MetaChat - drezdn's crazy business ideas #6: A Renaissance Fair for Sci-Fi Fans

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16 April 2007

drezdn's crazy business ideas #6: A Renaissance Fair for Sci-Fi Fans →[More:]Every weekend during the summer, science fiction fans could dress up in their classiest futuristic space garb and head to the Science Fiction Faire, to hang out in futuristic settings. There could be a starship bridge and 10-40 knockoff bar. There could be a death star section and Mos Eisley cantina style restaurant. There could be roving hot dog and pretzel vendors because everyone likes hot dogs and pretzels-from the future. There could be a cyberpunk era, where everyone wears sunglasses, pretends their "jackin' in" and discuss "Wild Palms."

For the darker Science Fiction fans, there could be dystopia land, a pleasant post-apocalyspse wasteland, that could be just a re-purposed junkyard.

Once a year there could be a science fiction vehicle contest, with everyone trying to bring the best Asimoved up ride.

Of course there would be robots everywhere.

Hard-Sci-Fi fans could tear into inaccuracies in classic works by using the special reference library and whining area.

There would also be a gift shop.

post by: drezdn at: 08:20 | 16 comments

This is pretty much what ren faires are already, right?

posted by plinth 16 April | 08:56

There would also be a gift shop.

I'm dying...

posted by iconomy 16 April | 09:00

This is basically what happens at Star Trek conventions. They're a sci-fi free-for-all, not just for Trek. I'm sure other "conventions" have sprung up, too.

posted by scarabic 16 April | 09:53

Scarabic, true, but my theory is that people wouldn't mind doing that sort of thing more often, ideally once a week. And with a set touristy location, it's entirely possible some non-Sci-Fi fans will come for the spectacle.

posted by drezdn 16 April | 09:59

There's already something like that - a few Halloweens ago, there was a NYC MeFi gathering at Mars 2112. I arrived early and introduced myself as one of the older MeFites.

posted by Smart Dalek 16 April | 10:57

How about you and I do a comic book of the last idea, the dead authors? Seriously. Although it smacks a bit of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. But that makes for a good pitch exactly the way "producers" like 'em: "Think the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but authors."

posted by shane 16 April | 11:41

There would also be a gift shop.

Good. I like a little shop.

posted by stilicho 16 April | 12:06

Perhaps a themed club is the way to go?

posted by scarabic 16 April | 12:06

Shane: That would be cool. I already have a rough outline of what happens (I planned the initial story as a four issue mini). I'll email you when I have a little bit more time this week.

posted by drezdn 16 April | 12:45

This is a fucking terrible, evil, no good idea.

It's not like SF isn't taken seriously by anyone anymore.

No. And it's not like there already haven't been 50 CSI/L&0 episodes that basically amount to "OMFG point and laugh at the SF con freaks!!"

It's shit like this and the Star Trek Experience in Vegas and the endless stream of shit-for-novels that's fucking killing SF.

If you love SF, please don't do this. Though, perhaps from your comments I should deduce that you don't love SF.

posted by loquacious 16 April | 14:00

Loquacious, I love some Sci-Fi, though some of it has turned itself into sad self-parody. Fortunately, I don't have the money or desire to really pull of this idea.

posted by drezdn 16 April | 14:04

Oh come on, lq. The Star Trek Experience didn't kill Sci-Fi - at most it's merely beating the dead corpse. I enjoyed the Star Trek Experience, the gift shop afterwards, and even the model Ten-Forward (complete with angry Klingon badgering the customers). I thought the whole thing was done with all due respect to the fans and to the cast and crew of the show.

Remember, fandom is a goddamned hobby. Someone's gonna give you shit for it.

posted by muddgirl 16 April | 14:19

Uhm. No, see, I don't go to "cons" and I don't wear silly hats or pointy ears.

What I do do is read excellent SCIENCE fiction, in which the science is important and even sometimes highly accurate and thought-provoking.

While these activities may be more conducive to a museum or library, I would really rather you'd all wait until the corpse is at least dead, if not rapidly cooling, before you start sticking your fingers and genitals in the holes and begin vigorously fucking them.

Bastards. GO BACK TO COMIC BOOKS. IT'S NOT LIKE YOUR INDUSTRY ISN'T HAVING A FAT AND SASSY YEAR WITH ALL THOSE TRADE PAPERBACKS AND RE-RELEASES.

posted by loquacious 16 April | 14:34

Science killed science fiction!

posted by muddgirl 16 April | 14:57

That does it, actually, I give up.

I'm going to the next megacon dressed as "Ringworld". I'll go unstable, collapse and then set off a tiny working model of a thermonuclear device as the show-stopping finale.

posted by loquacious 16 April | 14:58

loq - I understand your frustration. What you've observed isn't unique to science fiction itself; for every sports fan who appreciates a particular pastime for its skill and action, there'll be 9 or 10 other people who'll make up the Bleacher Creature quotient. It's part of the urge to feel like participating directly in something, even if it's expressed with nothing more than a bumper sticker, or a cheap costume created from sandwich foil, cardboard tubes, and an old beach towel.

Your disdain doesn't even compare to the *serious* mystery fans who feel Murder, She Wrote somehow killed *their* genre, the history buffs who seethe at 300 and Pathfinder's debut in theaters, or the science followers who wish any serious feature on bioethics, astronomy and physics could be presented on TV without all the Bill Nye inspired montages and sound effects.

posted by Smart Dalek 16 April | 16:47

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