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| Logo for BronyCon, 2015 |
Did you know
that Friendship is Magic? Well, I
certainly do—and so do approximately 10,000 of my friends from around the
country and world! Between August 7th
and 9th, we descended on Baltimore, Maryland, rechristened Baltimare
for the three-day annual BronyCon convention, to celebrate that idea. This was the site of a fun-filled convention
experience built by the niche fandom surrounding the animated television
program, My Little Pony: Friendship is
Magic. For all of you fledgling
Geeks on the Street, I want to encourage you to find this sort of specific
convention for your particular fandoms.
They are incredible experiences in which you can indulge your fanaticism
for the minutia of one geek property instead of being distracted by dozens of
things that you love. Plus, you can meet
literally THOUSANDS of other fans who love this one thing as much as you do.
I have attended
Pony Conventions, as well BronyCon specifically, in the past, though my
motivation to make the trek down to Baltimore (I was only in town for day one
of the con) was motivated by the fact that John de Lancie would be appearing at
the show. Famous for his role of Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation, he has
now seemingly struck fandom gold a second time by voicing Discord on MLP:FiM.
He gave a wonderful Q&A style panel, answering fan questions ranging
in subject matter from “Who is best pony?” to “How do you prepare for your
roles?” He was charming and kind to all
of the fans in attendance.
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| John de Lancie, as seen on screen during his Friday 8/7 panel at BronyCon, 2015 |
And boy, did Mr.
de Lancie draw a crowd! We stood in line
for his autograph for well over an hour.
To my fellow geeks: this experience taught me the importance of
pre-planning a convention experience and of ranking what one’s priorities for
the con are. To make a one-day trip to a
con not only possible, but successful in terms of a celebrity meet-and-greet, I
needed to spend a number of hours planning out hour-by-hour of my itinerary for
the day. This allowed me to be in the
right places at the right times to maximize my chances of getting my John de
Lancie autograph. In addition, knowing
that meeting de Lancie was my main goal for the con allowed me not to be
distracted by the dozens of other exciting things happening during the hour I
spent in that autograph line. I was here
for this experience and therefore waiting in line was the best thing I could be
doing with my time. Being organized and
doing a great deal of pre-planning streamlined my convention experience, helped
me to avoid con-stress, and allowed me to live out my convention dream in the
most complete way possible.
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| Long Distance View of the Screen during the My Little Pony Writers' Panel |
Once I achieved
autograph glory, I was able to walk around the vendor’s hall and snag a couple
of unique MLP items and take in an
excellent show writers’ panel as well as an edition of Match Game played by the
convention’s celebrity guests. Even more
special was just being in the convention hall, seeing all of the amazing pony
costumes and feeling the energy that emanates from the Brony fandom. It was a really fun and warm environment, one
in which “Friendship is Magic” is not an abstract concept but a real lived part
of the fan experience.
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| Sign at BronyCon's Exit |
So check out the
smaller conventions, a piece of advice which seems to have emerged as a theme
for my blog posts this summer, especially those about the particular things you
love the most. For those of you who have
never worn your Geek on the Street badges in public before, these can be a
great place to start: you already know you like what the con’s events will be
about and you already share something important in common with everyone else in
attendance. Pony conventions never fail
to remind me that in my love of My Little
Pony is a whole community of others who share this passion; no matter what
you love, there is a similar community out there, just waiting for you to join
it.
Until next time,
this is your official Geek on the Street Dr. Kelly wishing you a Glorious Geek
Day!
Article by Kelly
I. Aliano, PhD
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