DragonCon Dark Fantasy Track Information & DragonCon Dark Fantasy Track Links at HealthHaven.com

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, paranormal romance, and the darker side of popular culture in general.

Past literary guests have included L.A. Banks, Holly Black, Jim Butcher, Suzy McKee Charnas, Laurell K. Hamilton, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jack Ketchum, Phillip Nutman, Cherie Priest, Lilith Saintcrow, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, as well as many others. Also participating on various panels were comics talents such as Scott Allie, Ted Naifeh, Steve Niles, and Eric Powell. Speakers such as paranormal investigator Patrick Burns, occult expert Rosemary Ellen Guiley, and Ghost Hunters/TAPS investigators Brian Harnois and Steve Gonsalves 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 Bella Morte, The Crüxshadows, Ego Likeness, The Last Dance, Voltaire, Abney Park, Paul Mercer (formerly of ethereal act The Changelings), and Atlanta-based death rock act Tears for the Dying.

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.

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