So a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending LeakyCon 2018 a Harry Potter Convention. It was in Dallas Texas and since it was in the middle of August it was muggy, and it was rainy, actually. So of course with tradition among all convention centers, the air conditioning was turned to about 60 degrees inside while it was in the 90s outside.
Let’s get one thing out of the way, when you find yourself in Texas, and you like barbecue, y’all gotta try Texas barbecue. I found my way to Lockhart Smokehouse which is a place where you place your order at a counter in a back and they give you your food wrapped in butcher paper, then you find a place to sit. As my hobby is smoking barbecue, it was damn good brisket. Seriously, getting good authentic barbecue should not be that hard in San Francisco. Okay, onward.
If you discount the Harry Potter Celebration Days at Universal Studios Orlando then this is my third Harry Potter inspired convention my first was Azkatraz 2009 which was held in my hometown of San Francisco It was fun. And of course, being that kind of nerd, I really liked the academic panels, especially about the mythology and influences of the books.
My second was LeakyCon 2016 in Anaheim. It was similar in many ways to Azkatraz. It was a small convention, maybe less than a thousand attendees, but that made it all the more friendly. Sure, the passes I got allowed me autographs with some of the actors, but I was not actually interested in getting anything signed. The highlight of the event was one night just hanging out in the lobby with a couple of those same actors who were having a great time playing the bar piano and belting away Broadway tunes.
LeakyCon 2017 was held in Dublin, Ireland. I was hoping for Dublin, California. But no go there. So I missed out on that.
Which brings us to LeakyCon 2018 in Dallas, Texas. For me I had not planned on going post Dublin. In fact, since I ain’t rich and have to work for a living, by mid 2017 I already planned my nerdy convention going, Baycon in May, Wordcon in August and CRX (Crunchyroll Expo) sometime in the fall. In fact I already paid for Baycon and Wordcon a year ahead of time. So of course I ended up going to Dallas anyway, which happened the weekend before Worldcon.
I don’t know what the final numbers are for the attendance of LeakyCon 18 were but it was far bigger than I had imagined it would be and frankly beyond the intimate convention that I was expecting. Instead it was like something between a Wizard Word Convention and Wondercon size. Hurray for the attendance, but there were sacrifices of that small intimacy and of previous experiences and as huge and diverse as the panels were, there were a couple of things lacking, one of which was no panels on cosplay or costuming. And there were basically no or little academic panels. There were quite a few sorting of other fictional character though.
I’m sure there were several factors that contributed to the size of this sold out convention, part of it was that there has never been a Leaky convention in Texas. Another part was that since last year’s was in Dublin Ireland, those that could not make it overseas wanted to come to this year’s. And of course guest actors from the movies (with autograph opportunities) were a big draw. Dan Fogler and Alison Sudol (Kowalski and Queenie respectively from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) have great chemistry and play off each other well off screen as well as on.
We are at a cusp now. Harry Potter is now entering into its third decade and it is remarkable that the fandom is not slowing down. But it should be noted that many of those fans in 1998 when the first book came out are still around and possibly raising their own children. Which brings me to the point about the panels, they still skewed towards a YA crowd but a good percentage of the crowd were over 25.
Next year, I’ll be in Boston. They will have one in Dallas too, in August again. No thanks to that. Anyway, I hope they realize that diverse panels also include panels for some of us old folks and some of us nerdy college grads and English majors would totally love more academic tracks in the programming. If you are fan of Harry Potter, going to one of these is still a joy and definitely an experience.
The Ranting Penguin 