RVACON was nothing more than a dream prior to last summer. But this Friday, Richmond becomes the latest city to hop on the convention circuit, and it looks to contend as one of the most unique and musical of the bunch.
The event will feature many staples of comic convention culture, from cosplay (who doesn't want to dress up a little early this year?) to panel speakers, comics artists, and a relatively incredible lineup of producers at the after party.
However, the after party isn't the only place at RVACON for musical experience- there will be a guest lecture by 8-bit busic artist Chipocrite, who is also spinning, and promises to tie in well as 8-bit is one of a few genres of music birthed by the gaming industry. For those interested in learning how to produce 8-bit, Chipocrite will give a tutorial on Little Sound DJ, a music software for Game Boy. Cool cool cool.
In addition to 8 bit, those looking to learn more about producing electronic music in general can attend a lecture on Ableton, a powerful music production software who's popularity has paralleled EDM's over the past years, By George Rollins, also known as Akasha. All of this plus the seriously robust lineup of producers performing at the various after parties (still at the Canal Club) that includes many of Richmond's top DJ acts like Reinhold (perfoming as Pixels N Beats) RudɘeBeatz, Groove Status and many many more, as well as notable producers from outside the area like Reid Speed and MitiS.
There will also be a silent disco, in which local Djs will spin their music straight into your earphones,with no sound emitting externally, allowing you to dance like crazy, look like crazy, and feel like awesome.
Of course, Gaming is one of the biggest parts of RVACON, and there will be game tournaments galore, as well as a chance to learn a bit about writing game code. I love video games, and they are undoubtedly better as a shared experience.
So logic would dictate that this experience would be killer for gamers, and I myself will pry off the GTAV couch to attend this, so if that's not an excuse, you have none. Also and of course, anime will be featured in full, and RVACON anime director Benjamin Brown already has a pretty awesome site up (Ben's #1 Anime Review FB Page) and will be running the discussion at RVACON.
There will be booths and panel speakers, djs and silent discos, and technology out the wazoo (try on some Google Glasses, you know you want to!) at the first annual RVACON
RVACON kicks off Friday at noon, in the center of Shockoe Slip at the Canal Club. Pricing ranges from 15 dollar day passes to 40 VIP passes. Both after parties are 10 dollars. Dress to kill (dragons).