DragonCon Dark Fantasy Track


 * See also DragonCon for more information on the event as a whole.

The Dark Fantasy track is a programming track for Atlanta's Dragon*Con popular culture festival. The track runs during Dragon*Con (typically Labor Day weekend), and features panels spotlighting dark fantasy, horror fiction, vampires, darkwave/gothic rock, urban fantasy, and the darker side of popular culture in general.

Past literary guests have included Jim Butcher, Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jack Ketchum, Cherie Priest, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, as well as many others. Also participating on various panels were comics talents such as Scott Allie and Mike Mignola. Occult experts such as Michelle Belanger and Rosemary Ellen Guiley have given a metaphysical/supernatural touch to the programming.

Although distinct from Dragon*Con's Live Performance programming, Dark Fantasy also features an array of speakers from the field of gothic and darkwave music. Past musicians have included members of Abney Park, Bella Morte, The Crüxshadows, Ego Likeness, Faith and the Muse, The Last Dance, Paul Mercer (formerly of ethereal act The Changelings), Tears for the Dying, and Voltaire.

The inaugural track in 2004 was titled Gothic Journeys, and was an outgrowth of noted fantasy author Storm Constantine's Grissecon. In 2005, the chairman of DragonCon asked Derek Tatum if he would like to take over the track; Tatum agreed, but out of respect to Constantine's programming, strived to create a separate identity for the new direction of the track. In 2008, it was decided that the name Dark Fantasy better described the programming track, as the topics discussed had spread beyond the Goth subculture and its related music scenes.