Dragon Con is an interesting creature. I've performed their for 19 years. It's huge. It's overwhelming. And I absolutely love it.

But this year, I was concerned. It's a pandemic year. The Delta variant of Covid-19 is still on the rise. Far too many people are still unvaccinated. As crazy as it sounds, many people still refuse to wear masks to protect you and me, and my oldest daughter who was born with a congenital heart defect.

No one wants to get this virus. But not everyone is doing what it takes to keep the virus from spreading.

Fortunately, Dragon Con made it mandatory for every one to either show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test. They also capped the attendance at 42,000 people. It made a huge difference. The crowds weren't like they normally are.

Nevertheless, I spent the past few weeks checking the Dragon Con website to see if they were going to cancel the convention at the last minute. I looked at Dragon Con groups on Facebook to see people belittling these policies. Far too many are falling for absurd conspiracy theories online and ignoring the smart health warnings that will nip this pandemic in the bud.

So I was scared.

We drove to Dragon Con on Thursday. We watched countless people in the lines outside waiting to pickup their badges. Maybe 10% weren't wearing masks. My concern continued.

But then we went to out first panel. It was a Sea Shanties. It was Filk Music Track cross over with the Alternative History Track. Everyone in the audience was masked. Everyone was fine with the rules. They were just happy to be there.

It turns out the best of the best showed up at Dragon Con this year. My concerns quickly vanished behind countless masked attendees.

The rest of the weekend was a blast. I played a Cat Show on Friday. I started a little early. So I was able to play some other songs from my repertoire as well.

Firefly Drinking Songs was also a smashing success. As my friend Matt pointed out, “I knew this would be different when you mentioned CDs and 200 people responded, ‘You have ccc-deeees!' with some even doing the leap at the end.”

I was in tears as I sang “Bring Me Home, Boys.” I was so moved by everything that was going on from being back at Dragon Con, singing with hundreds of friends, to the recent end of the war in Afghanistan. It was cathartic.

There was a mix up with our hotel room this year. There was only one bed. So I decided to sleep at home on Friday. I was both physically and emotionally exhausted and fell asleep quickly. I never realized how awesome it would be to sleep in my own bed during Dragon Con. I am now a fan!

Saturday was just as fun. I was a bit tired in the morning. But I was able to take a brief nap before our evening of concerts, including our Concourse show in the Hyatt. It was packed with people, including a lot of newbies. We sang songs for over an hour. People laughed and cheered and sang along and laughed some more. It was amazing.

Later, we did a Group Sing of Gaming songs along with other Filk Track Performers. I was able to sing my song “Those Characters Who Died” from Sci Fi Drinking Songs.

We were supposed to sing two songs for the group sing. But gaming songs are not our strong suit. Fortunately at the last minute, I remembered the song “A Prudent Thief“. It was written by Cindy Vanous who wrote the lyrics for a video game. She never used it. So Andrew set the song to music for our first CD.

We finished up the evening with a packed Brobdingnagian Bards concert. I think our shows were even more full this year than in the past, despite the capped Dragon Con attendance.

One lady told me her feet hurt from dancing so much. She dances at all of our shows. But she said her feet never hurt before. She was thrilled with the show.

Sunday, I had a Kids Filk panel. I still need to work on a proper kids show. But the people who showed up were thrilled to have some fun entertainment for their kids, especially this year.

And of course, we finished the Sunday off with Hobbit Drinking Songs.

The show felt a little restrained for me. I like to run through the aisles singing with the audience. But I was unmasked while singing on the stage. So I stayed on the stage. The audience was smaller. But every seat was taken. Everyone was singing along and having a great time. We had a really good engineer who made that possible. That was also good because my voice was on its last legs. The only song I forgot to sing was “Heart of Fangorn“, darn it. I'm still kicking myself for not writing that down on my set list.

We were flooded with people at the end of the show thanking us keeping this show going after so many years. They told us how it is one of their favorite events at Dragon Con.

My last performance was a live Pub Songs Podcast show on Monday. Jamie Haeuser joined me for that show. We sang songs from How America Saved Irish Music as well as lots of Sci F'Irish favorites, climaxing with “Doctor of Gallifrey” for the several folks dressed as Doctor Who who attended the show.

My voice was gone by the end of the convention. But I didn't want it to end. It was just a great Dragon Con.

Thanks to everyone who wore their masks and followed the rules so that I and others could feel safe and have such a magical convention. Thank you!

I can't wait until next year's convention. I hope you will join us in 2022. Slainte!