Indoor RenFairs

[groomporter]

There was an indoor fair in Fargo, ND. It was held in the Fargo Dome for 3, or 4 years.

[Zardoz]

I think the best way to do it would be the way wicked faire does, make it part ren faire, part convention. Put it in a hotel, so things can be happening all night long. True, the environment wouldn't be perfect, but it would still be lots of fun.

Sort of like a faire themed sci-fi con, I'd go to something like that.

[groomporter]

I think the best way to do it would be the way wicked faire does, make it part ren faire, part convention. Put it in a hotel, so things can be happening all night long. True, the environment wouldn't be perfect, but it would still be lots of fun.

Sort of like a faire themed sci-fi con, I'd go to something like that.

That's an interesting idea.

Teslacon, the Steampunk convention we recently attended was more than just a scifi "con" it also included an interactive mystery with 8 scripted scenes that went on during the course of the weekend. Might be easier to do a scripted story in a setting like this than at a outdoor fair

There were also 3 or 4 cabana suites near the pool with sitting rooms with big windows facing the hallway. These were taken over by merchants* who used the front rooms of the suites as their booth space, but I could see them turned into themed rooms with maybe a pub theme, or maybe used for musical acts or other intimate performing spaces. The bedrooms of the suites could function as a "green room" for the acts to get ready, or store instruments.

*There was also a conference room divided into 10x10 booth spaces for other merchants.

[Zardoz]

I think the best way to do it would be the way wicked faire does, make it part ren faire, part convention. Put it in a hotel, so things can be happening all night long. True, the environment wouldn't be perfect, but it would still be lots of fun.

Sort of like a faire themed sci-fi con, I'd go to something like that.

That's an interesting idea.

Teslacon, the Steampunk convention we recently attended was more than just a scifi "con" it also included an interactive mystery with 8 scripted scenes that went on during the course of the weekend. Might be easier to do a scripted story in a setting like this than at a outdoor fair

There were also 3 or 4 cabana suites near the pool with sitting rooms with big windows facing the hallway. These were taken over by merchants* who used the front rooms of the suites as their booth space, but I could see them turned into themed rooms with maybe a pub theme, or maybe used for musical acts or other intimate performing spaces. The bedrooms of the suites could function as a "green room" for the acts to get ready, or store instruments.

*There was also a conference room divided into 10x10 booth spaces for other merchants.

Nothing new there, most larger SF cons around here like AllCon in Dallas often feature 'interactive' RPG type tracks, musical acts, etc, and there is Babel con in Baton Rouge that has a Renfaire track in their programming all weekend.

Your basic hotel based SF con has a big vendor room for merchants, a large ballroom set up with a stage for musical acts, costume contests, awards etc. and a bunch of the smaller conference rooms for panel discussions or demos etc..

I can easily envision a "Ren-Con" or "Ren-vention" set up along these lines. If I was in charge, I'd do it at the Crowne Plaza in Addison Texas, they host 3 or 4 SF and anime cons a year and are really great dealing with our 'needs'. The biggest challenge would be finding a hole in the faire schedules that would work for the merchants and acts you'd want to have.

[groomporter]

Guess the big scifi/fantasy cons here in the Twin Cities are more literature and movie fandom-oriented and the gaming end of things may not be as big. -Certainly nothing interactive that could involve a large portion of the attendees, but then Teslacon was something over 400 people for their first year so a lot more intimate as opposed the to thousands that can appear a the big cons.

There is a Renfair con that was being held in California for a while, but I think they were doing it more just as a convention and not like an "indoor Renfair". I agree I think a combination done right could be a big draw for real fans and playtrons.