AI: Home at the Con
By It’s convention season again, and while I’m not one to go hopping through several over the course of the year (grad school schedule and budget makes that an impossibility), my one non-negotiable vacation each year is Dragon*Con. Whenever I go there, or to a Renaissance festival (not yearly, but frequent), it feels like I’m stepping into a bubble completely removed from the rest of the world, and that bubble is home. I’ve had similar sorts of feelings with other gatherings of like-minded people, as well as the marked lack of such a feeling in places where I might otherwise have expected it. Today my questions are:
What events, or types of events, if any, feel particularly like home to you? What about the environment makes them feel this way? Would it be the same no matter who you attended with?
The Afternoon Inqueery (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Queereka community. Look for it every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 3pm ET.
Most of the Amtgard (LARP) events I attend are like home for me. There’s a mix of certain people and certain sites that trigger that feeling and it wouldn’t be home if I were to travel to out of state events alone. I’ve found that conventions and regional burns are too big and overwhelming, but the Amtgard camping events usually have 100-400 people, many of whom I know very well. I got into hashing when I was overseas because the songs and the personalities reminded me so much of Amtgard, and that also had a welcome-home feeling about it, but I haven’t hashed since I returned to the states 2 years ago because it wouldn’t be the same people and that social hole doesn’t need filling anymore.
I have felt very comfortable at CONvergence (where Skepchickcon also happens). Almost no creepy experiences, a really welcoming crowd, and it seemed like people put aside their geek snobbery for the most part and appreciated the different spectrums of nerdery on display, from civilian clothes to full-on cosplay.