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	\| June 30, 2012 – July 1, 2012 \|\| ], ], ] \|\| 4,000<ref name="pittsburg gazette summer12">{{cite web \| url = http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/lifestyle/pittsburgh-guys-profess-love-for-my-little-pony-642528/ \| title = Pittsburgh guys profess love for My Little Pony \| work = ] \| first = Rob \| last = Wennemer \| date = 2012-06-29 \| accessdate = 2012-06-29 }}</ref> \|\| ],<ref name="EQD3">{{cite web \| url = http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/01/lauren-faust-confirmed-for-next.html \| title = Lauren Faust Confirmed for the next Bronycon \| work = ]}}</ref> ],<ref name="EQD2">{{cite web \| url = http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/01/bronycon-turned-upside-down-starts.html \| title = BronyCon Turned Upside Down, Starts Raining Chocolate \| work = ]}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://twitter.com/tarastrong/status/206906597795049472\|title=Tara Strong on Twitter\|date=2012-05-27\|accessdate=2012-05-28}}</ref> ],<ref name="EQD5">{{cite web\|url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/04/bronycon-announces-amy-keating-rogers.html\|title=BronyCon Announces Amy Keating Rogers\|work=]}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://www.facebook.com/peter.new.actor/posts/414176121926810\|title=Peter New's announcement on Facebook\|accessdate=2012-04-17\|date=2012-04-17}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/05/princess-celestia-nicole-oliver-invades.html\|work=]\|title=Princess Celestia (Nicole Oliver) Invades Bronycon\|accessdate=2012-05-03\|date=2012-05-03}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/05/andrea-libman-returning-to-bronycon.html\|work=]\|title=Andrea Libman Returning to Bronycon + Livestream\|accessdate=2012-05-09\|date=2012-05-09}}</ref> Meghan McCarthy, ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://twitter.com/CathyWeseluck/statuses/217991362384113664\|title=Cathy Weseluck on Twitter\|date=2012-06-27\|accessdate=2012-09-17}}</ref> ],<ref name="EQD4">{{cite web\|url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/weekly-convention-updates.html\|title=Weekly Convention Updates!\|work=]}}</ref> Mic the Microphone, and The Living Tombstone		\| June 30, 2012 – July 1, 2012 \|\| ], ], ] \|\| 4,000<ref name="pittsburg gazette summer12">{{cite web \| url = http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/lifestyle/pittsburgh-guys-profess-love-for-my-little-pony-642528/ \| title = Pittsburgh guys profess love for My Little Pony \| work = ] \| first = Rob \| last = Wennemer \| date = 2012-06-29 \| accessdate = 2012-06-29 }}</ref> \|\| ],<ref name="EQD3">{{cite web \| url = http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/01/lauren-faust-confirmed-for-next.html \| title = Lauren Faust Confirmed for the next Bronycon \| work = ]}}</ref> ],<ref name="EQD2">{{cite web \| url = http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/01/bronycon-turned-upside-down-starts.html \| title = BronyCon Turned Upside Down, Starts Raining Chocolate \| work = ]}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://twitter.com/tarastrong/status/206906597795049472\|title=Tara Strong on Twitter\|date=2012-05-27\|accessdate=2012-05-28}}</ref> ],<ref name="EQD5">{{cite web\|url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/04/bronycon-announces-amy-keating-rogers.html\|title=BronyCon Announces Amy Keating Rogers\|work=]}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://www.facebook.com/peter.new.actor/posts/414176121926810\|title=Peter New's announcement on Facebook\|accessdate=2012-04-17\|date=2012-04-17}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/05/princess-celestia-nicole-oliver-invades.html\|work=]\|title=Princess Celestia (Nicole Oliver) Invades Bronycon\|accessdate=2012-05-03\|date=2012-05-03}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/05/andrea-libman-returning-to-bronycon.html\|work=]\|title=Andrea Libman Returning to Bronycon + Livestream\|accessdate=2012-05-09\|date=2012-05-09}}</ref> Meghan McCarthy, ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://twitter.com/CathyWeseluck/statuses/217991362384113664\|title=Cathy Weseluck on Twitter\|date=2012-06-27\|accessdate=2012-09-17}}</ref> ],<ref name="EQD4">{{cite web\|url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/weekly-convention-updates.html\|title=Weekly Convention Updates!\|work=]}}</ref> Mic the Microphone, and The Living Tombstone
	\|-		\|-
	\| August 2, 2013 – August 4, 2013 \|\| ] and ], ], ] \|\| 6,~~000~~<ref name="baltsun bc2013">{{cite web \| url = http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bthesite/bs-ae-brony-culture-20130730,0,4181814.story \| title = BronyCon 2013 brings thousands of 'My Little Pony' lovers to Baltimore \| work = ] \| date = 2013-07-31 \| accessdate =2013-07-31 \| first = Adam \| last = Gutekunst \| first2 = Dustin \| last2 = Levy }}</ref> \|\| ], ], Heather Breckel, ], ], ], ], ], ], M.A. Larson, Brenda Crichlow, G.M. Berrow<ref name=BC1>{{cite web\|url=http://url=http://www.bronycon.org/guests\|title=BronyCon 2013 Guests\|work=BronyCon 2013 homepage}}</ref>		\| August 2, 2013 – August 4, 2013 \|\| ] and ], ], ] \|\| 7,200<ref name="baltsun bc2013">{{cite web \| url = http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bthesite/bs-ae-brony-culture-20130730,0,4181814.story \| title = BronyCon 2013 brings thousands of 'My Little Pony' lovers to Baltimore \| work = ] \| date = 2013-07-31 \| accessdate =2013-07-31 \| first = Adam \| last = Gutekunst \| first2 = Dustin \| last2 = Levy }}</ref><ref>https://twitter.com/BronyCon/status/363023531803541504/photo/1</ref> \|\| ], ], Heather Breckel, ], ], ], ], ], ], M.A. Larson, Brenda Crichlow, G.M. Berrow<ref name=BC1>{{cite web\|url=http://url=http://www.bronycon.org/guests\|title=BronyCon 2013 Guests\|work=BronyCon 2013 homepage}}</ref>
	\|}		\|}

Revision as of 20:54, 1 August 2013

BronyCon
Official Summer 2013 logo
Status	Active
Genre	Multi-genre
Venue	Baltimore Convention Center
Location(s)	Baltimore, MD
Country	United States
Inaugurated	June 2011
Attendance	~4,000 in June 2012
Organized by	"Zephyr Sparkle"
Filing status	Non-profit
Website	http://www.bronycon.org

BronyCon is an annual fan convention held on the east coast of the United States for fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, among them adult fans of the show, who call themselves bronies. Four events have occurred to date, with the most recent one in June 2012 drawing in over 4,000 attendees. A fifth event has been scheduled for August 2, 2013 to August 4, 2013 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as the attached Hilton Baltimore Hotel. Unlike previous years, BronyCon will have only one convention for 2013.

BronyCon was previously styled as BroNYCon, as its first three conventions were held in New York City. It dropped the 'NYC' capitalization for its fourth event, which was held in nearby Secaucus, NJ. The upcoming 2013 event is to be held in Baltimore, MD, making this the first time BronyCon has been held outside the New York City metropolitan area. Upon news of BronyCon's departure from the NYC area, a number of retired BronyCon staffers (including its original creator) created a new, separate convention ("Big Apple Ponycon") to serve the NYC metro area. The two conventions are not related.

History

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic first aired on The Hub network in October 2010, as part of Hasbro's intent to promote the fledgling network and market its new line of My Little Pony toys. Though a critical success with the target demographic of young girls and their parents, it attracted an unexpected audience of teenage and adult fans, primarily male, originating from the 4chan imageboard. The fandom adopted the term "brony", a portmanteau of "bro" and "pony", and became a highly participatory culture representing New Sincerity, creating artwork, fan fiction, music, mashup videos, and other media. The show's creators, including executive producers Lauren Faust, Jayson Thiessen, Christophe Toverski, the writers and voice actors, Hasbro and the Hub have sought to embrace the brony community, communicating openly with the community and placing subtle nods to the fandom within the show and licensed property.

One facet of the older fan base was to create local meetups to socialize about the show and other elements. BronyCon grew out of the local meetups in the New York metropolitan area; it was founded in 2011 by fan Jessica Blank ("Purple Tinker"), who views the brony movement as a "men's version of feminism". The first BronyCon took place in Midtown Manhattan in June 2011 and drew 100 attendees. The second, held in September 2011, had been able to secure the show's current supervising director Jayson Thiessen as a guest, leading to an increase to 300 people attending the event. The third convention, held in January 2012, included three of the voice actresses from the show, drawing at least 700 attendees and requiring the move to a large meeting center.

The fourth BronyCon, held on June 30, 2012 and July 1, 2012, had early on been able to arrange for several of the voice actors and show writers to attend. The staff was able to arrange for Faust and actor John de Lancie, who voiced the villain Discord for two episodes, to be guests of honor. Upon this announcement, interest in the convention sharply increased. The staff moved the location to the Meadowlands Exposition Center in New Jersey and expanded the event over two days, allowing the convention to hold more than 4,000 attendees, while live-streaming panels to an estimated 3,500 additional viewers.

Andrew Benage, BronyCon's media liaison, estimates that BronyCon's 2013 event will attract between six to eight thousand attendees, including a larger proportion of international fans. On November 10, 2012, it was announced on the BronyCon Facebook page that the BronyCon 2013 event will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center and the Hilton Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland on August 2, 2013 to August 4, 2013.

Location and dates

Dates	Location	Attendees	Notable guests
June 25, 2011	Midtown Manhattan	100	Cabal, founder of RainbowDash.net
September 24, 2011	Chinatown, Manhattan	300	Shaun "Sethisto" Scotellaro, Jayson Thiessen
January 7, 2012	Hotel Pennsylvania, New York City	850	Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Nicole Oliver, Daniel Ingram, My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic development team, Alex S., Shaun "Sethisto" Scotellaro, fan artists John Joseco, Pixelkitties, and Egophiliac.
June 30, 2012 – July 1, 2012	Meadowlands Exposition Center, Secaucus, New Jersey	4,000	Lauren Faust, John de Lancie, Tara Strong, Amy Keating Rogers, Peter New, Nicole Oliver, Andrea Libman, Meghan McCarthy, Cathy Weseluck, Lee Tockar, Mic the Microphone, and The Living Tombstone
August 2, 2013 – August 4, 2013	Baltimore Convention Center and Hilton Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland	7,200	Andy Price, Katie Cook, Heather Breckel, Nicole Oliver, Lee Tockar, Cathy Weseluck, Michelle Creber, Madeleine Peters, Amy Keating Rogers, M.A. Larson, Brenda Crichlow, G.M. Berrow

Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony

Main article: Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony

Prior to the 4th BronyCon, documentary filmmaker Michael Brockhoff started a Kickstarter-funded project to create a documentary about the brony culture to be filmed at the convention, tentatively titled BronyCon: The Documentary. He was joined by actor John de Lancie, who voiced the character of Discord from the first two episodes "The Return of Harmony" from the second season; Faust had envisioned Discord based on de Lancie's earlier role as Q from Star Trek. De Lancie had not initially considered the role to be significant, but after airing of the episode, discovered himself to be awash in enthusiastic fans of the show praising his performance. Since then, he had become fascinated by the brony culture, comparing it to the growth of fans from the original Star Trek series, and signed on to be an executive producer for this documentary.

Brockhoff initially sought for $60,000 to create the documentary but this was quickly met. Brockhoff adjusted the goal part way through, looking to secure $200,000, which would allow him to film at the homes of fans of the show and elsewhere outside of the convention, and to bring aboard both Faust and Strong as co-executive producers along with de Lancie. This goal was also met well before the end of the pledge period, and so an additional target of $280,000 was set to allow the filmmakers to get additional coverage on two European conventions (GalaCon and B.U.C.K.) and perform more remote coverage of specific aspects of the brony culture. The funding drive ended with more than $340,000 in pledges, making it the second-largest film-based project to be funded on Kickstarter.

Brockhoff and his team have announced plans to repackage the documentary and additional after its release to Kickstarter backers in a film Bronies that will be available for the public through retail and digital storefronts as well as for showings at film festivals, to be completed by 2013. After an initial showing at Equestria LA in Los Angeles in early November 2012, the producers opted to change the title of the film to Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony, reflecting the larger scope of the project.