Dragon Con

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dragon*Con
Status Active
Genre Multi-genre
Venue Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta Hilton and Towers
Location Atlanta, Georgia
Country Flag of the United States United States
First held 1987
Filing status For-profit
Attendance 30,000+[1]
Official website

Dragon Con (also Dragon*Con) is a North America multigenre convention, held annually in Atlanta, Georgia. The 30,000-plus-member[1] convention takes over a six-square block area of downtown Atlanta adjacent to the 1996 Summer Olympics Village, and is hosted by an 850-member volunteer staff. Dragon Con has hosted the 1990 Origins Game Fair and the 1995 North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC). Like many World Fantasy Conventions, it is operated by a private corporation, and has been the subject of considerable controversy by a small segment of SMOF fandom[citation needed] since it has been scheduled on Labor Day Weekend, which is often a date for domestic Worldcons. It raises thousands of dollars each year for local and national charities.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] History

 This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

Dragon*Con was launched in 1987, as a project of a local science fiction and gaming group, the Dragon Alliance of Gamers and Role-Players (DAGR), founded by Ed Kramer. The name "Dragon" for both the club and the convention was derived from Ed's Dragon Computer (a European version of Radio Shack's venerable Color Computer), which hosted a local Bulletin Board System ("The Dragon") that initially served as a central hub for both organizations. The inaugural Dragon*Con flyers debuted at the 1986 Atlanta Worldcon, ConFederation. However, by the following year Dragon*Con had been selected to be the host of the 1990 Origins convention.[2]

The inaugural Dragon*Con featured Guest of Honor Michael Moorcock, Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey, the late Robert Adams, Ultima creator Richard "Lord British" Garriott, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons the late Gary Gygax and Toastmaster Brad Strickland. Miramar recording artist Jonn Serrie delivered his keyboard arrangements from within a real NASA flightsuit and Michael Moorcock jammed onstage with Blue Öyster Cult's Eric Bloom, performing the Moorcock-written tunes "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" and "Black Blade". The late Thomas E. Fuller's Atlanta Radio Theatre Company performed H. P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" live at the con and on live radio.[2]

In 2002, the 1st annual Dragon*Con parade was inaugurated.[citation needed] By the sixth year in 2007 over 1000 participants, most in costumes from all aspects of fandom marched along Peachtree Street from Woodruff Park (at Auburn Avenue) to the Hyatt, ending on Courtland Street at the Marriott and Hilton.

[edit] Programming

The 4-day event comprises approximately 850 hours of panels, seminars, demonstrations, and workshops, with over 30 specialized programming tracks that include writing, art, gaming, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, comic books, NASA space science, robotics, filk, costuming, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, X-Files, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly/Serenity, Dr. Who, Ghost Hunters, MythBusters, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Anne McCaffrey's Pern, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, MST3K, British and American SF television, New Zealand's The Tribe, the Dark Fantasy track, the Dragon*Con Independent Short Film Festival,and various others which appear when specific Guests of Honor attend (i.e. Clive Barker's Lost Souls and Storm Constantine's Grissecon).[3][4][5] From its origin, music has been a significant feature of Dragon Con, with past performances by Blue Öyster Cult, Bella Morte, Chick Corea, Edgar Winter, Ghost of the Robot, Godhead, Iced Earth, Voltaire, The Crüxshadows, Jefferson Starship, The Misfits, and many others.[6]

[edit] Awards

In 1998, Dragon Con established the Julie Award, in honor of Julius Schwartz, bestowed for universal achievement spanning multiple genres, selected each year by a panel of industry professionals. The inaugural recipient was science fiction and fantasy Grandmaster Ray Bradbury. Additional recipients of the award, presented by Schwartz each year, include Forry Ackerman, Yoshitaka Amano, Alice Cooper, Will Eisner, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Carmine Infantino, Anne McCaffrey, Jim Steranko and Paul Dini. It is also the host of the Dragon Con Independent Short Film Festival, the Futura Award (paying homage to the Fritz Lang masterpiece Metropolis), the Parsec Awards, and the Georgia Fandom Award. Fan Award winners include Brian Canfield Mitchell.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Welcome to Dragon*Con! - Welcome to Dragon*Con!
  2. ^ a b Welcome to Dragon*Con! - Welcome to Dragon*Con!
  3. ^ Programming Tracks. Dragon Con. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
  4. ^ Boese, Christine. "DragonCon: All hope abandon, ye who enter here", CNN.com, 2002-08-19. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. 
  5. ^ White, Rusty. "Dragoncon 2003: An Introduction To FREAK!", 2003-08-24. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. 
  6. ^ Newitz, Annalee. "Sex with storm troopers", Salon. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. 

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
5th North American Science Fiction Convention
ConDiego in San Diego, USA (1990)		 List of NASFiCs
6th North American Science Fiction Convention
Dragon*Con in Atlanta, USA (1995)		 Succeeded by
7th North American Science Fiction Convention
Conucopia in Los Angeles, USA (1999)