Turning Right on Red: Dragon Con '16

Dragon Con, according to its home page, is the "the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction & fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe." 70,000 people flock to Atlanta for this annual event that's been going on since 1987. In my three years of living in Atlanta I had been meaning to go but for whatever reason it hadn't worked out. One of the first people I knew in Atlanta, or even before I moved here, Holly Blaine from Sevananda Food Co-op, used to rave about it. She sadly died very young from breast cancer a few years ago.

So I biked my way over downtown this morning to see the famous parade that takes place alongside the convention and it was a pretty interesting site. Lots of people from the crowd also dress up and there's lot of fun, general weirdness and nerdiness. Actually, the best way I could describe the parade was "crowded and nerdy."

At one point, in trying to find some friends, I got stuck in a particularly bad area where too many people were trying to get through too tight a space and the result was ugly. For most of the one block passage I had people on all sides of me so uncomfortably close I couldn't move my arms or hands. I hate how some people react in this situation by pushing the person in front of them (as if that person wasn't also trying to move forward). For a claustrophobe it was a nightmare. I actually had to turn around and give up on trying to meet my friends it was so bad. One very busty girl in costume with green hair was cupping her mouth as she tried to prevent herself from vomiting on every one. Another large heavy set black woman kept yelling frantically: "I need to get to work. I work over there, just right there," as she pointed down the block. One woman with her baby crying said needed everyone to let her pass, but it wasn't a matter of permission, it was just an impossibility. Another woman started flailing her arms wildly as she lost it and spurted out: "everybody has to keep moving." But that was the problem, most people in the passage were trying to move, they just couldn't. I don't think it was the onlooker phenomenon but rather just the sheer numbers packed into such small, normally fairly open, downtown streets. In these situations I guess the bad side of humanity can rear it's ugly head.

I eventually found a parking garage with better overhead views and much more space to breath. I snapped a few photos from there.