Friday
Today the vendor hall opens, so like many others I made my way to America’s Mart around noon to join the line. We made it inside after about 45 minutes and headed to straight up to Artist’s Alley on the 4th floor. Had a quick chat with Michael Gordon at his Tiki Zombie booth, swung by Derek Yaniger‘s spot to pick up his latest bar glass set and then visited with Ant Lucia for a badge autograph (he created this year’s Dragon’s Lair badge art) and grabbed a new-to-me print of his – Countess Choco Lotta (which unsurprisingly, has now joined my ever growing list of future cosplays).
After picking up a few more things on the 3rd floor, my previous late night started to catch up with me so we decided to come back another day for the lower 2 floors.
Once evening hit, my group met up at the Hilton to make our way to up to the 3rd floor and shoot a fun game show segment at the Dragon’s Den for Dragon Con Media/DCTV. It hasn’t aired yet so I can’t talk too much about it – but boy, between my group and the con crew, we had each other in stitches and it was a hoot. I can’t wait to see the finished product.
Soon after, my body decided to tell me I’m getting old – so I made my way back to the Sheraton and hung out at the pool for the last hour of The Pinups By The Pool party there and just people watched. I’ve wanted to attend this event for years but like many, had never returned to the Sheraton after picking up my badge – so finally staying there onsite at the hotel gave me the perfect excuse to relax at the edge of the pool while everyone around me danced, played water games and chilled.
Saturday
Today music & the Art Show at the Hyatt became a large chunk of my focus. The Art Show in particular allows me to just slow down at con, take a breath and move at a slower pace while looking at all the amazing artists set up.
Onto the bands! First up at the Hyatt Concourse stage, we stumbled upon Wakefire. Hailing from Michigan -they remind me of many of the fun bands I’ve discovered throughout my years of attending the Texas Renaissance Festival. A mixture of baroque-ish modern tunes, Celtic, Ren-Punk and bawdy pop – they hooked me after 2 songs and I immediately went to purchase their latest CD.
Next up was Vision Video and THIS WAS MY TEENAGE YEARS!! Joy Division? Check. Depeche Mode? Also check. Original tunes that fit seamlessly into the retro New Wave Aesthetic? HECK YES. While it felt a bit odd to be on our feet dancing like we were 15 again in the middle of the day in a brightly lit room instead of late at night in a gloomy dark club, the vibe was still much appreciated. I hope they continue to return to Dragon Con because I would love to check out one of their later night performances.
Dinner time, an evening costume change and a few hours of checking out some of the night time cosplays followed….
The evening ends with lining up for Cybertronic Spree! Thankfully (at least for how tired I was) their show time has switched from 1:30 am to a much more manage 11 pm. I’ve seen many of their videos and caught the segment they had for Dragon Con Goes Virtual, but this is the first time I have been able to see them live. I screamed, hollered, sang along at the top of my lungs and dang near lost my voice. Such a spectacular performance. Great vocals, talented musicians, top notch stage presence and the fact that they are able to do a whole show like that in full body costumes is an impressive feat.
See ya’ll next time for Days 4 & 5
