BronyCon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids BronyCon |
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| Status | Inactive |
| Genre | Brony |
| Venue | Baltimore Convention Center |
| Location(s) | Baltimore, Maryland |
| Country | U.S. |
| Inaugurated | June 2011 |
| Most recent | August 2019 |
| Attendance | 10,215 in 2019 |
| Filing status | 501(c)(3) (under Lunar Solis Corp.) |
| Website | http://www.bronycon.org |
BronyCon was a yearly fan convention in the United States. It was for fans of the animated TV show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Many of these fans were teenagers and adults who called themselves bronies.
The convention started in June 2011. It held eleven events in total. The very last one was in August 2019. Over 10,215 people attended the final event. BronyCon was originally planned to continue until 2025. However, in 2018, it was announced that 2019 would be the last year. This decision matched the final season of the My Little Pony show.
BronyCon was first called BroNYCon. This was because its first three conventions were in New York City. For its fourth event, it dropped the 'NYC' part. This event was held in Secaucus, New Jersey. In 2013, the convention moved to Baltimore, Maryland. It also changed from happening twice a year to once a year. A special non-profit group, Lunar Solis Corp., was created to run the convention. This group also managed its charity work.
Contents
The Story of BronyCon
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic first aired in October 2010. It was meant to promote new My Little Pony toys. The show quickly became popular with its target audience. But it also gained an unexpected group of fans: teenagers and adults. These fans mostly came from an online community.
This group of fans created the name "brony." It's a mix of "bro" and "pony." The brony fandom became very active. They created fan art, stories, music, and videos. The show's creators and Hasbro (the company that owns My Little Pony) welcomed the brony community. They often talked with fans and added small nods to the fandom in the show.
Older fans started local meetups to talk about the show. BronyCon grew from these small gatherings in New York City. It was started in 2011 by a fan named Jessica Blank. The first BronyCon took place in Midtown Manhattan in June 2011. About 100 people attended.
The second convention in September 2011 grew to 300 people. It even had Jayson Thiessen, the show's supervising director, as a guest. The third convention in January 2012 included three of the show's voice actresses. This event drew at least 700 attendees. It needed a much larger meeting place.
The fourth BronyCon was held in June and July 2012. Several voice actors and writers from the show were able to attend. The staff also arranged for Lauren Faust, the show's creator, and actor John de Lancie to be special guests. John de Lancie voiced the villain Discord. When these important guests were announced, interest in the convention grew a lot.
The staff moved the convention to the Meadowlands Exposition Center in New Jersey. They also made it a two-day event. This allowed over 4,000 people to attend. They even live-streamed parts of the convention to about 3,500 more viewers online.
BronyCon moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 2013. This event took place from August 2-4, 2013. It drew 8,407 attendees. It featured panels with voice actors, writers, and comic book creators from the My Little Pony series.
The convention continued to grow. The 2014 BronyCon had over 9,600 attendees. The 2015 event drew 10,011 attendees. The city of Baltimore estimated that BronyCon brought in millions of dollars to local businesses.
However, attendance started to drop after 2015. The 2016 convention had 7,609 attendees. The 2017 event saw a further drop to 6,319 attendees. The 2018 BronyCon had 5,465 attendees.
Despite earlier plans to continue until 2025, the 2018 convention ended with a big announcement. The 2019 show would be the very last BronyCon. The convention chair, Shir Goldberg, said that enthusiasm was "fading." They wanted to end the convention while it was still at its best. To celebrate the final event, the 2019 convention was extended to four days. It ran from August 1-4, 2019. Many special guests attended, including Lauren Faust and Bonnie Zacherle, the original creator of the My Little Pony brand. The final BronyCon in 2019 had 10,215 attendees. This was the highest number in its history! The convention had a limit of 11,000 attendees due to space.
What Happened After BronyCon
The Friendship is Magic TV show aired its final season in 2019. Because of this, the people who organized BronyCon decided that 2019 would be the last convention.
What Happened at BronyCon
After moving to larger places, BronyCon usually offered over one hundred panels and activities. Many panels featured the special guests. Other panels and presentations were given by fans. These covered topics like art, music, writing, and video making.
The convention also had many activity rooms. There were rooms for art, video games, and cosplay (dressing up as characters). When the official My Little Pony card game came out, there were rooms for card game tournaments. BronyCon also had a music concert called "Bronypalooza." Fan musicians performed, and sometimes guests joined them.
Many freelance vendors (over 200 in 2014) sold handmade My Little Pony art. There were also stores selling official merchandise.
BronyCon was designed to be family-friendly. About 10% of its attendees were children under 14. While the brony fandom often has more male fans, BronyCon also attracted many female fans. For example, 34% of attendees at the 2014 BronyCon were female.
Convention Locations and Dates
| Dates | Location | Attendees | Special Guests |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 25, 2011 | NYC Seminar and Conference Center, Midtown Manhattan | 100 | Cabal |
| September 24, 2011 | Chinatown, Manhattan | 300 | Shaun "Sethisto" Scotellaro, Jayson Thiessen |
| January 7, 2012 | Hotel Pennsylvania, New York City | 650 | Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Nicole Oliver, Daniel Ingram |
| June 30, 2012 – July 1, 2012 | Meadowlands Exposition Center, Secaucus, New Jersey | 4,000 | Lauren Faust, John de Lancie, Tara Strong, Peter New, Nicole Oliver, Andrea Libman, Meghan McCarthy, Cathy Weseluck |
| August 2–4, 2013 | Baltimore Convention Center and Hilton Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland | 8,407 | Andy Price, Katie Cook, Heather Breckel, Nicole Oliver, Lee Tockar, Cathy Weseluck |
| August 1–3, 2014 | Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland | 9,607 | Daniel Ingram, Kazumi Evans, Tabitha St. Germain, Andrea Libman, Heather Breckel, Tony Fleecs |
| August 7–9, 2015 | Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland | 10,011 | Tony Fleecs, Nicole Oliver, Agnes Garbowska, Andrea Libman, Heather Nuhfer, Kazumi Evans |
| July 8–10, 2016 | Baltimore Convention Center and Hilton Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland | 7,609 | Tony Fleecs, Michelle Creber, Gabriel Brown, Andrea Libman, Sara Richard, G.M. Berrow |
| August 11–13, 2017 | Baltimore Convention Center and Hilton Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland | 6,319 | Michelle Creber, Daniel Ingram, Claire Corlett, Gabriel Brown, Madeleine Peters, Brynna Drummond |
| July 27–29, 2018 | Baltimore Convention Center and Hilton Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland | 5,465 | Jay Fosgitt, Tony Fleecs, Sara Richard, Tabitha St. Germain, Michelle Creber, Gabriel Brown |
| August 1–4, 2019 | Baltimore Convention Center and Hilton Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland | 10,215 | Andrea Libman, Britt McKillip, Jayson Thiessen, Nicole Oliver, Cathy Weseluck, Tony Fleecs |
Films About BronyCon
BronyCon caught the eye of filmmakers. They wanted to make movies about the brony community. One such film is Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony.
Before the fourth BronyCon, filmmaker Michael Brockhoff started a project. He used Kickstarter to raise money for a documentary about brony culture. It was filmed at the convention. Actor John de Lancie joined the project. He voiced the character Discord in the show. De Lancie became very interested in the brony culture. He compared it to the growth of fans for the original Star Trek series. He became an executive producer for the documentary.
Brockhoff asked for $60,000 to make the film. Fans quickly donated this amount. He then asked for more money to film outside the convention and bring more people onto the team. Fans continued to donate. The project raised over $340,000. This made it one of the biggest film projects funded on Kickstarter at the time. The film was later renamed Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony.
Another documentary film is A Brony Tale. It was directed by Brent Hodge. This film focuses on the brony community. It also follows the experience of Ashleigh Ball, one of the show's voice actresses. She was invited to the January 2012 BronyCon and decided to go. The film first showed at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. It was praised by critics and later released to the public.
BronyCon was also shown on TV. The 2014 BronyCon was featured on an episode of AMC's Comic Book Men. The 2015 BronyCon was featured on the WWE Network show "WWE Culture Shock". It was also shown on the Channel 4 program World of Weird in 2015.
