The Dragon awakens! In a story, a returning dragon would be a big problem. This is, however, good news to fans when the Dragon concerned is Dragon Con, the annual pop culture celebration that takes over downtown Atlanta each year on Labor Day.
After “Dragon Con Goes Virtual in 2020”, Dragon Con 2021 will offer both an in-person con experience and a virtual option. Both the live and virtual cons will be smaller than their previous incarnations, but they will offer lots of con fun to participants.
The content of the various con tracks has been pared down for this year, but Tolkien fans will still find a lot of really great events and cool panels in the High Fantasy track to satisfy all your Middle-earthy interests. Here’s a sneak peek at what is in store.
- “They’re Taking the Hobbits to Amazon!” Join our good friends Kirsten Cairns, Rebecca Perry, and Jim Wert from TheOneRing.net to talk about fact, rumor, and hype about the upcoming Amazon series, coming our way in just one more year (sigh).
- “A Beginner’s Guide to Tolkien’s Second Age”. Panelists Constance Wagner, Jim Wert, and yours truly give you everything you need to know about the Second Age, the main time setting for the new Amazon series, so that you have all the background you need to jump into Tolkien’s least-documented age of Middle-earth.
- “An Evening at Bree”. A staple of the Dragon Con Tolkien events, Evening at Bree gives fans a chance to meet up, enjoy some music, and have a cosplay contest.
- “Facing Middle-earth’s ‘Long Defeat'”. Join Constance Wagner, Jim Wert, and me as we delve into three of LOTR’s iconic characters — Denethor, Théoden, and Aragorn — to explore what Tolkien identified as one of the main themes of The Lord of the Rings — the long defeat of mortality and death.
- (Virtual Content) “Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Anniversary”. A look back 20 years after the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first chapter in Peter Jackson’s ground-breaking adaptation that brought millions of new fans to the Tolkien-verse. Panelists: Kirsten Z. Cairns, Rebecca Perry, Chris Pirrotta, Jim Wert.
- “Tolkien’s Trickster Tropes”. Panelists Tara Lynne, Garon Whited, and Rebecca Fant look at the trickster archetype in Tolkien’s work.
- “Hobbit Drinking Songs”. Perennial favorites the Brobdingnagian Bards will make us laugh, sing, shout, and shed a tear or two in a rousing and sometimes raucous concert celebrating hobbits and all things Tolkien.
- “Tolkien & King: The Influence of High Fantasy on The Stand“. Presenters Van Allen Plexico, JM Paquette, and Rebecca Perry look at the influence of Tolkien and other High Fantasy stories on Stephen King’s The Stand.
It is important to note that the live con has made many adjustments in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Here are a few highlights of the policies that have been put in place for this year’s in-person con. You can find detailed information on Dragon Con’s Updates page.
- To pick up their badge, all participants must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID test result from within the prior 72 hours.
- Masks will be required for fans at all indoor con venues.
- Attendance will be capped at around half of the 2018 attendance at approximately 40,000 attendees.
- All memberships must be bought online in advance; there will be no walk-up purchases of memberships. One-day memberships will not be sold for Saturday, although one-day memberships are available for other days as long as the con has not sold out. Dragon Con anticipates that memberships will sell out in advance of the con.
Please check Dragon Con’s Updates page, which is updated regularly when things change. And things may still change, even though this post is going out only four days before the start of Dragon Con 2021.
