# Dragon Con - Event: Convention - Date: 1987 – present - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/dragon-con/ > Born in 1987 from an Atlanta gaming club and a bulletin board run on a Dragon computer, Dragon Con grew into a Labor Day takeover of downtown Atlanta by tens of thousands of fans in costume. **Why it matters:** Dragon Con is the great multi-genre fan convention of the American South, where tabletop gaming, fantasy and science-fiction literature, comics, film, and cosplay share one sprawling weekend — a model of how fantasy fandom became mass participatory culture. ## Quick answers **What is Dragon Con?** Born in 1987 from an Atlanta gaming club and a bulletin board run on a Dragon computer, Dragon Con grew into a Labor Day takeover of downtown Atlanta by tens of thousands of fans in costume. **When did Dragon Con begin?** 1987 to the present. **Why does Dragon Con matter?** Dragon Con is the great multi-genre fan convention of the American South, where tabletop gaming, fantasy and science-fiction literature, comics, film, and cosplay share one sprawling weekend — a model of how fantasy fandom became mass participatory culture. ## What happened Dragon Con began as a gamers' project. In the mid-1980s Atlanta had a local club called the Dragon Alliance of Gamers and Role-Players (DAGR), and its members, along with a local science-fiction group, communicated through a dial-up bulletin board hosted on a Dragon home computer owned by Ed Kramer. In 1987 a board of six — Kramer, John Bunnell, David Cody, Robert Dennis, Mike Helba, and Pat Henry — decided to stage a convention. The first Dragon*Con, spelled with the asterisk it kept for a quarter century, ran 2–4 October 1987 at the Pierremont Plaza Hotel and drew roughly 1,400 people. The guest list showed where the founders' hearts lay. [Michael Moorcock](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/michael-moorcock/), creator of *[Elric](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/elric-of-melnibone/)*, headed a roster that included [Gary Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/), co-creator of *[Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/)*, and [Robert Asprin](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robert-asprin/) and Lynn Abbey, the husband-and-wife editors of the *[Thieves' World](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/thieves-world/)* shared-world anthologies. From the start the convention mixed fantasy and science-fiction literature with tabletop gaming, rather than treating games as a sideshow. Growth was fast. The 1989 convention drew about 2,400 people and moved to the Omni Hotel. In 1990 Dragon Con hosted the [Origins Game Fair](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/origins-game-fair/), the national gaming convention, and attendance rose to around 6,900. In 1995 it hosted the North American Science Fiction Convention, held in years when the Worldcon is overseas, and passed 14,000. ## Why it mattered Dragon Con's formula was breadth. Where [Gen Con](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/gen-con/) centered on games and the [World Fantasy Convention & Award](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/world-fantasy-convention/) on professional writers and editors, Dragon Con built dozens of parallel programming tracks — more than thirty today — covering fantasy and science-fiction literature, gaming, comics, film and television, anime, costuming, science, and more, all running at once across several connected downtown hotels, among them the Hyatt Regency, Marriott Marquis, Hilton, Sheraton, and Westin Peachtree Plaza. It is run as a for-profit company with a largely volunteer staff, but its identity is fan-made. Its signature is costume. The Dragon Con parade, launched in 2002, sends thousands of costumed fans through downtown Atlanta on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, with crowds of spectators who never buy a badge. Knights, elves, wizards, and adventuring parties march beside starship crews and superheroes — a street-level demonstration of how the dress-up culture pioneered by [Renaissance Faires](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/renaissance-faires/) and the [Society for Creative Anachronism](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/society-for-creative-anachronism/) had gone mainstream. In 2016 the convention also launched the Dragon Awards, fan-voted prizes for science fiction and fantasy novels, comics, games, and films. ## Legacy The convention's history carries a dark chapter that its organizers eventually confronted. Co-founder Ed Kramer was arrested in August 2000 on child-molestation charges in Gwinnett County, Georgia; the case was delayed for more than a decade. Kramer had no role in running the convention after 2000 but still owned about a third of the company, and in July 2013 his stake was bought out in a cash-out merger, after which the event dropped the asterisk and became simply Dragon Con. In December 2013 Kramer entered an Alford plea, a form of guilty plea, to child-molestation charges involving three boys. The convention itself kept growing. Attendance passed 80,000 in 2017, when it expanded to a five-day event, and the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau put the 2015 convention's direct economic impact at about $65 million. Press reports put attendance at around 75,000 in both 2025 and 2026, and the 2026 charity drive raised about $320,000 for Hope Atlanta. For fantasy culture, Dragon Con marks the point at which fandom stopped being a hobby conducted in hotel function rooms and became a public festival. The gamers of DAGR who booked a single hotel in 1987 anticipated a world in which fantasy television such as *[Game of Thrones](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/game-of-thrones-tv/)*, actual-play shows in the mold of [Critical Role](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/critical-role/), and D&D tables all compete for the same fans on the same weekend — the multi-genre, participatory culture that defines [fantasy's current golden age](https://www.lanternhall.org/chronicle/new-golden-age/). ## Facts - The first Dragon*Con ran 2–4 October 1987 at Atlanta's Pierremont Plaza Hotel and drew about 1,400 people; guests included [Michael Moorcock](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/michael-moorcock/), [Gary Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/), [Robert Asprin](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robert-asprin/), and Lynn Abbey. - The name came from the Dragon computer that hosted a bulletin board system used by the founders' local gaming and science-fiction groups. - In 1990 Dragon Con hosted the [Origins Game Fair](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/origins-game-fair/), and attendance jumped to about 6,900. - It hosted the North American Science Fiction Convention in 1995, drawing more than 14,000 attendees. - The Dragon Con parade, running through downtown Atlanta, began in 2002; the fan-voted Dragon Awards followed in 2016. - Attendance passed 80,000 in 2017; the convention has run five days over Labor Day weekend since then. - Atlanta's convention bureau credited the 2015 event with about $65 million in direct economic impact. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Con) - [Dragon Con (official site)](https://www.dragoncon.org/) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.