Nickelodeon Parents' Pick for Best Local Blog in AtlantaWhat: Dragon Con 2010 Parade
Where: Downtown Atlanta
When: Sept. 4, 10 a.m.
Cost: Free
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk down the street and see Storm Troopers milling about? Maybe a gang of Klingons or the entire Star Fleet? What if you could meet the Hogwarts Griffindor or Slytherin teams, maybe have a chat with a fairy or a princess? Well, you can this weekend. It’s the annual Dragon Con convention in downtown Atlanta and although you need a ticket to get into the show, you don’t need a thing to watch the amazingly bizarre parade of convention participants that takes place on Saturday morning. Plan to stay for lunch, you could end up sitting next to a Wookie.
The parade begins promptly at 10 am. The route goes from Woodruff Park (at Peachtee St and Auburn Ave) north on Peachtree St back to the Hyatt’s front entrance, then onto Baker Street, and finally to the Marriott’s front entrance on Peachtree Center Ave where the parade ends. Last year’s event had more than 1400 costumed members of Dragon Con strutting their stuff down Peachtree and spilling out into the streets too. Be warned, some of these costumes are VERY good, and participants are encouraged to interact with the crowd, so your little ones could get scared.
However, if you have a crew like mine that have been entertained all summer by Percy Jackson and Camp Half-Blood or can name all the planets, ships and characters in Star Wars in alphabetical order forwards and backwards, this field trip is a winner.
Sue – Any parking suggestions?
Short answer – no, not really. Longer answer, we park in $3 – $5 lots on the outskirts. I want to say we parked near Ellis St. last year. For the Xmas parade, which is a similar route we park on International (I think, sorry, I wish I had better directions for you) Either way, it’s not a far walk. Get there early too. Last year it was quite crowded. The decks are hard to get out of, but if you’re staying for lunch, it’s not a problem. Stay for lunch, honestly, seeing all those characters just milling around is a hoot.
Sue — Any kid-friendly restaurant suggestions?
Let me see if I can get some restaurant and parking options for everyone. All the restaurants should be kid friendly at this time of the day. Kids might like Hard Rock. Let me find a couple other suggestions too. I’ll post it here when I find.
For Parking info. See this map! Thanks to @atl365 and Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau!
http://www.atlantadowntown.com/get-around/parking/interactive-parking-guide
Kid Friendly Restaurants: (thanks to ACVB @ATL365 and @littlebrownjen for the suggestions)
Social
Meehan’s
The Varsity
Googie Burger
Ted’s Montana Grill
Hard Rock Café
Pittypats Porch
Mellow Mushroom
Azios
You’ll have to google their exact location, but these are all Downtown.
Have fun and let me know what you thought.
Take MARTA
. No parking needed and they are running more trains to accommodate the crowds.
my daughter will be in the parade!!! Will it be broadcast so those of us out of town can see!?!
Dave, so sorry, just saw this. I’m not sure if it was televised, but I did see that WXIA was covering it somehow. Check their website http://www.11alive.com
So many fans visit King’s Cross station to take photographs of platforms 9 and 10 that the station administration erected a sign that reads “Platform 9 ¾”