MY DREAMCON EXPERIENCE

Coming up on 2 weeks from being back from my first Dreamcon experience and I feel enough time has passed to give my thoughts on my experience. I want to keep this as simple and brief as I can. 

Dreamcon was my 3rd convention in a little under a year so I felt I had enough experience with conventions to understand the basics. All conventions are different but similar. 

My trip started fire. I got free alcohol on my flight from my flight attendant. I think she thought I was handsome so she was shooting her shots. I felt sorry for the other guy cause she as charging the fuck out that boy for his drinks. Tough luck nigga, there’s always FUBU. 

I get off my flight and while I’m waiting for my uber I’m talking to a group of white girls who are in Austin for a bachelorette party and they give me 3 buzz balls. I was making them laugh, looking handsome and smelling like Sweet Potato Pie they’ve never had and sweet potato pie is a myth in their households so they were in awe and gave me more free liquor. It’s the only logical conclusion. 

Aight let’s talk about Dreamcon. 

The badge pickup wasn’t bad on Thursday. I was concerned at first because the line was super long but I think it was because I went with the early rush. The line was all the way outside and it was 100 degrees and that was concerning. I was only in the heat for about 7 minutes and got inside. Overall I waited in line for about 25-30 minutes to get my badge. 

Let’s start with my pros of Dreamcon. 

There were a lot of black people and that was the best part. I didn’t see a white person for 6 straight hours at a nerd convention. It’s unheard of and hilarious too. Coming from where I come from I didn’t grow up with this or see this. I had to hang out in white spaces for this. To see all these beautiful souls who look like me doing a bunch of shit you would get made fun of for not too long ago was tight. I love how far the culture has come. 

Second pro. I love seeing niggas get that coin. So when I was in the exhibit hall seeing people sell their art of all kinds, I was excited for everybody. All of these things were just ideas to these creatives at one point. They brought those ideas to life and were at Dreamcon selling it to the people. I love shit like that. 

Third Pro. The gaming hall wasn’t musty. I must say I’m proud of all the individuals that accomplished this rare feat. You are amongst history. Possibly pioneers. Y’all basically the first niggas to eat “white only pies” and live to tell the tale. Congrats. 

Fourth pro. Austin. Don’t get me wrong Austin is kinda mid in terms of things to do that aren’t 6th street because it's a college town but I’m putting it as a pro because their downtown is small and easy to navigate. Almost every place was within walking distance for me. I had to walk through a sea of crackheads to get to where I was going but it was still good. I grew up across the street from a crackhouse. I’m used to this. It’s just a re-run to me. 

Final pro. Cheeks were out. Lil booties were out. Double cheeked up on Thursday afternoon cheeks were out. A variety of cheeks were out at Dreamcon and I appreciated it all. The “Cheek-O-Meter” was full. What a blessing. It was art. 

Aight it’s time for the cons of Dreamcon. 

The badge process before the con even began was trash. I’m talking about the upgrade badge process. The site crashed on me three times when I tried to submit payment for my upgrade for the platinum badge then the website would not let me back on after my 3rd attempt. Once I was back on the site the upgrades were sold out. I saw that so many people went through the exact same shit as me and didn’t get it either and then I seen a tweet about people complaints about the upgrade problem from the Dreamcon account and their vibe was like “Oh well nigga. Don’t know what we can do for ya.” I was pissed. I only wanted that upgrade to not wait in lines, which leads me to the next con…

The upgraded badges didn’t really matter. People who got upgraded badges and still didn’t get access to things were crazy. Still in long lines. The only way upgraded badges would matter is if only a select few have them. So they would have to be on AnimeNYC type of time and charge Beyonce concert floor seat prices for those upgraded badges. 

The RSVP issue was insane. People who followed the rules and reserved their spot for the opening ceremony and were getting turned away were crazy. It made zero sense for a volunteer to work the door and not check registration. My friends were in line and didn’t get in. I reserved a spot but looking at the line once I got in I knew I wasn’t getting in and I didn’t even bother waiting in line and I was right cause I wouldn’t have got in the opening ceremony. They then changed it to first come first serve the next day but they really had no choice. The RSVP method failed because there was no good plan in place for it. 

Line management at Dreamcon was in the depths of hell. No disrespect to the volunteers but you tried your best and you failed miserably, the lesson here is, never try. Some of them were overwhelmed, confused, some of them were just making up shit. It was a clusterfuck (I sound like a white man named Robbie using the word “clusterfuck”). 

Once I saw people with weekend passes getting into things for people with upgraded passes. That's when I knew shit was off the rails. 

Just to get into the con was a nightmare and mind you it’s 100 degrees outside and people in full cosplays. The line was down the entire street. If I never saw my bro Ken in line already I would’ve waited super long. I think they were only using 2 entrances for 20,000 people. NIGGA WHY??? The Austin convention center big as fuck. There had to be more entrances that could’ve been used. Especially when you have so many people constantly going in and out of the con. 

The quote I kept seeing and hearing was that Dreamcon went from 6,000 to 20,000 people. I love it and it’s amazing but there has to be some type of urgency. They had to see that number of badges/passes sold and at least do an estimate of how many people could possibly be in attendance. Let’s say hypothetically that their math is off and they expected 15,000 people. You have to really triple up the staff and help at that point. If you don’t enhance the staff knowing that many people are on the way or even close to that number then that’s really irresponsible.

They need an actual agency to run the con. A company that has experience with managing that many people. A company that can collaborate with the hotel and Dreamcon staff to put different plans in place to make sure the con is run smoothly. Actual professionals that when the line situations get bad they know how to make the proper adjustments or implement a backup plan. A lot of volunteers were left to drown and had no experience or clue to handle the lines when they got out of hand. Which leads them to call an audible and freestyle and make the situation worse. 

The panels were handled poorly. The panels didn’t even seem as if they were part of Dreamcon. It was like panels were just its own island and in the way of Dreamcon. Just look at the Dreamcon official account recap video. Panels are not featured in the video. My bedroom was bigger than some of these panel rooms. If the activity wasn’t in the convention center then it didn’t matter. At least that’s what it felt like to me.

I could not get into some of my friends' panels because the rooms were too small and full and then when I try to go to another panel, and have to go back to the convention center from the Hilton by the time I make it to the other panel it’s either full or almost over. It was an overlap issue. You would have to leave a panel early just to head to another one. We tried to go to a panel in the convention center but the line to use the skywalk was ridiculous and we missed it. Then to see the Dreamcon account make a passive aggressive tweet about experiencing other parts of the con instead of waiting in line for a panel that’s full was the nail in the coffin. People waited in line not knowing these things were at capacity and that was the issue. Very poor timing and taste for that tweet in my opinion. They dropped the ball with the panels. 

The people who were panelists weren’t set up for success either. Some people's panels started late and they weren’t given back any of the time that was taken from them. They didn’t have much help setting up. A lot of these panels didn’t have microphones which is crazy to me. 

I thought it was cool that Carl Jones (The Boondocks Producer) was in random panels. He just showed up to show love but I think RDC should’ve done the same and went to some. I don’t know if their status is too big now and would cause issues if they tried to attend panels but I thought it would’ve been cool if they sat in on a panel just to show love to panelists. I think that would’ve bridged the feeling of separation between the panels and the big events in the convention center. 

I only go to conventions to hang with my friends from different cities, look handsome, smell good, buy plushies and meet new people. So the cons I’ve stated in this post didn’t really upset me because my reasons for being there weren’t too deep. I really just go to conventions to hang out so that’s why the cons I stated didn’t bother me a bunch but I can see how those problems would make people mad. Convention trips are not cheap. A Dreamcon trip cost a lot of money. 

I can understand why the young lady with the viral TikTok video who wanted to meet and see “Some Bros'' was like “Cancel Dreamcon.” When you spend money on things and feel you didn’t get your money's worth I can understand the anger. She later took that cancellation statement back which is great but a lot of problems she had, I saw first hand. She’s not crazy for only going to a convention for one group of people. I do that for music festivals all the time. I go for one or two artists out of 50 or more and I’m good. Experience things how you wanna experience them. Dreamcon brought Some Bros there cause they know Some Bros have a huge fan base and that fan base will come to see Some Bros at their convention and Dreamcon goal is to win them over as a supporter for the convention in the future. It’s normal business. 

Shorty wasn’t lying though. Dreamcon 2023 was unorganized and could’ve been better but I believe they will get better. They’ve only been at it for 5 years. It’s not the best con I’ve been to but I still had fun. This was my first one and made some cool memories and met a lot of amazing people. I’m grateful. 

Love, Benny