“It starts feeling like it’s coming in July I guess, when it’s real hot. Like…it’s an end of summer thing. But it doesn’t really hit until the banners go up. Then it feels exciting.” – Local Atlanta Barista.

For many of us, Atlanta has become something of a home away from home. We descend yearly on this city, we overflow its streets with color and music, and then a week later we’re simply gone, leaving tumbleweeds of ribbons and wig hair in our wake. For one year in my early 20s, I lived in the Atlanta area during Dragon Con, and the thing I remember most was how par for the course it all seemed to be. Sure, I was used to it but seeing it from the point of view of a local felt a little different. Traffic and parking concerns had a different connotation for me now. And it got me wondering… what do the Atlanta locals, particularly those who work downtown, think about the convention? A couple years ago, I sat down for dinner at High Velocity (Marriott) and ended up talking with my server about how this wasn’t just the first time she’d ever worked Dragon Con, it was the first time she’d ever experienced it in any capacity. And she’d been living in the city her whole life. So what is Dragon Con like when it’s just a small part of your hometown’s year and not the Christmas around which most of our year revolves?

For the past month, I’ve been calling around town, picking up stories, and talking to locals. I’ve offered them all the promise of anonymity in the hopes of getting real, honest reactions from them. I wanted to hear the good and the bad. What surprised me most was how little bad there was to provide that protection for.

The first call I made was to a local restaurant that many of us frequent. The young woman who took my call sounded very excited to talk to me about the subject. She had never worked the convention before, but what I found interesting was what she told me about how the business was preparing. Though I had called her right at the beginning of August, it seemed the business had already been having internal staff meetings specifically about the convention and what to expect. I asked her how she felt it would be. “Busy,” she said. “Exciting. It’s like an adventure really.” I pressed her on if she felt nervous about it, from a service worker’s point of view, but she assured me she didn’t feel nervous at all. They felt prepared.

My next call was to one of the main host hotels. I went in expecting similar answers and in some ways that is what I got. I spoke to an older woman who said she had been working at the hotel for almost half of the convention’s life. She was, through and through, old hat at this. She confirmed that they, too, had already been having internal staff meetings about what was coming and what to expect and that the tone had been similar. Excitement, perhaps a little more nervousness than the restaurants. The post-convention clean-up is largely handled by third-party night crews, so it is less of a concern than I had feared it would be for them. But the one thing she told me that really surprised me and perhaps shouldn’t have was that, it seems, hotel staff are not allowed to attend the convention in any capacity. Having worked hotels myself for most of my career, I expected something along the lines of not being allowed to participate in your own place of business, but with Dragon Con spread out across so many hotels and so many city blocks, it was shocking to me to learn that they were not permitted to buy tickets or attend in any capacity. The one concession, it seems, is that they are allowed to attend the parade, and it is not uncommon for hotel staff to crowd windows and watch from inside the staff areas of the buildings when the parade goes by.

I wondered if this was the case with the other hotels, so I made a few more calls. My results were hit or miss; it seems some of the hotels do forbid attendance but others do not, an interesting disbursement of policies across companies. Other things remained more consistent, such as having routine prep meetings, hiring more staff, increased scheduling, and other basic preparations. One woman I spoke to said she was proud of her years with Dragon Con, having worked it for 38 years, almost the entire run of the convention. When I asked her if she still got excited every year it was an immediate and emphatic yes.

That was originally where this article was going to end, but fate, it seemed, had other ideas. By absolute happenstance, as I was checking into my hotel on Wednesday afternoon, I found myself shaking hands with the general manager, and we had a long conversation about the convention. Despite describing himself as an introvert, I found him to be expressive and effulgent as he spoke. He gestured widely with both hands as we talked, and he told me what he looked forward to the most every year. To him, the most incredible thing about Dragon Con is the diverse group of people this convention brings together. All types of people, from all walks of life, from all corners of the country and even beyond, all coming to Atlanta for this incredible, four-day-long party. He and the staff that were standing with him when we began chatting expressed excitement about seeing the parade, in particular, as had so many of the other hotel workers I’d spoken to. One of those two staff members, much to my surprise, told me that not only was this his first time working Dragon Con, he had been completely unaware of the convention until now. Though he told me that he was very excited for the convention, he didn’t really need to. His face said it all.

If I’m completely honest, I expected this article to go a different direction. I expected people to be more nervous. I expected service workers, particularly at the restaurants, to be annoyed by our presence, waiting with dread and hoping the weekend would go by quickly. That is not at all the feedback I received. I spoke candidly with one manager at a business very close to the host hotels. After I promised anonymity to the folks I was calling, I told them that I really thought I would hear more horror stories, but everyone has been extremely positive across the board. They were not surprised. “We love having Dragon Con in town, it’s always a lot of fun. Everyone is always very polite; it’s honestly the most fun, easy to deal with convention that comes through the city.” Easier than the business conferences? “By a long shot.  We love you guys.  We hope you never stop coming.”  I don’t think there’s any danger in that, and I think it’s safe to say that, at least for the foreseeable future, Atlanta locals are happy to welcome us home.