Recap on Lake Geneva’s Dragon Days event

I attended Dragon Days, a new show in Lake Geneva, WI (where Dungeon’s and Dragons was invited). I was a vendor and entertainer… here’s how it went:

Let’s talk about Dragon Days…

Dragon Days Fantasy Festival is a 3-day festival celebrating Lake Geneva as the “Birthplace of Fantasy” and recognizing Lake Geneva resident Gary Gygax’s role as the “Wizard of Lake Geneva” who created Dungeons & Dragons.

Dragon Days will be a citywide festival with several venues throughout Lake Geneva. The sites include Elm Park (locally known as Library Park), the Geneva Theater, the Geneva Lake Museum, 330 Center Street, the Birthplace of D&D, the Lake Geneva Public Library, the American Legion Hall, and Horticultural Hall.

The 2023 show was a “year-0.” This was something of a dress rehearsal meant to work out the bugs before making a major push and ensure excellence at the big 2024 show. The event will be city-celebration of the influence of Gary Gygax and the funds generated will go to support the Gygax Memorial Fund, which is a nonprofit organization. 2024 will mark the 50th anniversary of D&D and will be a greatly celebrated milestone in the gaming industry. I was lucky enough to hear about this show from one of the festival promoters due to my connections in the gaming world (that, and as an entertainer I was hired to open and close the day’s activities with some rousing tunes on my great highland bagpipes.)

From a vendor’s perspective:

It’s important to bear in mind that October can be a difficult time for a show given weather concerns, especially since this show as outdoor components. At its heart, it’s a hybrid ren-fest/gaming convention. To my knowledge, nothing quite like it exists anywhere else, which gives it a unique appeal. This year (2023) saw it with near-Noahic levels until Sunday morning.

I am a fantasy and sci-fi author and I work with a game company that owns the rights to one of the later TSR properties (I write the fantasy novels in their setting.) Because I know the game very well, I sometimes help run game demos and do pitchwork for the Dragon Dice game. That said, our display is pretty awesome and so I went and ran two tables, (mine and the Dragon Dice table… I do also sell the game and do demos when I do renaissance festivals, but we wanted an official presence at this show so we went the whole 9 yards.)

Something to note about this show is that there are multiple locations, much like the Gencon of old which this show pays much homage to (and you’ll get the full rundown on if you do the tour of the Birthplace of D&D, but more on that later.) I don’t know a lot about the layout for next year, but I know the traffic push will improve for next year. It was the sticky wicket for me this year.

I think I would have had sales similar to a smallish renfest if I had set up over in that part of town with the tent vendors; I opted instead to use one of the buildings with game demos, which was a collaborative effort with the local library (which has a neat TSR book section that you have to see.) The weather finally turned nice for Sunday, but I didn’t setup. There was a snafu/miscommunication somewhere that made me unable to sell books that day, which was an annoyance for only about 10 minutes. It only took a moment to see it as a blessing in disguise. It allowed me to see the show from both a vendor’s and an attendee’s viewpoint, and I think I got to see everything since I was not tied to my vending and demo table.

If I ball parked the attendance, I would guess it was around 1100-1500. Probably only a couple hundred of those people knew about the event in advance, and the rest just stumbled into it. The renfest parts lined a few sidewalks that make up the city walking path around the lake; it’s a very tourist-area and the entertainers, like myself playing bagpipes, drew over many people to check out the event and those folks learned about the Gygax Memorial Fund, and many learned about Lake Geneva’s connection to the game for the first time. Though they were mostly casual browsers, the people were buying, even in the rain… that’s the funny thing about tourist towns. (But also note that almost all parking must be paid for, even on weekends. I saw meter maids issuing tickets on a Sunday morning, so plan for that expense—parking is a small fee vs a ticket.)

I was stationed in the furthest building away from the main festival area on the 1st day, and there were less than 100 people through the door to what was a game demo hall in the Legion. There were maybe 30 people through the door (weather and the low-key nature of doing a Year-0 event were factors, but I wasn’t there just to sell… I wanted to be a part of something—to help find the bugs so we could make sure that 2024’s D&D 50th anniversary celebration goes off without a hitch. That said, if you’re reading this, you be wondering how you can get involved as a vendor and be looking for some info to help you decide if attending as a merchant is a good fit for you, and so I’ll give you some numbers.

Of that small crowd in the Legion Hall, I sold $250 worth of books and that amount again of gaming supplies in just the 1 afternoon. My vendor’s perspective might have more bearing if you had some details about me to gauge metrics… I sell at 40ish conventions/festivals per year at shows from 300-110,000 attendees. For a show about this size I would expect to sell about 900-1,500 worth of merchandise (I talk lots about data and vendors metrics in this book), so I’m very optimistic that I would have done similar numbers or even much better had I vended both days (I effectively did $500 in 4 hrs with only a couple dozen people as my buying audience due to mitigating factors—meaning I think I could have sold well beyond that and think that this could be one of my top two highest ROI shows next year). As a vendor, if you sell to fantasy or gaming markets, this show will be a must.

From an attendee’s perspective:

Back to that blessing in disguise. I got to see it all! Let’s talk about that Legion Hall. A bunch of old school folks hung out there all day, and it was mostly a gathering to play casual games and converse with awesome people. I sat for like 15 minutes and chatted with Jeff Easely (one of the D&D artists who, alongside Larry Elmore, is responsible for some of the most iconic fantasy artwork ever.) I played a Tom Wham (Snit’s Revenge) designed board game with Alex Gygax, Gary’s youngest son and chatted with Heidi Gygax Garland, Gary’s third child, who was demoing Shadows of Lake Geneva, a new game she and her husband are about to launch. My friend Jeri Shepherd was there running some programming relevant to storytelling and gaming, both and her events were split between Legion Hall and the library, which is adjacent to the main festival area.

The library has a curated fantasy section with many pieces coming from the D&D and TSR settings.

The snafu earlier mentioned, plus coming a day early, allowed me to do it all (my crew of volunteers and I even helped unload straw bales and helped the setup team construct a giant maze for a dungeon crawl that was super cool—both kids and adults were doing it!) Seriously, it’s worth the cost of admission $15 a day or $20 for both. Do both, because you’ll want to visit all the places.

One place that wasn’t on the official map (probably because it is a regular business) was the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. Because we arrived a day in advance, we went to do the tour, which was $2. The museum isn’t large, but it is interesting. And heck, you can’t even get a coffee for $2. They had some amazing pieces, and they also had gaming items for sale.

Neat things to check out from the program guide is the Birthplace of D&D: the house where Gary Gygax invented D&D and where TSR was headquartered for many years. The owner has a great story and you can visit the old basement where all the gaming magic happened and even rent the dining table space to have your own game.

The interior locations had historical displays from TSR’s early days (and from before D&D was made, even) which were curated by Paul Stormberg (the D&D historian and owner of the Collector’s Trove.) A huge highlight of the event for me was playing Chainmail with Paul Stormberg in Gary Gygax’s basement (Chainmail is a miniatures game that predates TSR and D&D and was perhaps the game’s direct predecessor out of which D&D evolved into its first incarnation.)

The city museum provides a tour for $16, which includes a specific room for Gygax’s creations, but admission is free during Dragon Days, showing the town’s spirit of cooperation, and they sell a dungeon crawl-style map of the town which lists local sites of significance for those doing a Gygax pilgrimage. Like the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum, it is not a huge display. In fact, I know some gamers who probably own more items—but what is impressive is the size and importance of every piece inside. Anybody can own stuff… but this is the superb, curated works Gygax and his friends were responsible for bringing to life.

Another side note is that this was an incredibly family friendly event. There were little girls and boys doing the dungeon maze while dressed as knights, princesses, and unicorns, as well as parents dressed like wizards and rangers.

I was impressed with the dedication of everyone involved and really believe this show is going to be an epic event. The 50th Anniversary, which will be the official year 1 for Dragon Days, is going to be awesome. I’m certain things are going to fill up fast, so even though this article is being posted about 350 days in advance, it may be worth reaching out now and getting information on being a vendor.