Dragon Con 2025 Photos, Part 8: More Than Cosplay at the Parade

Happy Zildjian cymbalist marching in parade with Beagle Boys shirt.

The Seed & Feed Marching Abominable band, once again at Dragon Con!

In 2019 my wife Anne and I attended our very first Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the longest-running science fiction conventions in America. We once again made the eight-hour drive from Indianapolis and returned for our fourth nonconsecutive Labor Day weekend at that amazing colossal southern spectacle. We can’t conscientiously afford to do D*C every year, but we’ll see how long we can keep up an every-other year schedule before we’re too old or overwhelmed to handle it…

Our belated coverage of Atlanta’s annual Dragon Con Cosplay Parade continues! We amateur enthusiasts took way too many photos that took me too long to sort in between juggling other life aspects (chores! doctors’ appointments! binging The Paper!). Not everyone in the parade was there just to cosplay — some brought other artistic talents to the fore.

Case in point: special guests of the con and the parade!

Dave Goelz and Bonnie Erickson riding in the back of a convertible and in too much sunlight.

Muppeteers! Dave Goelz, the man behind Fozzie, Dr. Honeydew., and more; and Bonnie Erickson, designer of Miss Piggy, Statler, Waldorf, the Phillie Phanatic, and more!

Kevin Clash and Bill Barrett riding in the back of a convertible and exhausted.

Our least worst pic of Bill Barretta, creator of Pepe the Prawn and inheritor of several of the late Jim Henson’s roles; and Kevin Clash a.k.a. Elmo!

John de Lancie riding in the back of a convertible.

Not a Muppeteer: Star Trek’s own John de Lancie, appearing on behalf of D*C’s Skeptics track.

Brian Brushwood riding in the back of a pink convertible with pink graduates riding in the front seats.

Also representing for the Skeptics, Scam Nation host and podcaster Brian Brushwood.

Also on hand to entertain one and all: puppeteers!

Fozzie Bear puppet with sunglasses, held in a parade.

Fozzie Bear! Wacka wacka wacka!

Mother Goose!

Happy young lady holding a gray rat puppet with brown pants and cape.

A cute animal I feel I should recognize and yet shamefully do not!

Every parade needs a band, and D*C is no exception. Longtime MCC readers may recall we’re partial to marching bands — Anne played clarinet for three years in high school and recognizes not only the hard work involved, but the fact that quite often such bands are playing so far from home that their friends and families don’t get to watch them in person. It’s for them that we can go a bit overboard sometimes on the marching band pics. Nevertheless, we took some and we mean to share ’em.

Blair Crimmins out in front of the Hookers while parading.

Okay, so we start with a band that is marching, but not a marching band per se — Blair Crimmins and the Hookers, one of many musical acts gracing this year’s con.

marching band wearing tops using the famously hideous Marriott Marquis carpet pattern.

The Cult of Marriott Carpet is powerful enough to recruit their own band. (Your move, Cult of Jon.)

Marriott Carpet cheerleaders.

Lakeside High School Viking Band cheerleaders

Perennially in the parade: the Lakeside High School Viking Band! (They were called the “Dragon Band” at one point. Or are those two separate Lakeide bands?)

Lakeside High School Viking Band brass section.

Continuing in marching order: the Lakeside brass…

Lakeside High School Viking Band drummer, proud and loud.

…one of Lakeside’s drummers…

Lakeside High School Viking Band saxes, resting between measures.

…and Lakeside saxes. Honestly, if I’d gotten to play sax in junior high instead of being assigned to bass clarinet, I might’ve not quit band after ninth grade.