Hi, Snow here! She/her, my main is @snowstorm174, my art blog is @frostedhearts though I don’t use it often. I’ve been watching MCYT for some time, but only joined the Hermitcraft fandom as of season 8- previously most of my mcyt was Scott Smajor and friends (Harmony Hollow, Fairytale Fallout, and The Avenue SMP are all dear to me, they changed my brain chemistry.)
My flight rising account is also Snowstorm174, the link leads to my main page there, I have some Hermit/line series dragons, though I’ve not touched the game in a while.
This is the picrew I used for my icon!
I haven’t posted quotes in a while, but I still take submissions, I would love to add your ideas to the collection! Art is also always welcome, it makes me super happy :D
Just saw your reblog of my Michael Burnham, Arthurian Knight post and I wanna geek out about the academic conference at Dragon Con!
This will be only my second year going so it's still massively overwhelming. Last year I presented on the star wars track (getting to present on the Jedi games as a scholar was an incredible experience and that paper is going to end up published early next year!) and had my schedule by now but this year, because I'm on the Trek side, I think it's harder to schedule so I haven't been finalized quite yet!
Whatre some of your favorite experiences at Dragon Con? What should I look for off the beaten path, so to speak?
I also realize half of my ask is talking about myself, but I didn't know how else to like...share interests? Feel free to message me too or instead!
Oh my gosh, hi! I'm so sorry for being so late responding to your message! Congrats on your paper getting published; that's so exciting! I will answer the DragonCon experiences question here because I'm incapable of not being a DC booster all the time and I always want everyone to know how great and weird it is 😄
I am local to Atlanta and have been going off and on since 2003. (I was in middle school and it was a Formative Experience, let me tell you!) That being said, I'm not sure I have a good sense of what's off the beaten path? There's just so much stuff and so many people, it's hard to know what's relatively obscure, so sorry in advance for the long answer and if any of this is actually Old News to you!
The main drum I'm always beating is telling people to go to the fan panels instead of the big celebrity stuff. I also often hear people say they only go for the vendors hall and I'm always like nooooo, this breaks my heart, man. Please find just one panel on a thing you like and go to it! Make a friend! Learn a new thing! DragonCon is special because it's NOT as vendors-and-celebrities-centric as other cons of the same scale. It's your scrappy, independent, fan-run con at a suburban Ramada Inn where everyone just goes to hang out with other nerds but scaled up like 15,000%. It's about being in joyful community with other weirdos! It's about the carnivalesque of it all! Go have some FUN! Don't just buy stuff!
But more specific things to check out, some tracks that I find have great programming but might not be everyone's first thought are Alternate & Historical Fiction, Puppetry, Science, and Space. Trek Track also has an excellent reputation both for programming and for treating its volunteers well, so hopefully you'll have a good experience with them as a panelist!
For performances, if you have any love for theater or audio dramas, the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company's shows are cool. If you like music, I think it's always worth scoping out the bands coming and dropping in on a concert if you vibe with any of them. I hear great things about the Philharmonic concert and the Late Night Puppet Slam but have never been to either--I still have quite a long DragonCon bucket list myself in spite of having been so many times before. There is just So Much!
All the con cults are a delightful bit of the subculture. I love to recommend this video essay about them: https://youtu.be/UzLju0-BEoU?si=yjm046xjBNwoOPNh
I also love the con tradition that cropped up in more recent years of exchanging badge ribbons and "swag". If you're not familiar with the Swag-'n-Seek thing, some people hide little tchotchkes or handmade gifts around the host hotels, typically in planters or other out of the way nooks. Others may hand them out to people who recognize their costume/tshirt/otherwise signal they're in the same fandom. As a very shy person, I love this because it makes me feel bolder about chatting with strangers if I can start by giving a ribbon or a bracelet.
If you're into doing cosplay at all, can't recommend going to a group photoshoot enough! I did so last year for the first time for the Locked Tomb one and it was the highlight of the weekend for me. If you only want to SEE cosplay, of course it's everywhere, but the Serious Cosplayers typically hang out in the hotel lobbies to show off their big builds, plus there's one or two costume contests every night where you'll see incredible stuff. Hanging around near the Marriott to people-watch folks going to the Bunny Hutch on Thursday night is also a fun time. Idk if you saw the post the con shared on Instagram of the person in the Heat Miser bunny costume, but that just *chefs kiss* epitomizes DragonCon for me lol. It's creative; it's funny; it's a bonkers choice of costume even without the bunny element; it's gender-fucky; it's sexy but so weird about it that it doesn't feel like objectification. On a different note, I think it's Sunday evening that the lantern elf choir (LOTR elf cosplayers recreating a scene from Fellowship of the Ring) makes their procession through the hotels, and it's genuinely haunting to experience.
Also this is the opposite of off the beaten path, but I do think everyone should go to the parade at least once! It's best experienced 1-2 floors up off the street if you can find a parking deck on the route, or if you're lucky enough to have a hotel room that fits the bill.
And if you venture into the vendors hall, my favorite vendors I always hit up are The MacBath (literary/geeky themed bar soaps--hand to God, I haven't shaved with anything but her Aragorn shave soap in 7 years) and Tea & Absinthe (nice tea blends and tea-brewing accessories).
An addition to this, from a DragonCon volunteer (specifically kids track):
The con normally is kid-friendly until around 10pm or so, and then the cosplays tend to get a bit more risqué, and the after-dark panels start popping up.
If you have kids under 7, they can come with you for free! There are a bunch of panels and activities aimed at all ages, and the kids track runs panels aimed at kids of varying ages, from toddlers to teenagers!
We have a big meetup for young furries and therians, which I was unable to help run due to scheduling conflicts last year, but I heard it was very popular last year and far more people showed up than expected, so as a furry myself, I am excited help run it this year, and see it returning, now with a bigger room!
We have a family fort-building contest on Saturday where teams compete to make the best fort, with varying goals, and there is an After-Dark version for adults that auctions off fort materials for charity!
Okay, that’s enough yapping about kids track, now to talk about volunteering at dragoncon!
Due to how big of a con it is, we’re pretty much always looking for volunteers. There are some great perks as well- free snacks in the Volunteer Village, a cool volunteer tshirt and lanyard, and while you do need to pay $20 the first year you volunteer, it’s free after that.
After 5 years of volunteering, you get a free pass to skip the line into the vendor hall (anyone who has ever been to dragoncon knows how good of a thing this is, the vendor hall line is AWFUL).
There’s also a volunteer appreciation event in the spring, and the Dead Dog Dinner after the con, which is very nice!
While I can’t speak for the other tracks, Kids Track is pretty flexible schedule wise, and it’s definitely still possible to go to panels, visit the vendor hall (which I definitely would recommend doing that as early in the morning as possible, so you don’t have to wait in line at the hottest part of the day), and pretty much all the fun con things! I do my 20-22ish hours over the course of the five days of con, and honestly, I have a lot of fun with it!
and you mentioned swag and seek! I love swag and seek, y’all- it is so much fun to trade trinkets and see all the fun little things people have brought!
I’ll be doing a bit of cosplay, and bringing lots of trinkets to trade and gift! I plan on cosplaying my Pokemon trainer AU 5am Pearl, complete with Alolan Vulpix Tilly, at the main Swag n Swap meet on Thursday, please come say hi!
I’ll also be doing red Wild Life Gem on Saturday for the Aquarium night (which requires additional tickets and is almost certainly sold out by now), and any Hermitcraft/Life series cosplayers will be given a snail!
