Dream Convention 2023 Recap

This past weekend I went to Dream Convention for the first time. If you’re not familiar, Dream Con is an anime and gaming convention in Texas. As a cosplayer and an avid fan of both anime and video games, this convention was right up my alley. Although I’ve attended conventions for anime and gaming before, this was my first time traveling out-of-state for a 3-day convention.

I arrived Thursday evening, the day before the convention, excited to meet up with a friend who was also attending. Pre-registration for the convention was held on Thursday, so after checking in and dropping our bags were headed over to registration. We stayed about a 4-minute walk from the convention center so we were able to collect our badges right before registration ended. Then we met up with another friend of mine and grabbed food at our hotel.

Dream Con: Day 1

Friday was the first official day of the convention and my friend and I got dressed in our cosplays as quickly as we could due to a last-minute update to the day’s schedule. A TikToker that we both enjoy, Tony Statovci, was going to be doing a “Meet & Greet” event. Dressed in my Esdeath cosplay and my friend in her, Nico Robin, we rushed over to the convention center.

When we arrived minutes later we were at a total loss for where to go- all we could see were lines and crowds. Rather than just pick a line and wait, we went inside the hotel entrance and found a nice volunteer who explained the quickest way to get inside the convention center. While I will admit I’m not sure if badges were ever checked as no one asked for mine, they did check bags at the convention center. However, we were too late and ended up sitting in on a different “Meet & Greet” until we left to see the other cosplays and explore the grounds.

First, we went into the Content Room so we had an idea of where it was since we would have to return in a couple of hours to attend the One Piece meet-up. Inside the content room, we met some other cosplayers and even got free books from a kind attendee who brought “blind bag manga” to give away. Then we made our way down to the Exhibit Hall to see the shops and cosplays. We walked around the Exhibit Hall before running into some of my mutuals and then heading back to the Content Room for the One Piece meet-up.

I knew who was coordinating the One Piece meet-up so I offered to assist in organizing the cosplayers, a decision that cost me my voice. Nonetheless, the cosplays were amazing and I was blown away by everyone’s talents. After spending our share of time at the meet-up we headed back to the hotel side to go to a panel. We had to cue to exit the convention center and we got lost heading to the panel unfortunately only to be turned away at the door because it was at capacity.

However, we made a new friend who ended up spending the remainder of the weekend. We ended up returning back to the convention center, having to do a bag check every time we returned, and headed to an “Anime Aux Wars” panel. Following that we stopped at a restaurant to get lunch near the convention center. The food was delicious, although we got attacked by bees so it was short-lived.

We spent most of the rest of our day at the Exhibit Hall before attending a couple of panels in the evening. We went to both the Ecchi Expose and the Anime Improv panels. After, my friend and I returned to our hotel to change and get ready for LAN Studio’s Grown and Sexy Party. Again, it was only a short ways walk, so we headed straight to the party after meeting up with my other friend. After having a ton of fun at the party, seeing many familiar faces, and losing our voices, we ended day one.

Dream Con: Day 2

For day two, we had a game plan that quickly fell through the cracks. We started the day attending the “Attack On Trend” panel, a duo fashion podcast that one of my friends is half of. Following the panel we headed down to a less visited area of the convention center to shoot some content in our cosplays. I was Albedo (Overlord) and my friends were Sukuna and Menat. After that, much of the day was chaos and confusion, for both us and many of the other attendees. The map led us astray, the schedule was changed without warning, things started late and went over time, and it was quite a stressful day. However, we made the best of it and still managed to attend one of the major events at the convention, the Cosplay Contest.

Following the Cosplay Contest, I met up with some other cosplayers so we could take a group photo, then some photographers took pictures of me during sunset before we left to go grab food at Pappadeaux’s. After enjoying some delicious seafood, alligator included, we went back to the hotel to change and then meet up with some longtime friends at 6th Street. It was nice to be able to gather all my different friend groups in one space like a crossover episode and it was even nicer that everyone got along.

Dream Con: Day 3

On day three, the final day of the convention, I focused my time on staying in the Exhibit Hall. All my friends and I just wanted to shop, see the cosplays, and find any friends we hadn’t seen yet so we decided to stay in the Exhibit Hall for the best chance to do all those things. We didn’t bother with panels or the fuss of going back and forth between the hotel and the convention center. Needless to say, we were able to accomplish everything on our list for the final day. We ended it with yet another trip to Pappadeaux’s, it’s our favorite, and then some of us went to hang out at an arcade before parting ways and returning home.

Overall, Dream Con was incredible. For there to be so many talented cosplayers and fans of the same things as you in one place, and many of them Black, it’s truly wonderful to see, experience, and be a part of. While I will say there are definitely things I would like to see Dream Con focus on improving for the future, such as checking badges, venue vetting, better communication, and organization- if I could attend again I would do so in a heartbeat. It was an amazing weekend that I’ll always remember.