The West Coast may have Comic-con, but the East Coast is home to an equally enormous pop-culture extravaganza that surpasses San Diego in size, scope, and interests. It’s Dragon*con, the U.S.’s largest multi-media pop-culture convention and one of the largest of its kind in the world.
The evening crowd in the Marriot.
Held every year in Atlanta, Georgia during Labor Day weekend, Dragon*con is a geek’s ultimate Mecca. If you’re into it, this convention covers it. For 22 years, Atlanta has hosted this four-day celebration of pop-culture and it continues to grow. The convention is split into several dozen different “tracks” of programming that pertains to specific areas of interest. From Star Trek and Star Wars to anime and literature and more. It is literally impossible not to find something you are interested in. In most cases, there is almost too much to see and do—the biggest complaint is that you never see a fraction of what you want to see due to conflicting schedules and priorities. Collectively, there are over 3,500 hours of programming throughout the entire holiday weekend.
To some geeks, D*Con is better than Christmas.
This year, attendees can expect to see over 500 guests and bands from all industries. Some of the largest and most popular names in entertainment will be attending. Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, Charlaine Harris, Todd McCaffrey, and many, many others only skim the surface of this year’s guest list.
The parade features over 2,000 marchers and vehicles.
Held in four large downtown host hotels, Dragon*con takes over much of Atlanta’s infamous Peachtree Center. Saturday morning is the annual parade, now in its 8th year, where over 2,000 costumed attendees and vehicles close down some of Atlanta’s busiest streets to take over the city and march through downtown for hundreds of on-lookers. The event usually gathers national media attention, but that’s not the only thing.
This year, the convention hopes to crush the current world record for the most people dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. The event quickly became official only a month or so ago and will be evaluated by the Guinness World Book of Records on September 6th, the Sunday of the con. The current world record is held by William & Mary College with 242 dancers. So far, the convention has 255 “pledged” dancers and close to 300 registered on the Thriller At Dragon*con forum. They expect just as many walk-ins as they do people who drop out, so breaking the record won’t be hard at all when there’s an average of over 40,000 convention attendees.
Dragon*con will be from September 4th through 7th this year at the Marriott Marquis Atlanta, Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Hilton, and the Atlanta Sheraton. All the host hotels are sold out, with a few exceptions. You can still pre-register (at a premium price) via D*Con’s website.
Expect a personal review of Dragon*con next month! Additionally, you can expect some highlights focusing on some of the more unique features of Dragon*con leading up to Labor Day.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
This con sounds like so much fun! It kills me that I can’t go. Labor Day weekend is also the weekend of the MDA Telethon which I appear on in the NY area each year.
I’m especially sad this year because I’ve heard there’s going to be a very large group of the different Lantern Corps members (like above) and it would have been great to wear my Red Lantern costume again.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I’ve always wanted to go to DragonCon! Hopefully next year…
August 22nd, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I just have one question… you say DragonCon surpasses Comic Con in size. What exactly do you mean by that?
August 24th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
@rjac1978, I’m not sure but I THINK she means in terms of property area used. Except for this year when SDCC really moved around (in local hotels, etc) and previously with using the ballpark and all it’s basically confined to the con area.
From what I hear, the D-Con people spread their parties out a lot more.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
40,000! Damn. I thought Otakon was big.
Also, the guest list this year is AMAZING. I am super super jealous. Kirk AND Spock? That would make it worth the trip by itself.
August 24th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
@ michael: Ok, that is what I was thinking. Because in scope regarding attendance and what is presented, I was really under the impression that Comic Con had that. Especially attendance where Comic Con this year had an estimated near 140,000 attendees.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
@rjac1978: Dragon*con is the largest multi-media convention in the country, whereas Comic-con is the largest comic book convention. D*C keeps its official attendance numbers undisclosed; rumor has it the reason is because if the Fire Marshall found out, they would no longer be able to use the spaces they use. It is understood that the actual number of attendees is at least double the “official” number. D*C also covers more convention space and dominates a fair fraction of the city over the 4-day weekend. Comic-con tends to get more publicity because of its location and use as an expo for certain industries. D*C is much more fan-based.
September 7th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I went this year, and it was awesome!
I dressed up in my 100% homemade Starscream costume (thrift ftw!) and I couldn’t go 20 feet without getting stopped by people wanting to get pictures of/with me! It was amazing!