An event or moment · 1971 · Fandom
The first convention
Fans gather, in costume, in a hotel ballroom, to be in the same room with people who feel the same way about a show.
The first mass physical assembly of parasocial people, and the proof that the bond had become a social fact requiring infrastructure. Everything after is logistics.
Application. One-sided attachment put to work on purpose. Creator economies, community, fandom as infrastructure, and the things that genuinely help people. Not automatically good - a tool with an obvious use is a tool that will also get a bad one.
Where it sits
1950 1950-1999 · 1971 1999
Provenance · 1 source record(s)
- retrievableThe first Star Trek convention, 3-5 March 1972 at the Hotel Commodore in New York, organised largely by James Doohan and his wife, drew a crowd far larger than the organisers had expected and is the direct ancestor of the modern comics conventionStar Trek Convention (Wikipedia). ↗
INSTITUTION The fandom as institution
Connected · 2 out, 2 in
Convention culturepart of · 1976 · An event or momentThe first fanscites · 1924 · An event or momentThe audience became the showcame after · 1976 · An event or momentConvention culturedepicts · 1976 · An event or moment
Reported as a story
The Neighbours finale broke something in the scheduleNot just grief. The shape of a whole country's week was arranged around a soap ending.Why fiction sticks when nothing else doesShipping, kinning, comfort watches, and the safest place on earth to find out what you actually feel.
It sits in