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A massive science-fiction and fantasy convention, although it's grown to be so multi-media and multi-genre that almost anyone can find a topic of interest here. Celebrity actors and writers come from around the world for Q&A panels. Unlike other large conventions, Dragon Con is fan-run, and there are well over a thousand panels where fans share insightful commentary and even learn about history, podcasting, or digital security. The convention is spread across 5 hotels and a trade center downtown. (Hotel rooms sell out almost a year in advance, as soon as they're made available, but you don't need to stay at a convention hotel to attend.)
Dragon Con is a North American multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place annually over the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. As of 2017, the convention draws attendance of over 80,000. It features hundreds of guests, encompasses five hotels in the Peachtree Center neighborhood of downtown Atlanta near Centennial Olympic Park, and runs thousands of hours of programming for fans of science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and other elements of fan culture. It is owned and operated by a private for-profit corporation, with the help of a 1,500-member volunteer staff. Dragon Con has hosted the 1990 Origins Game Fair and the 1995 North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC).
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The Atlanta Hawks have played at this location since 1972, when it was known as the Omni Coliseum. The Coliseum was demolished and rebuilt in 1997, which is the current structure of State Farm Arena. You can expect to find the Hawks playing here for their 41 home games of the regular basketball season.
The 1998 and 2016 NFC Champions gear up each September to kick off the official football season in Downtown. The Falcons moved into Mercedes-Benz Stadium, then the league's newest venue, in 2017. Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosts most of the events that its predecessor, the Georgia Dome, had hosted, most notably the Southeastern Conference football championship game and the Peach Bowl (one of the six bowl games associated with the College Football Playoff). It has since hosted other events, such as Super Bowl LIII in 2019, and will host eight FIFA World Cup matches in 2026.
The Atlanta Braves' regular baseball season takes place April through September at Truist Park, a stadium to the north of Atlanta just across the Cobb County line off the intersection of I-75 and I-285. In South Atlanta is the site of the former Fulton County Stadium, with a preserved section of wall where Hank Aaron hit his historic 715th home run. The Fulton County Stadium site and the adjacent Turner Field (where the Braves played from 1997 to 2016) have since been purchased by Georgia State University (see below for more details on the school's plans for the site). Also of note is that the Braves have their top minor-league team in the metropolitan area—the Gwinnett Stripers play at Coolray Field in Lawrenceville.