PyrateCon 2009 has come and gone. Here's my wrap up:
First, any excuse to run around the French Quarter of New Orleans in costume is a good one. The weather was very good which was fortunate since most of the convention was moved outside.
We rode the shuttle from the airport with some people from the TCN (Theatrical Combat Network). They were a lot of fun.
As for the convention itself... we left the event wondering exactly what we got for our admission. The vendors were either set up on Bourbon Street or in a courtyard. No one was checking wristbands for the ones in the courtyard. The lectures were also in the courtyard. As far as we could tell, there were no events that required a wristband. The main thing that your admission got you was a discount on drinks at the local bars. Admission also allowed you to book a room in the hotel but even with the discount this was an expensive hotel. We got a better rate elsewhere.
We only saw two lectures, both by the TCN. The first was on historic pirates. The time of the lecture was changed at the last minute and the person who was supposed to speak didn't get the message. The TCN members who tried to give the lecture in her place didn't really know much about the subject (but they were good-natured about it). Even at that, they were late in starting and were taking up someone else's slot. I have no idea what happened to this speaker.
There may have been other lectures but we went through the courtyard area several times and we didn't see any signs of them.
TCN's specialty is on stage combat and their lecture on this was really good.
The schedule said that there would be lectures on all three days. We later heard that the Sunday lectures were cancelled.
The schedule also indicated that performances would be going on continuously on the stage. We saw a few performances but most of the time the stage was empty and the PA system was playing.
No celebrities. Last year they had people from Pirates of the Caribbean and the TV show, Pirate Master.
One of the big events was the wench auction but there was very little space around the stage to see what was going on.
On the other hand, the other big event was the parade and this was run much better than last year.
If we go again we will be looking very closely at the schedule to see if it is worth paying admission. I realize that the event was probably costly and that someone has to pay for it but I also object to paying for what amounts to a free street fair.
4 comments:
We attended PyrateCon 08 and 09. We had enough sense not to pay for the seminars, but other members of our crew did not. They were seriously cheated. The wristband that they paid for came with few perks. The only thing that I liked better this year, was the opportunity to visit vendor's booths without having to pay a high price. Next year we will attend Pyrate Week instead. I wont deal with the people currently running PyrateCon ever again.
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