Dragon Con 2024: Know Before You Go

Woo hoo…Dragon Con week is finally here! Starting Thursday August 29th (and Wednesday night for some) downtown Atlanta will be flooded with nearly 72,000 Cosplayers, Gamers, Artists, Film Buffs, and Pop Culture Fans!

Dragon Con, the internationally known science fiction, fantasy, and gaming convention, runs from Thursday, August 29th to Monday, Sept. 2nd with events and activities across five host hotels – Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Marriott Marquis, Hilton Atlanta, Westin Peachtree, and Cortland Grand (formerly Sheraton Atlanta) – and Americas Mart Buildings Two and Three.

Guests – John Cleese, Walter Koenig, and action movie icon Danny Trejo – lead a stellar list of celebrity guests coming to Dragon Con this year. They will be joined by Giancarlo Esposito, Doctor Who’s Jodie Whittaker, Emmy-nominated Vincent D’Onofrio, Disney princess Ming-Na Wen, Firefly’s Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk, Marvel’s Cobie Smulders, and comics legends Jim Steranko and Marv Wolfman.

Other top guests from television and movies include Star Trek: Picard’s Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, Johnathan Frakes, John de Lancie, and Todd Stashwick and fans of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds can see Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Dan Jeannotte, Melissa Navia, and Babs Olusanmokun.

Fans of WB’s hit Roswell will have a chance to celebrate its 25^th Anniversary with an original cast reunion featuring Shiri Appleby, Jason Behr, Majandra Delfino, Brendan Fehr, and Nick Wechsler.

Karen Prell, better known as Red Fraggle, will lead a band of puppeteers – and their Fraggle Rock puppets – from Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock television series in a series of sing-a-longs, panel discussions, and puppetry demonstrations. She will be joined by John Tartaglia (Gobo), Kevin Clash (Uncle Travelling Matt), Donna Kimball (Mokey), Jordan Lockhart (Wembley), Frank Meschkuleit (Boober/Pa Gorg) and Ben Durocher.

Other media guests will represent Smallville, Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D, Heroes, 12 Monkeys, X-Men 97, Star Trek: Lower Decks, the Harry Potter franchise, and video game Demon Slayer.

In addition, Dragon Con will host some 300 authors, artists, game designers, puppeteers, scientists, engineers, and other experts to lead panels and talk with fans across 38 tracks of programming, from high fantasy to hard science.

Cosplay – Dragon Con is well known for the quality of its cosplay and the creativity flows! Seeing the epic cosplay at Dragon Con is one of my favorite things. Top cosplayers from across the nation will show off their best work during the show, participating in costume contests every night of the convention and promenading throughout the five host hotels and the streets of downtown Atlanta.

Cosplay competitions remain a mainstay of Dragon Con, including the queen of competitions, Dragon Con Masquerade, the oldest continuously-run competition in fandom, the craftsmanship-focused Friday Night Costume Contest, and the low-key and fan-voted Hallway Costume Contest.

Gaming – Dragon Con offers more than three acres of gaming in Americas M art Building Three, plus additional gaming and game-related programming in the nearby Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel.

Dragon Con will celebrate the golden anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons with special events, tournaments, and panel discussions about the industry-changing, imagination-capturing role-playing game that remains a tentpole for the gaming industry 50 years after its introduction.

Dragon Con offers the full array of games including PC and console games, miniatures, role-playing games, collectable card games, social deception games, LARP games, and a basement full of familiar and rare board games, plus Japanese and classic American arcade games. All gaming is free to Dragon Con members and begins Thursday, Aug. 31 at 4 pm.

Parade –Atlanta’s most colorful and always popular Dragon Con Parade will kick off on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 10 am. The parade is free and open to the public.

The parade route remains the same as in past years. Beginning at the intersection of Peachtree Street and Linden Avenue, the parade will head south on Peachtree, east (left) on Andrew Young International Boulevard and north (left) on Peachtree Center Avenue. It will end on Peachtree Center Avenue between John Portman Boulevard and Baker Street, in front of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.

The route is convenient to three MARTA stations – North Avenue, Civic Center, and Peachtree Center. Parking downtown is expected to be tight. Dragon Con encourages parade spectators to ride MARTA.

The 2024 parade will once again be televised live on Atlanta 69. Live coverage will begin at 10 am and will remain on air through the entire parade, with a time-edited rebroadcast on Sunday, Sept. 1 at 10 p.m.

There are a number of live streaming options. DCTV will broadcast the parade live on a closed circuit to the convention’s host hotels, with rebroadcasts throughout the weekend. Parade coverage will also be available through Dragon Con’s streaming membership available at dragoncon.tv for $10. Click here to purchase a 2024 streaming membership.

Official Charity – The Georgia chapter of Arthritis Foundation is Dragon Con’s official charity for 2024. Through auctions, merchandise sales and other charity events, plus a dollar-for-dollar match up to $125,000 from Dragon Con, the convention will raise money to support this important organization.

Over the last decade, the convention has consistently raised more than $100,000 for each of its annual official charities and in 2023, Dragon Con raised more than $270,000 for official partner CURE Childhood Cancer.

Currently celebrating its 75^th anniversary, Arthritis Foundation is boldly pursuing a cure for America’s leading cause of disability, which affects nearly 60 million adults and 300,000 children in the US, with life-changing science, resources, advocacy and community connections.

In addition to fundraising, Dragon Con conducts the largest convention-based blood drive in the nation. In 2023, some 3,000 fans donated more than 6,000 units of blood and blood products in the annual Robert A. Heinlein “Pay It Forward” blood drive, benefiting LifeSouth, which serves more than 40 hospitals in the Atlanta area and 110 hospitals in the Southeast.

Photo Ops – One highlight of Dragon Con is the opportunity to take photos with your favorite celebrities. Click here for photos ops schedules, information and pricing. Make sure you are camera ready!

Tips and Tricks

You can never be too prepared for Dragon Con. Wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to walk. Bring a backpack or big bag with the following items and you will be set!

• Cash – many vendors (especially in the Walk of Fame) are cash only
• Portable charger/battery back-up (keep that phone and camera charged)
• Refillable water bottle (the hotels provide water in the panel rooms so bring a water bottle to stay hydrated and fill up)
• Protein bars, snacks
• Lanyard – Don’t lose that badge! Lanyards aren’t always provided so bring your favorite one with you
• Sharpie/pens (you never know who you might bump into)
• Poster tube or plastic covers for Autographs/posters
• Sewing kit, safety pins (especially if you are a Cosplayer)
• Sunscreen
• Umbrella
• Extra shirt to change
• Hand Sanitizer
• Lysol wipes
• Advil/Tylenol
• Vitamin C (start staking them now to build up that immune system)
• Hair ties
• Lip Balm
• Mask (masks are not required but no one wants con crud)

Purchase a Badge

Click here to purchase a badge for this year’s Dragon Con. The prices are listed below. Come join the fun!

• 5-day pass: $175
• Thursday only: $35
• Friday only: $55
• Saturday only: $75
• Sunday only: $65
• Monday only: $35

Dragon Con Streaming Pass

Can’t make it to Dragon Con? No problem! Dragon Con TV features overlapping coverage of the live convention and exclusive programming just for the platform from the amazing fan tracks, for only $10. Click here to purchase a streaming pass!

You can keep up with Dragon Con on Instagram @DragonCon and you can keep up with my shenanigans on Instagram @LisaGetsLit  and @NiceGirlsTV.  Happy Dragon Con!

About Dragon Con:

Dragon Con is the internationally known pop culture convention held each Labor Day Weekend (Aug. 29-September 2 2024) in Atlanta. Organized for fans, Dragon Con features more than 3,500 hours of comics, film, television, costuming, art, music, and gaming over four days. For more information, please visit www.dragoncon.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.