Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film on the east coast. This year, Dragon*Con was held Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, GA. Approximately 50,000 people came out to meet guests, parade around in costume, and mingle with other fans. There were three to four hour waits for registration because of the sheer volume of people that came out this year. Lines stretched around hotels and were cut off for various panels, such as the "Futurama" panel which featured several of the voice actors. Over 400 guests were on hand to meet fans.
Some of the featured guests that attended this year were Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap, Chuck), Stan Lee (DC Comics), and almost the entire cast of Mystery Science Theature 3000. They hosted panels and posed for pictures as well as signed autographs throughout the weekend. Some panels were set up as Question and answer sessions, while others let the actors and writers discuss their works before opening the floor to questions.
On Saturday, Dr. Harry Kloor hosted the screening of the upcoming animated film Quantum Quest. The first 1000 people received a special collectible lithograph. Such stars as James Earl Jones, Hayden Christensen, William Shatner, Chris Pine, and Samuel L Jackson lend their voices to the film You can find out more about the film at http://www.QQtheMovie.com
Three separate attempts at getting into the Guinness Book of World Records occurred over the course of the weekend. On Saturday night they attempted to break the world record for largest gathering of Star Trek costumes. The current record was 543. Also on Saturday they attempted to break the record for largest gathering of Superheroes which was at 1246. And they also were tried to create a new record for the book of the largest Steampunk photograph. This had to be approved by the Guinness book before it could be an official attempt. It will take a couple weeks to hear the results of the attempts.
The parade weaved its way through downtown towards the convention hotels on Saturday mornings. Thousands of people lined the streets cheering on super heroes, zombies, Doctor Who characters and more. This is one of the annual events of the convention and hundreds of cosplayers walk down the streets alongside some of movies most famous of vehicles such as the Ecto 1 from "Ghostbusters" and the Delorean from "Back to the Future".
For more information on DragonCon and how to order your tickets for next year, check out their website at dragoncon.org
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