You can make good on your extra hour in the ball pit now
Remember DashCon? Or perhaps you know it by its short-lived previous name, Tumbl-Con USA? In case those words don’t bring back vivid memories of grey face paint, a paddling pool filled with multicoloured balls, and total all-out chaos, then let me refresh your memory.
Long before Willy’s Chocolate Experience was even a glimmer in DALL-E’s computerised, hallucinatory ‘eye’, DashCon was an ill-fated fan event set up for Tumblr users to meet, play, and be merry in a ball pit. The micro convention attempted to take place just over a decade ago, back in July 2014, and became a meme pretty much as soon as doors opened.
You can picture how this played out. DashCon unfortunately pretty much crashed and burned, with guest appearances falling through for one reason or another, and a substantially lower than expected turnout. Obviously, the internet was about as normal about a failed event as you’d expect, and the unofficial Tumblr convention went down in such infamy that the phrase “one more hour in the ball pit” was nigh-on unavoidable online for years.
Despite the event’s problems, which led to an exceptionally huge amount of money being owed to the hotel, a follow-up event was initially floated to take place in 2015. Naturally, this did not happen, and DashCon faded into the background.
Until now.
They are risen: DashCon is back, under entirely new management
This weekend will see a resurrection of DashCon, in a manner of speaking. DashCon 2, an internet history and culture convention, will be hosted on July 5th. And, you can attend online.
A new group, entirely unassociated with the original organisers, have banded together to host an all-new hybrid event covering all things internet at DashCon 2. The physical aspect of the convention is hosted in Toronto, Canada (and bravely includes a ball pit), but they’re also fittingly offering an online option called Virtual DashCon 2.
Virtual DashCon 2 is a mixture of livestreams from in-venue and exclusive, digital-only talks hosted on Discord. The programming is absolutely packed and goes all the way into the self-proclaimed ‘Freak Hours’.
So, what should we expect from DashCon 2?
The day’s events cover all kinds of topics from fanfiction to tumblr memes and way beyond. Just a spattering of the panels you can expect to attend at the online convention include:
- Don’t Stop In Eeby Deeby: The Disabled Tumblr Experience
- How to Build Your Own Fansite (A talk we could learn from, I’m sure)
- Fanfiction as a Professional Adult
- Rebuilding Community on the (Fujo)Web
- Megatron and Gender
And much, much, much more, including a cosplay catwalk, multiple Homestuck appearances, quiz shows, duels, and a talk by Lochlan O’Neil, the original admin of the Tumbl-Con blog.
How to attend Virtual DashCon 2
The online side of DashCon 2 is being hosted between Discord and Eventbrite, and you can pick up tickets for around $22 CAD including fees. That’s about £12/€14/$16 USD.
Can’t make it? According to the FAQs, the vast majority of the event will be recorded for virtual attendees to watch back later. Plus, we’ll be sure to cover some of the event’s edited highlights in the week to come.
And for the question of the hour…
No, sadly, there’s no ball pit for online attendees. Maybe we can all group together on a Roblox server or make our own or something.
Toni Oisin H.C. is the Head of Audio at QSO Media. Read more of his writing here.
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