Highlights from BronyCon 2019: STAMPEDE! · 7:54pm Sep 13th, 2020
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Highlights from BronyCon 2019: STAMPEDE!
In which son_of_heaven176 tries—and fails—to get Lauren Faust’s autograph.
Sunday, August 4, 2019: The Final Day of the Final BronyCon
As the day began, the first thing on my BronyCon agenda was to get to Faust’s autograph signing. I had told my roommates that I had that planned, and ajback404 wished me luck. He told us that he loved giving gifts to the community guests, and he gave me a few things to give to her. I told him that I would give Faust the gifts if I got to her, and after the usual preparations, off I went.
On my way to the queue, I met one of the other two people from the previous night’s dinner. He had told me that con staff was not allowing anyone to line up until one hour before the start time. That was good news for me, as it meant that I did not have to worry about competing with people who were on line since way-too-freaking-early-o’clock.
Well, at least not directly.
Con staff had put tape on the floor to mark off a serpentine queue.
No one was allowed to get in line until one hour before the start. So what did we do? We congregated in a big blob outside the queuing area, of course!
Yes, the irony is not lost on me now. We were waiting...to wait.
As the queuing time ticked ever closer, you could feel the nervous energy. People looked at watches and smartphones. However, the staffer’s watch must have been a few seconds off from everyone else’s because as we counted down and hit zero, it was still a few more seconds before he let us queue up. But once he did…
STAMPEDE!
Bronies literally rushed to try to get to the front of the line; we knew that space would be limited. In fact, the word had gone out that the limit would be 50.
Somebody actually tripped and fell, but to our credit, we did not trample him; the stampede actually slowed down and people actually went around him. But still, you should have tied your shoes, man!
After a while, con staff helped get the queue into some semblance of order.
Having (somewhat) accomplished that, first to go in were people with accessibility issues. Next were those with line-hop tickets. After those people came in, there were only twenty spots left. Unfortunately, I was not one of those twenty.
Aw, man! And I had sacrificed Family Feud and Ponies’ Court for this!
But there was a silver lining. Checking the schedule, this meant that I could partake in some tabletop roleplaying. So it was off to StableTop Games to sign up for Enter Equestria.
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