Dragon Con parade brings lively crowd to Downtown Atlanta

Sophia Maxim, Layout Design/ Graphics
September 18, 2019

Every year, pop culture enthusiasts gather in Downtown Atlanta to celebrate the nation’s leading multi-media and pop culture convention, Dragon Con. This Labor Day weekend, the annual cosplay parade filled the streets with over 85,000 attendees. As cosplayers marched enthusiastically down Peachtree Street, spectators admired the elaborate costumes and performances.

A posse of Star Wars characters marches down Peachtree Street. Two children, one dressed as Princess Leia and one as a Stormtrooper, stand among the older cosplayers.
A woman dressed as a pirate steps out of the procession to hand a sticker to a young girl standing alongside the parade.
A person cosplaying as C-3PO, a humanoid robot character from the Star Wars franchise, stands and waves from the back of a truck next to R2-D2.
A woman cosplays as Jasmine from Disney’s animated movie Aladdin.
Two young sisters in Scooby-Doo and Daphne costumes from the Warner Bros. classic hold magnifying glasses and grin excitedly to their audience.
A Shadow Stormtrooper cosplayer holds his weapon as he marches along with his Star Wars troop.
A Pokémon Charizard dragon cosplayer growls into the camera.
A man dressed as Robot Santa Claus from the show Futurama waves on top of a float. Every Christmas episode, Robot Santa comes to Earth on his robot-reindeer sleigh to punish the naughty with X-Mas-themed murder devices.
A student from Lakeside High School’s Marching Band plays the tuba in sync with his fellow musicians. The school’s fourth year performing in the parade was greeted with energy and enthusiasm from the crowd.
Spectators fill Peachtree Street for a few glorious moments before the Atlanta police sweep them all aside and restore the streets to traffic. Many parents and children attended the event, such as the young girl peering over her mother’s shoulder.