Tumblr is pretty negative this morning. I figured I’d finally get around to answering this ask. This is copy pasta’d from my El Jay post about it, which is aimed at non Homestucks and also non fandom folks!

So, this weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the most well organized and best run fandom event I have ever been to, outside of a convention. And TBH, it was probably more organized than many convention events, too!

It’s no secret that I’m into Homestuck. If you have an issue with this, go beat up Paul, it’s all his fault :P But in all seriousness, while both the series and fandom are FAAAAAR from perfect, there are definitely some really awesome things about it, particularly the willingness of people to work together and GET SHIT DONE. NYC Homestuck Prom was definitely one of several examples of this.

Tumblr seems to be the place the dorks of the internet go to be dorky, myself included. Something called “Tumblr Prom” has been going around for a while now, where people take pictures of themselves in formal wear and have other users be their “dates”, doing tinychats and livestreams with a prom theme. It’s pretty silly, but many of these people never had a prom experience, or the experiences they had were bad/unmemorable. (These are mostly dorks, after all.) So, in any event, the Homestuck fandom adopted this for themselves, giving the event a fandom flavor and making it a bit more than just WEEEEE GET ON WEBCAM IN FORMALWEAR. Fans around the world started to plan actual gatherings. And New York City, several friends of mine actually decided to make it as close to a real dance as possible.

When I first heard about this my initial reaction was “wow, this is going to go up in flames real fast.” I did not think they would a) Be able to find a venue within the price range b) Be able to control the huge number of fans (many of whom are still kids) c) Be able to keep everything organized without the people running it winding up super stressed and over worked. Still, though, I trusted my friends and wanted to give it a chance, I even donated some cash to the decorations committee. In the end, they proved my worries wrong on EVERY account. I was SO impressed.

They found a community center in NYC which they rented a gym from. They decorated it with balloons, banners, tablecloths, and other decorations that specifically went along with certain elements of the fandom (For you Hamsteaks out there, the theme was Prospit and Derse.) Tickets were only $10 and they made back the fees AND had money to donate to charity after. There was a strobe light, a sound system that did the job well, and a DJ who played a good mix of fandom and dance numbers. There was a potluck food section that even had a chocolate fountain, and SOOOOO many yummy things.

Everyone there had to RSVP and there was an attendance cap (not to mention a wait list a mile long, so many people were interested but they stuck to their limit firmly.) Kids under 18 had to bring a permission slip and waiver signed by parents. They had a schedule of jobs for people to do - man the check in station, man the drink station, checking bags for alcohol, take care of the bag check, and for people over 18, general chaperoning and making sure things were not out of hand. All these things were done by volunteers in half hour shifts, and no one seemed to get over tired or unable to enjoy the party.

The party itself was really cute and enjoyable if you enjoy a school dance! I mean, it was a Nerd Dance! So you did have that mix of socially awkward people you get a lot at conventions. But over all, there were no uncomfortable moments, no inappropriate or so socially awkward it hurts kind of behaviors that make you cringe and ashamed to be a fan. While some were fancier than others, everyone stuck to the dresscode and was tasteful.

I think though what really made it enjoyable for me were the friends I got to see there! My long time through many a fandom friend Lilly was my “date”. She’s an RP partner of mine, and we took some really cute OTP photos. Many of my other good friends were there (as far as people on tumblr go, there are SO many so I’m refraining from listing because I always forget someone by mistake - but you guys know who you are!) We were such goofballs on the dance floor, and it was great! There was no shame in not being a super cool dancer, because WE ARE ALL DORKS HERE! After, a few of us went to Dave and Busters after and had a few drinks, before taking some Times Square photos and heading home. It was SUCH a fun night, I was SO glad I got the chance to go!

I’m actually pretty sick now, I’ve been fight off something since we saw Avengers last week, and after promstuck it hit pretty hard. It sucked for Sat plans, but I’m glad I made it through friday night okay! It was totally worth it. I definitely look forward to next time, and hope they can expand it a bit so that less people get shut out, and there is more time to get people in to party! Those are my only two complaints at all, and both were totally understandable.

TL;DR - Promstuck was silly, goofy, and wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, esp if you don’t like school dances. But for the Hamsteaks who do, it was a real pleasure!

PS - I apologize this is such a wall of text guys, if anyone can tell me how to put a read more break in an ask response, please let me know!!!