DRAGON CON 2015
Dragon Con is the best convention in the country. It certainly isn’t the biggest, but what it is, is simply the biggest geek party there is. 65,000 fans descend on downtown Atlanta to do nothing but party, cosplay and drink. Sure there is programming, and there is a pretty big dealer’s room, but the focus of Dragon Con is the party. Oh, and the best geek parade anywhere. Only San Diego Comic Con incorporates the whole of the downtown area into the experience. Like the Gaslamp District in San Diego is to SDCC, downtown Atlanta becomes Dragon Con’s domain.
This marks my 19th Dragon Con. And the highlight for me is all my friends in The Colonial Fleet. TCF is the biggest and best Battlestar Galactica fan club. It is the group I called upon to populate the Battlestar Galactica Auctions in 2009. 40+ BSG fans came to the auctions dressed in costume and made the event that much more immersive. Since then, the group has been like family to me.
We also had a great Axanar presence as we were entered into the Dragon Con Film Festival. We did a few panels for the film festival and then screened Prelude to Axanar.
At Trader Vic’s doing our part!
Wednesday September 2nd
The day started with an early flight from L.A. to Atlanta. I wanted to get in early since last year I missed two of the best TCF events. “Drink All the Rum”, which starts at 5:00 at Trader Vic’s where we all drink rum and fruit juice drinks, and then the TCF dinner at “The Vortex”, Atlanta’s best burger joint.
Drinking all the rum with TCF friends Bruce Boeseker and Jeff Perella, both loyal Axanar donors!
After that it was back to the Marriott for more drinking (you do a lot of that at Dragon Con).
The calm before the storm! You never see it empty after tonight!
Thursday September 3rd
Well, today was my birthday! And a busy day it was. My very dear friend John Eaton, who I started Auctionworks with in 1999, came down for the day. He has been going to Dragon Con longer than me and so, the first thing we did is Uber it up to the best cake store in the world “A Piece of Cake” to get my birthday cake.
My buddy John Eaton joins Diana and I for a drink at “High Velocity”, the mainstay for food and drink at the Marriott.
Dinner at Morton’s with Michelle and Paul Hovrath, John Eaton, Richard Hatch and Kathrin Bain, and Bill Watters and Mary Anne Butler.
Orange Cake from Piece of Cake in Buckhead. Truly the best cake in the world!
After dinner it was off to the Marriott for some cosplay watching!
Diana takes on some red shirts!
Diana and a Romulan Commander
And our other favorite show made an appearance
Axanar construction coordinator Dean Newbury here seen as Hugh Hefner Little Finger and Diana
Friday September 4th
Today was all about the Dragon Con Fan Film Festival. We started off with a 10:00am panel about Axanar, followed by a crowd funding panel I was asked to be on at the last second. Then it was a screening of Prelude at 5:30, followed by, yeah, you guessed it, drinking!!
The Axanar panel at the Dragon Con Film Festival
After dinner, it was off to Tequila Town! The Colonial Fleet’s awesome Friday night room party. The stars of Defiance and the two coroners from Hannibel all showed up too! And a lot of Tequila was had.
Dean, Diana, Emily, me and Carlos. No, there was clearly no booze involved.
Dean and Diana with TCF friends Rachel and Kathleen
So that is the first three days of Dragon Con. Oh my god do I need to dry out…..
Alec
This is such a fun report! Wish I could have joined you guys!
Wow – looks like it was a ton of fun. I’d love to go to something like that, but they don’t have them in my area. I miss the Trek conventions. Great photos – thanks for sharing!
HAPPY GARTHDAY, MATE!