LABOR DAY WEEKEND EVENTS
AJC Decatur Book Festival. Pat Conroy tribute keynote event, 8 p.m. Sept. 2 at Emory's Schwartz Center. Dav Pilkey kidnote event, 5 p.m. Sept. 2 at Decatur High School's Performing Arts Center. Festival, 9:30 a.m.-6:15 p.m. Sept. 3; 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Sept. 4. All events free; tickets required for keynote and kidnote events. www.decaturbookfestival.com.
Dragon Con. Sept. 2-5. Parade: Starts 10 a.m. Sept. 3 at the corner of Peachtree Street and Linden Avenue and heads south on Peachtree Street. Convention: $35-$150. Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, 165 Courtland St. N.E., Atlanta. www.dragoncon.org.
Chick-fil-A Kickoff game. Georgia Bulldogs vs. North Carolina Tarheels. 5:30 p.m. Sept. 3. Georgia Dome, 1 Georgia Dome Drive, Atlanta. www.chick-fil-akickoffgame.com/tickets.
Atlanta Pride Weekend. Aug. 31-Sept. 5. Various locations. http://atlantaprideweekend.com.
How much fun can Atlanta cram into one long weekend? We might just find out.
A harmonic convergence of entertainment (and educational) opportunities will land on Atlanta this Labor Day weekend like a house on a Wicked Witch.
Expect to be crushed under the choices.
First, there is the four-day marathon of fanboy culture, Dragon Con, Sept. 2-5, which should bring 75,000 people to downtown Atlanta. They can meet the original Captain Kirk (William Shatner), watch the city's most flamboyant parade and indulge in some costuming of their own.
Next comes the long-awaited beginning of college football (after the Georgia State Panthers play Ball State on Friday, Sept. 2) when 18th-ranked University of Georgia goes up against 22nd-ranked University of North Carolina in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game, Sept. 3. Considered a "neutral site" game (yeah, tell that to the Tar Heels), this drum roll for the season sold out every seat in the Georgia Dome back in July.
That’s another 70,000-plus fans pouring into Atlanta’s tourist corridor, thirsty for beer and ready for mayhem.
Another army, 75,000 strong, will trample Decatur for the three-day AJC Decatur Book Festival (Sept. 2-4), a seemingly higher-toned event, until you discover that one of the major stars of the weekend is the guy who draws "Captain Underpants."
This prompts the obvious question: If the literate attendees of the nation’s largest independent book festival marched on the Georgia Dome, how would they perform against the SEC Tar Heel and Bulldog fans in hand-to-hand combat? Would they have to call on the Trekkies for help?
We hope diplomacy prevails, but it’s worth considering that these troops will assemble in much larger numbers than the Union and Confederate forces of 150 years ago. Though with less of a beef.
Elsewhere in the city — on the same weekend — is fun wrapped in a meaningful message. "There are no parades for us, we leave that to Atlanta Pride," said Rickie Smith, president of In the Life Atlanta, which is celebrating 20 years of staging the yearly Black Gay Pride celebration.
Instead of parades, In the Life Atlanta presents workshops, such as “thriving with HIV” and transgender empowerment, at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. On the lighter side, it offers entertainment at different nightclubs (including a “stud fashion show” at Club M on Auburn Avenue) and a group trip to see the Atlanta Dream.
Celebrants can also stop by Park Tavern in Piedmont Park on Sept. 5 for WRFG's 31st Labor Day Blues Barbecue, thrown by Atlanta's oldest community-supported nonprofit radio station. An annual fundraiser, this year's fest features Atlanta's own Delta Moon, Eastern European transplant Little G Weevil and Robert Lee Coleman & the Night Owls.
Blues, fantasy, football, fiction. How will Atlanta cope with this influx of revelers, without becoming an impossibly dense neutron star of entertainment? We're not even mentioning the once-in-a-lifetime Labyrinth Masquerade Ball at the Center for Puppetry Arts on Sept. 1 or the all-day House in the Park, house music festival on Sept. 4 in Grant Park, or the panoply of theater, art and music available on even the average humdrum Saturday.
Wookiees will rub shoulders with drag kings; tailgaters will go toe to toe with twilight toe-tappers. There could be spontaneous combustion. Atlanta could go nova. Be there.
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