COSPLAY: MASSIVE GROUP SHOOTS

Dragon Con offers some of the most incredible and funny cosplays I’ve ever seen. Even though it’s tough to navigate some areas, many truly impressive cosplays come to this convention. Every time I hit the floor without my camera, I see something that makes me wish I had it. My FOMO has subsided a bit in the last couple of years, knowing full well that I cannot capture everything and there are a ton of talented photographers in attendance. But as you’ll see in my photo album, there are some things I just couldn’t pass up.

I was able to attend three cosplay group photoshoots over the weekend, two of which were huge. On Friday morning, I visited the Baldur’s Gate 3 shoot. Unfortunately, I made the dumb choice of NOT wearing Minsc to the shoot. I didn’t want to do Minsc and Malak on the same day. I also figured there would be at least one show up at the event, so I could hang back and focus on photos. I was wrong, and that FOMO hit me again. I’m absolutely wearing Minsc to it next year no matter what else I’m doing that day. It was such a massive group, we couldn’t fit everyone on the stairs at one time.

The group was a joyous gathering of many fan-favorite characters, with plenty of sass and style to go around. There I also got a chance to catch up with Brooks (@crixus629) as Teddy Bear Halsin and new friend Cynthia (@athel_artistry) as the Tiefling blacksmith Dammon to talk about our experiences from the wild night before. Cynthia and I joked about her starting a podcast called “Bananas and Regrets”.

The second group shoot was Cosplayers of the Old Republic, which was once again a nice break from the hectic massive shoots of certain IPs. There are always enough people to make it fun and interesting, but it never feels overwhelming. Considering how crazy Dragon Con is, I really appreciate it. Andrew (@blackstarcosplay) and Christian (@shadowkillion) do a great job of wrangling everyone, and Kayla (@asheneyed) was able to put her experience to use and help out this year. Our friend Julia (@rodriguez_renders) was there as well to provide plenty of scoundrel attitude.

Once again, Darth Malak was a big hit at the COTOR shoot and I saw some very impressive photos from a couple of the photographers. I will certainly be sharing those on social media. Mikey and I also met another Ted (@ted_of_all_trades) who was wearing a dream costume of ours. The armor of a Neo-Crusader Mandalorian is a very distinct part of the KOTOR series, and this was the first set we’ve ever seen in person. Ted told us he’s working on casting it so he can mass-produce them for other cosplayers. Hopefully one day, we’ll see a whole clan of them!

Finally, the Fallout shoot. Hooo boy, it was at least double the size of last year’s. I knew the popularity of the Amazon show would draw in more people, but I underestimated just how many. It was so big, we got permission to use TWO sets of stairs to hold everyone for one big final shot. I love this group shoot. I’ve done it so many times, I know a lot of the people there at this point. Huge thanks to Jack (@escapethevault), Meg, Bobby, and Bill for wrangling this giant gang of vault dwellers, raiders, and various wastelanders as we worked our way through the very sweaty afternoon.

The cosplayers absolutely crushed it for this shoot as well. The NC crew, along with Will (@dlc_props), debuted their awesomely creepy Mothman Cultists. Belle (@wildcardcosplay) attended as the iconic Nuka Cola girl. Des joined me as a vault dweller, spun with her own Pack raider flavor. Aaron (@phaestoz) brought a very unique piece. He and Nicholas (@drpasketti) were fitted with vibrant acrylic plaques that resembled the body targets from VATS. Aaron also has some of the most incredible Fallout props I’ve seen. If you ever find him at a con, ask about the laser rifle. You will not be disappointed!

THE ANXIETY: COSPLAYING AS MINSC

Outside of the group shoots, I was delighted to be a part of two separate Baldur’s Gate 3 groups. The first was for the Bunny Hutch on Thursday night. Kayla and Christian invited me to the group as soon as I told Kayla I planned on cosplaying as Minsc. Here’s where I get a bit vulnerable, so buckle up.

I’m very self conscious about my looks. As a visual person, when I look in the mirror and see something I don’t like, it gets all up in my head in a bad way. I judge myself harshly, so I think other people will too. I know this is a common issue for many people.

When I decided to cosplay as Minsc, I knew I would have to do something I’ve been avoiding for cosplay. I had to shave my beard. I know I can still resemble the character with my beard, but if I am going to embody a character, I want to get as close as I possibly can. So, on Thursday evening, I shaved clean for the first time since the pandemic. During the pandemic, I didn’t have to let anyone see my face. This time though, everyone at the con would. Until this weekend, only three people present had ever seen me with a shaved face. It was a shock.

Some people roasted me for it. Will, Scott (@wildkarde), and Steve (@sksprops) all teased in their friendly snarky ways, repeatedly demanding I grow it back on the spot. Many were very encouraging and validating, telling me how great I am as Minsc. I met quite a few people as Minsc, so there are plenty of new Dragon Con friends who’ve never seen me with a beard!

Photo Credit: @tiny_villain_cosplay

I also don’t feel muscular enough to fully embody Minsc yet. He’s well built, and I have a comedian’s body. I’ve made some progress toward my goals in the past couple of years, but recurring back injuries left me unable to exercise for large portions of this year. Fortunately, my back settled down enough for me to get a solid workout in with Justin, Mikey, and the Carr Bros (@carrbrosprops) on Thursday afternoon for Bunny Hutch. It paid off in some of the photos I saw. I may be a thin Minsc, but I’ll get there! I’m not giving up on the fitness journey any time soon.

Even a couple days later when I cosplayed him again on Saturday, I was still surrounded by encouragement. Ellie (@wyckedmii) adopted me as Minsc to her amazing Jaheira and her BG3 group welcomed me right in. That’s where I got to meet the man that brought a brain to the party. Rob (@doranclancreations) was dressed as everyone’s favorite bard Volo, and carried a book that concealed the remote that controlled Us. For those unfamiliar, Us is an intellect devourer from the intro to Baldur’s Gate 3. Basically a little creature with a brain for a body. Very creepy, but oddly cute. The way it skittered across the floor elicited screams of excitement wherever he took it.

I was far from the only one to struggle with stress and anxiety over the weekend. I spoke with several others, including a few first-timers, about how we all help each other get through it.

THE PEOPLE: OUR GROWING CON FAMILY

Like I mention in every other recap post, the people we see at Dragon Con every year are by far the best part. This year was full-throttle from arrival. Wednesday afternoon, we immediately saw some of our North Carolina con family as we waited to check-in.

Photo Credit: @tiny_villain_cosplay

Stormy and Ted are a couple of Dragon Con MVPs. Between their awesome cosplays, the killer whiskeys they have to share, and their kind encouraging natures, we absolutely love hanging out with them at any con we attend together. I wasn’t able to visit their room to check out their photo studio setup this year, but I saw some of the pictures that came out of it. A lot of people are really excited to see those final edited photos. I know I am! I even helped them line up a few more photo opportunities for next year. We have so many talented friends, I want to make sure they all get some of the love!

The North Carolina crew is well rounded. Sergei (@sergeikay) has a wealth of tech knowledge, Nathan (@nako.ninja) is a master of gaming, Manfre (@memanfre) is a literal Spartan warrior, and Brianna (@breezychu_cosplay) brings the party vibes. Nathan and I talked for a while about the Fallout MTG decks and how Dogmeat is indeed the bestest boy. There are quite a few people from NC that I don’t know all that well yet, but I’m looking forward to more opportunities to learn about them!

Jen (@jenna_say_what) is a being of pure iconic chaos. She brought 18 different costumes to Dragon Con this year, at least one of which had almost full coverage body paint. She was the Lae’zel of our BG3 Bunny Hutch group, which required a whole lot of green. Ask her just how far that green went and she’d tell you much more than you want to hear. I only got to see her twice over the first couple days of the con, but I know she had a great time.

Speaking of the BG3 Bunny Hutch, a couple of my favorite Chicago nerds helped coordinate it and inducted me as the Minsc of the party. Christian and Kayla are very passionate about the con community and we share a ton of love for certain fandoms. Christian is the guy that knows everybody. Literally everywhere we go, he knows someone that’s coordinating the event or a ton of cosplayers. He’s a man of the people, for sure. Kayla, who many may know from the Critical Role cosplay community, was at Dragon Con for the first time! Unfortunately she didn’t have the best time, between TSA breaking her staff, the hotel issues, and dealing with a plethora of jerks.

There were a TON of the Midwest con community in attendance this year. We had plenty of run-ins with Wulfgar and his crew (@wulfgarprops). They always bring a party wherever they go at Dragon Con. I stepped in as casual Hades with their Greek Gods group for a couple of shots at the Hyatt. Every time I hung out with Steve, we got to see people bringing their HD foam creations to show off. As well as talking about Warhammer, of course.

Speaking of Warhammer, I found out that our local Atlanta friend Roman (@riseofrome) is a huge Warhammer fan. Mikey and I spent an hour talking to him one night about our various armies and experiences with painting. We also tried to pitch the game to a very mediumly interested Chris Moore (@ilikefilms).

Further along the subject of Warhammer… despite hanging out with them many times over the weekend, I completely missed Jen (@jeracosplay) in either version of her Battle Sister. It’s okay though, we’ve made plans to get together next year to shoot it in the room studio. It’ll be so cool to catch some wicked highlights on that black armor. We spent a while talking to her and her partner Mike about Baldur’s Gate 3, cosplay plans, and the joyful hatred that is Malort. Look for Jen next year as Geralt, where she’ll have plenty of Malort potions to share.

I didn’t get to see Brittani Ginoza (@ginozacostuming) as much as usual over the weekend, but we did stop by her room where Jasmine (@jajacosplay) was serving free midnight pancakes on Friday night with Rachel (@ahhchewcosplay) and Matt (@twicehalf). Rachel debuted the first version of her new Mizora cosplay at Dragon Con. It is incredible! Justin and Ted got some insane photos of it in the room studio. We’re all very excited to see those.

We also found our long-time friends Fred and Brandon (@fire_forged_cosplay)! It’s been so long since we’ve seen either of them, but meeting again it was like we never missed a beat. Of course they were shocked to see me without a beard for the first time. We only got a few minutes to talk, but in catching up I learned that Fred got married and Brandon now lives near Nashville. I love seeing friends evolve over the years knowing them.

Of course, I also saw Ming Chen around the con a few times. He’s quickly become a well-integrated part of Dragon Con, now hosting the Bunny Hutch cosplay contest and being involved in the DC parade on Saturday morning. I know he has a love of Malort, so I’m going to have to introduce him to Jera next year.

My brother Mikey has been a welcome addition to the crew as well. He powered through the sweaty Fallout shoot as an NCR Ranger. In an effort to get the most of his Revan costume, he used the underrobe to cosplay as Neo as well. It wasn’t long before he started rolling with a pack of other Matrix cosplayers. It made me very happy to see him embracing the chaos of Dragon Con.

THE DRAMA: TRIALS OF DRAGON CON

Not everyone that attends a con is there for the best intentions, especially at one like this. With 70,000+ attendees, there are guaranteed to be some bad eggs. Some people make bad decisions, while some people are straight up malicious. The Dragon Con official Facebook page is loaded with almost as many “horrible experience” posts as good posts.

Staff members at each hotel are constantly bombarded with problems. If they’re not used to dealing with it, or simply overwhelmed, they may snap at guests. I had this instance in the Marriott upon checking in. After waiting an hour and a half to check-in and paying an extra charge to get a lower-level room, a manager yelled at me for moving our baggage cart toward the elevators. We were just trying to get in a better position to get our stuff up to the room, as the lobby was filling up with unattended carts and people trying to check in. Lucky for him, an available bellhop was walking over at the time so we didn’t have to wait long.

I read many terrible stories of the Courtland Grand management being unhelpful and rude to guests. In the weeks leading up to the con, they reportedly canceled reservations and moved people to other hotels further away without warning. After hearing about that, I and plenty of others repeatedly checked our own reservations to make sure the same didn’t happen to us.

Security was wildly inconsistent. Some checkpoints did not bother to look for badges, merely yelled “badges out!” as people walked by. Others were so aggressive they broke costumes trying to stop people from entering hotels. At an event like this, it’s no question that security is needed. Dragon Con has the biggest police presence of any convention I’ve attended (actual police officers and contracted security guards). With that much effort placed on security, one would hope they’re trained to properly deal with a variety of convention guests.

Security of course had their hands full with inconsiderate guests and casual viewers. Traffic jams frequently happened on every skybridge, stairwell, and escalator. Manfre told me about how the Spartans had to push their way off an escalator because a crowd had stopped in front of them. As a big group of people all with capes and spears, the last thing you want to do is get stuck on a moving escalator. There were some efforts to help direct the foot traffic this year, but some of the choices made were counter-intuitive and only caused more problems.

It’s easy to overdo it at Dragon Con if you’re not careful. Whether or not drugs are involved, there is a TON of alcohol going around. Multiple bars and drink stands at each hotel, along with people giving out free beverages. Many people, especially those with prominent social presences, can be trusted. Not everyone though. It’s safe to not accept any drink from someone you just met, unless a friend vouches for them. You might get drugged or drink something that’s way beyond your alcohol tolerance.

Harassment is always present. I’m all for people shooting their shot, but there’s a line. Rejection sucks, but there are 70,000 other people to talk to or dance with. Many people had to deal with it, whether it was someone getting way too friendly, or simply wouldn’t leave them alone. On Saturday night, Brianna asked me to act like her boyfriend so someone would take the hint and stop flirting with her. Then two other guys immediately approached us and tried to flirt with her and her friend, so I had to persuade them to leave as well. I know that some people don’t understand social cues, but it often seems like the perpetrators don’t care to even look for those cues.

Physical assault was present as well. One of my new friends spent most of Sunday night stressed out because her friend was jumped on the 11th floor of the Marriott. They had to be taken to medical to be checked and treated for minor injuries. We talked about how we’re in almost constant fight or flight in this kind of environment, and how it’s always safer to travel with other people. I have a lot of respect for the Calamity Crew. We are all people who will walk someone back to their hotel so they don’t have to go alone.

I’m very sad that so many people had horrible experiences at Dragon Con this year. I’ve had my fair share of bad times, but the good always outweighed it. Every adventure has its ups and downs. No one deserves to have an entire con ruined because of someone being a jerk or a hotel not caring about their guests. I found a sign in the vendor hall that perfectly described the experience for some people.

THE REASON: MAKING NEW CONNECTIONS

For every jerk at Dragon Con, there are a hundred amazing people. It’s why we go. And we were fortunate to meet a TON of them this year.

I’ve touched on a few new friends over the rest of this recap. The people I met in both Baldur’s Gate 3 groups were so welcoming and fun. From fixing uncooperative wigs, passing around my Boo plushie, talking about how blind Phase (@phaseknight) is in their Orin contacts, and Cynthia repeatedly stealing Vide’s (@videcosplay) Karlach tail, we had an absolute blast on Thursday night.

Photo Credit: @asheneyed

We had so much fun hanging out, we realized we never got a photo with our entire group. We got most of us, but several people were bouncing in and out all night. Our group chat is still going with stories and shared experiences from the con. I’m hoping we can get together again next year for another adventuring party, as well as bring in a few more!

While cosplaying as Minsc on Thursday, I was approached by Lex (@leccilulu) for a photo. It was only her second Dragon Con, so she’s still integrating into the community. After running into her several more times over the weekend and having a nice wind-down waiting for her ride back to her hotel, I realized just how similar we were in our introductions to Dragon Con. It was one of those nice “we vibe” connections that I love so much about meeting new people at cons.

I also had a classic case of making a new friend from an old friend. Our beloved Annie Graves (@anniegraves.creates) was in attendance again this year, and this time with her partner Shawn (@shawngo_fett). They had some awesome Resident Evil cosplays over the weekend, with Annie taking breaks periodically to focus on photography. I got a few instances to talk to Shawn, especially about his massive gun from RE3, and we’ve decided that I’m going to be the Merchant for their Resident Evil 4 duo.

Back to Warhammer for a second, I found it’s a great way to network in the cosplay community. People either don’t know it or are really into it. I met Dapper (@dapper_props) on Saturday night and talked for a while about the lore of the universe and how we both want to cosplay as Necrons one day. They would be absolutely insane builds, but would also be dreams come true for us. While he doesn’t play the actual tabletop game, I promised if we ever meet while I have my armies, we’re going to sit down and do battle!

I also made another St. Louis friend! Somehow living in STL my whole life and going to cons for seven years, I never met Lindsey before. She knows just about everyone in the midwest con family, we’ve just never had a chance to speak. She is an absolute badass. Local hockey player and adventure junkie. She told me about her kayaking trip before Dragon Con, and showed me the golf ball sized welt on her ankle from a hockey game at the Mills the week before. 

Everyone in the Calamity Crew made new connections at this year’s Dragon Con. It already feels like we can go anywhere in the con and see somebody we know. Soon enough, we’ll know everyone!

THE PARTIES: NIGHTLIFE AT DRAGON CON

Don’t get me wrong, Dragon Con is one big party. I like to describe it as “the Mardi Gras of Comic Cons”. Once the sun went down and things cooled off a bit outside, the hotels were packed full of people wanting to dance and have fun.

The Carr Bros, Justin, and I all consistently wreck our voices talking to so many people. Every morning is a struggle with how late we stay up. This year was surprisingly light on the dance parties for us. I bounced in and out of several just to catch the vibes and grab a few video clips for IG stories, but we didn’t commit to many of them.

I caught some of Powerglove on Friday night, but unfortunately couldn’t arrive early enough to get into the pit. They were a great, high energy show featuring a ton of video game music. Later on that night, while I was distracted talking to friends in the Atrium, Mikey went to see the Star Wars cover band Galactic Empire. He said it was all heavy metal covers of Star Wars songs and theme songs from other IPs. And of course, they were all in Star Wars costumes. I’m bummed I missed that show, because it’s right up my alley!

A lot of people were excited to see Health play on Saturday night. I hadn’t heard of them before, but Mike Carr shared one of their songs with me and I decided to check it out. Unfortunately some sound issues plagued their setup and start of the show. Will, who is very familiar with sound engineering and music venues, pointed out a few problems they were having. I talked to a few people after the show and they still really enjoyed it.

Outside of the concerts, I stopped into the Yule Ball in the lower levels of the Marriott. A couple of times I went in there, it was literally just to refill my water bottle before walking right back out. Despite the name, there’s not a whole lot of Harry Potter presence there. The HP franchise has been a divisive subject this year, with a lot of fans losing interest after J.K. Rowling doubled-down on her political stances. I still have yet to make it into the Last Party on Alderaan event, because I don’t want to wait over an hour in line. Julia and Andrew went to it. They said it was fun, but I know they waited a ridiculously long time in that line.

The late night raves were interesting. I popped in and out of the Friday night rave, but the one on Saturday was not for me. After dealing with jerks for a while, I walked into that rave and was immediately greeted by the smell of vomit. I had a few friends in there, but wading through the mass of stinking bodies didn’t sound like the best time, so I opted to spend the rest of my night talking to the few people left out in the Atrium. I’ll take late night talks over a stank rave any day.

The most entertaining dance party I attended all weekend wasn’t even a dance party. There was a small remote control dance platform in the Marriott Atrium on Sunday night. A huge circle formed around it as people took turns jumping on and showing off their moves. I got a ton of clips from it and am planning to do a supercut of them once I finish my photo album. This was also when there were multiple Mothman sightings…

Someone was cosplaying as the Mothman and had the BRILLIANT idea of peering over the balcony of the fourth floor, which looked incredibly creepy. Then they suddenly disappeared for a while. Out of the crowd, they burst into the dance circle and jumped on the platform, where we could see they wore short shorts and fishnet stockings. Then just as suddenly as they appeared, they vanished back into the crowd. A few minutes later, we saw them up on the fourth floor balcony back to watching over the party. That was the most Dragon Con thing I saw this year.

Stay tuned for a conspiracy video about the Mothman sighting!

THE SHOPPING – ONE LAST STOP

Once the parties were over and everyone’s brains were ground smooth, it was time to say goodbye to Dragon Con. This year, we were somewhat responsible and packed up everything on Sunday night before going to sleep. Monday morning, we were able to pack up the car a lot quicker than usual with the help of the staff elevators.

Most people were on an earlier schedule this year, so we took our time and went to the vendor hall for a shopping spree before heading home. It was a good mix of vendors we’ve seen previously and a few new stalls. I was searching for nothing specific, but managed to find a couple pieces of jewelry that I enjoy and an epic gift for Sammie’s birthday. I also let the nerd voices win by buying a booster box of Star Wars Unlimited cards. They’ve been notoriously difficult to get in St. Louis, so I jumped on the opportunity to bring some home.

We ran into Christian and Kayla in the vendor hall as well, taking one last look around before they departed. Kayla was locked into shopping mode while Christian looked much colder without his glorious Volo beard. I informed them that we won’t be attending C2E2 next year in the interest of saving money for our Japan trip, but I may be going up there to visit around ACEN. They had offered to let me stay at their place this year, but I couldn’t make it work. A day at a new con may be in the cards for me next year though!

In the interest of getting home by midnight, we opted to skip artist alley. I love looking through the various art pieces up there, but I also love getting home safely and sleeping. Sleep. I should do that.