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Photograph by Thomas Crone
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At some point on Friday night, only one corner of St. Louis featured a vocalist singing a translated version of Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield” in the Klingon tongue. That place was the Gateway Center in Collinsville, Illinois, where Archon 38 was being held for a very funky weekend of hyper-niche programming.
For those attending, the event is often an annual visit, a gathering of many tribes. The organization defines itself as “The Midwest's Premier Science Fiction and Fantasy Event. Since 1977, Archon has developed into an expansive, fan run, Science Fiction/Fantasy Convention.” While that’s a very accurate description, the depth-and-breadth of the experience is only fully understood with a visit. Each year, the event plays out in a particular way. On Friday, the vendor expo opens, panel discussions are held and game rooms begin to stir. On Saturday, during the late morning, the hallway of the Gateway Center really pops, with a big rush of new attendees arriving, many of them in their cosplay finest. As the day progresses, the energy level builds, with the yearly Masquerade the biggest, single slice of programming; there, the Gateway’s biggest hall is filled with attendees, who cheer on contestants in a variety of cosplay categories.
As the Masquerade ends, the bulk of the convention heads over to the neighboring Doubletree, where themed room parties compete for attention. The hallways themselves are raucous; it’s hard to believe that anyone gets much sleep before dawn. On Sunday, the convention offers a few more hours of activity, though at a lessened attendance; safe to say, many of those on hand enjoyed a few beers the night before, so the energy level’s a whole lot different than earlier in the weekend.
For the fourth year, we’ve attended Archon for the purposes of passing along some text and photos to the stlmag.com readership. This year’s event, for whatever reason, seemed to be particularly crackling in terms of photographic opportunities, whether that meant catching very willing photo subjects in the hallways, or finding small moments of random fun in the halls.
If you don’t know, you’ll never really know. But we can hint at the fun. To that end, a full set of photos can be found here. The organization’s Facebook page is here; and the official website’s found right here.
See you in Collinsville next October.
