LeakyCon Dallas 2018

I was surprised too but I guess I shouldn’t have been. There is a Harry Potter convention. It is called LeakyCon.  It came to Dallas in August 2018.

This is a fan con and it’s about hanging out with other fans and experiencing the Harry Potter culture and enjoying panels. If you are an autograph hound, this is something to skip.  Most of the celebs are people that had screen time but the casual fan won’t know the name. The casual fan won’t even remember some of them from the movies.

The Harry Potter nerd (nerd Is NOT used dismissively, I’m a nerd of other fandoms) will wonder how people don’t know that ‘x’ was in 3 of the movies and is a star in the UK and has 2 albums that has over 100 downloads.

As I listened to the VERY dismissive volunteers tell me (while I was NOT engaging them and did not ask but they droned on anyway) the Dallas show was actually too big and had to many celebs.  LeakyCon was better than others conventions (Creation, Walker Stalker, and even the EVIL SDCC) because you can have ‘quality time’ with the celebs.  FYI - This show really felt like a Creation Convention.

I’m not sure where that ‘quality time’ comes from as their guide book explicitly states autographs and photo ops are not a meet and greet and it is a quick encounter. My experience confirms that. My 2 autographs went very fast and while there wasn’t much of a line for either, it seemed that they wanted the session completed as quickly as possible. I’ll also mention I thought it was a GOOD idea to mention this reminder in the guide book. I liked that the line moved quickly.

This is a family-oriented convention. While 1/3 of the crowd was cosplaying in some sort (mostly robes or scarves), I did not see any sexy/slutty Slytherins walking in stilettoes or Hermoines with never-ending cleavage bouncing through the vendor aisles. Considering how many people have grown up with Harry Potter and those young people are now in their 20’s and 30’s, it was a pleasant surprise.

LeakyCon is coming back to Dallas for 2019. I think this is a fun show for fans. I think the attendees enjoyed it and would go back. I think the volunteers (who seem to have drank the LeakyCon Kool-Aid and are hard care fans) could be better. Considering how small the vendor area was (less than 100 vendors?) I was surprised at least 3 sold wands. 3 or 4 had scented soaps for sell.

 If they announce some guests before tickets sell out, I’ll think about going back in 2019.

AH