The Tumblr User Convention DashCon Was a Beautiful, Hilarious Shitshow
LatestWhile you were comfortably relaxing in your home over the weekend, a group of Tumblr bloggers tried to hold a convention. The result was DashCon, one of the most glorious shitshows to ever amuse bored Internet users.
Why the fuck do I care about anything that happens on Tumblr What is DashCon you probably asked yourself, noticing the hashtags that popped up on social media over the weekend. In short, DashCon — held in Schaumburg, Illinois — was a convention put on by Tumblr users that attempted to be an assemblage of various fandoms from the social networking site. The planners started working on DashCon in 2013, using Indie GoGo to raise money. DashCon tickets were offered pre-sale for $65, with weekend passes at the door advertised at $80. In addition, tickets were available to some panels at an additional fee. Via DashCon’s website:
DashCon aims to be the largest gathering of Tumblr users to date, concentrating on the particulars of this stand out social media site. DashCon will be a place where Tumblr users can express common site wide interests, in both fashion, art, science, and in the world of geekery. Specifically, the side of Tumblr we have garnered interest from has been the geekery side. This side comprises mostly of people who religiously follow various television shows, movie series, and book series. Notable groups within this ‘geekery’ side would be those who follow BBC’s Sherlock, CWs Supernatural, and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. In addition to bringing together these groups, we are also very interested in promoting and helping with two common issues found within Tumblr users, mainly, depression and anxiety. We wish to provide informational programming about healthy ways to deal with these conditions
That all sounds really noble and fun. But planning a major convention that involves gathering thousands of people from all over the country requires a lot more skill and finesse than reblogging a couple of gifs of Tom Hiddleston. It’s important to note that this was not an official Tumblr convention sanctioned by the social media site. Organizers were reportedly prohibited from using the name “Tumblr” in any planning and promotional materials. (“DashCon” was named for the “dashboard” Tumblr users are greeted with when they use the site.)
Here’s a roundup of some of the panels that were planned:
- Shipping 101: OTP? BroTP? NOTP? OT3? Your basics…and not so basics on all things shipping! 18+
- Can You Knot: Exploring the Omegaverse (18+): A growing subset within fandoms! Topics such as gender roles, gendered language, and the six gender system will be discussed among many other topics.
- British Men with…CHEEKBONES: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, David Tennant…we all know how addicted you are to those faces and those impeccable cheekbones. Fangirl with others over how much you can’t live without those, and others, beautiful faces.
- BDSM 101: A panel to discuss the truth of BDSM and to clear up the misconceptions set forth by popular fiction and a fear of the unknown. 18+
- Hetalia Jeopardy: The infamous game show but with Hetalia! The show, characters, the history, and everything else you can think of! Prizes will be given.
- Sherlock Fandom: We Did WHAT?: A glimpse into the craziness that has always embodied the Sherlockians, whether you were forcing ACD to resurrect your hero, or drawing John having intimate relations with a tuna in a scarf. A no holds barred panel, be prepared for anything and everything. 18+
Things started to go wrong almost immediately. Convention goers reported a myriad of problems as DashCon kicked off. (This post from Tumblr user Augustine Sycamore sums up the biggest issues during the planning and execution.) Attendance was low. People couldn’t get WIFI at the hotel. Early reports surfaced that young teens were allowed into 18-and-up only panels (this was disputed by panel moderators and people at the convention). The game room had one console and television.
But so what—you’re here to cosplay and meet up with some other like-minded Tumblr users and discuss issues that are near and dear to your heart, not lounge in some swanky hall. It’s no big deal that you don’t have money to quite pull off the original event you envisioned. At least not until people and businesses remind you that you cannot pay for their services and time with your feels.
Rumors swirled that the venue (the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel) and planners were clashing over unpaid fees. In a since deleted post, DashCon planners began asking for donations via their website, telling readers the event would be cancelled if they didn’t raise $17,000.
Hello dashcon please help! The upper management of the hotel is threatening to shut down dashcon, unless we give them $17,000 by 10 p.m. Central Time tonight. Please go to DashCon.org and click the Donate button and give her anything you can. Unless we get this by tonight everything is cancelled. We suspect it’s due to the fact that upper management doesn’t like the people at the con. Please please donate what you can!!! Thank you, we have an hour!
A video posted to YouTube shows event organizers asking for donations:
To protest the threat of being kicked out, people were reportedly singing “Do You Hear the People Sing” from Les Miserables and holding up the three-fingered salute from The Hunger Games. Tumblr user ChiaThingy provided excellent play-by-play for much of the action: