x GeekGirlCon Closing Celebration: A Festivity of Fandoms and Friendship | GeekGirlCon

GeekGirlCon Closing Celebration: A Festivity of Fandoms and Friendship

It’s that time again when the Convention Center’s doors are now closed, and thousands of happy, smiling con attendees have spent a fun-filled weekend attending panels, playing new games, meeting awesome people and buying all the things.

Our last official event of the day was our traditional closing celebration, with a brief speech from GeekGirlCon co-founder Jennifer K. Stuller, who acknowledged the things that GeekGirlCon has done in its five years. “Our atmosphere is joyous and celebratory,” she noted. But Stuller also recognized that it could not have been done without the thousands of GeekGirlCon staff, vendors, panelists, attendees and other supporters. “You and I are part of this community… and I want to thank you all for being a part of us.”

Someone was leaving these notes around the Convention!

Someone was leaving these notes around the Convention that said “You’ve helped to make my GeekGirlCon 2015 experience amazing and memorable. Thank you!”

Celebrating geeky interests is of course the name of the game at GeekGirlCon, and this was reflected in the main part of the closing celebration. Vicious and Vulgar, a play by Seattle plawrights Sammy Scott and Alison Luhrs, reimagined the Sherlock Holmes canon in a new light: what would Arthur Conan Doyle think of Holmes fanfiction, cosplaying and conventions? Exploring the relationship between fans and their canon, the play (performed as a reading) covered not just the relationship between a female Holmes and Watson, but also the more perennial themes of friendship and non-romantic love, all within the idea that the fans are the ones that keep the story alive.

Now, I’m not going to give away any spoilers, because you should really all see this for yourselves, but one of the takeaway points is that what keeps the stories alive is the fandom. “Fanfiction shows how much readers care,” Watson exclaims at one point. This point was also reinforced in the Q&A. When the cast was asked about how the play—which is set in Seattle—could be adapted for other cities, Scott and Luhrs said that it could be, simply because that’s how fiction evolve. “Once there are words, it’s not our story anymore; it’s yours.”

The cast of Vicious and Vulgar finish with a Q&A with Con attendees.

The cast of Vicious and Vulgar finish with a Q&A with Con attendees.

But it’s not just fanfiction—whether it’s stories or games or a favorite TV show, it’s the supporters and fans that keep the canon alive. And that’s part of what GeekGirlCon is all about—finding things that we love, and sharing them with other like-minded people to build a community for ourselves and our fandoms.

It’s been a great con. See you October 8 and 9 next year for GeekGirlCon ’16!

JC Lau
“Rock On!”

JC Lau

Previously disguised as a college professor and family lawyer, JC Lau is an Australian video game journalist and writer living in Seattle.

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