Activities

Portland is dreaming up a variety of activities and events that will include Convergence traditions, such as the Friday Meet and Greet, Vendor’s Bazaar, Art Show, and Workshops, and help coordinate other traditional functions such as the alt.gothic.fashion clothing swap and AGF shopping trip. We also wish to continue some of the new traditions that have proven popular in the past, such as the Rookie Rendezvous and the Sad Old Goth Cocktail hour. We've put a few new twists on some traditional activities, continued some of the newer ones, and made up some that are our very own.

Below you’ll find some of the proposed activities and events we’re working on - please keep in mind this is a work in progress. Final decisions on events and activities will be made as we move forward based on interest, cost, capacity, and scheduling. We’re also open to adding activities that will be fun or helpful to attendees, and are very open to hearing your suggestions.

One final note: While we’ve put together an exhilarating list of possible activities, we want you to be aware that Portland is a great city to just relax and hang out in. So feel free to enjoy as many – or as few – of these activities as you want!

Thursday, May 24, 2007:

- Early Check-in: For those of you arriving a day early, come by the Portland C13 Committee HQ and pick up your laminates and goodie-bags to free up your Friday for fun, exploration, and an early rendezvous with old (or new!) friends.

- Unofficial C13 Pre-Convergence Party: 18+, 21 and over can buy alcohol. Join us at the Fez Ballroom, one of Portland’s premiere Goth-Industrial venues, for an evening of dancing and debauchery. Your C13 laminate gets you in free.

Friday, May 25, 2007:

- Official C13 Check-in: The C13 Portland staff will be available throughout the day to get you checked in, hand out laminates and goodie bags, and help get you oriented to Portland and all the Convergence activities.

- Mapster: Looking for something? Some place? We’ll be standing by to print out walking or driving directions, even plot out how to get there using Google’s one-of-a-kind transit planner for Portland. Let us know what you’re looking for and we’ll help you find it – and how to get there.

- C13 Meet & Greet: Meet up with old friends or make some new ones. If you haven’t picked up your laminates yet, now is the time.

- C13 Rookie Rendezvous: We’re planning a special reception where newbies can meet up with Convergence veterans, learn everything they would ever want to know about Convergence, and start meeting people from the very first day.

- C13 Models & Photographers Hookup: With so many attractive models in our scene, and so many talented photographers, we thought it would be a good idea to continue this Convergence staple. Bring your portfolios and make some great connections, and dress to impress for some great photo ops!

- Apothecary Run: We’ll take you from the hotel to one of many Portland downtown liquor stores (from the official Convergence hotel, less than ½-mile away). Need beer or wine? We’ll get that too. Stock up on all your strong medicine now!

- Elder Goth Cocktail Reunion: Join us at Ringler’s pub to hook up with old friends, reminisce, share sappy stories, and lift a pint to the good old days.

- Evening Event: H.G. Wells’ Time Machine @ the Crystal Ballroom: Join us as our live bands and DJ’s take us back and forth through time at the Crystal Ballroom for the official opening ceremonies for C13. Take a break from the action in Lola’s Room, and be sure to visit our very own Dorian Gray for a timeless portrait that will last throughout the ages.

Saturday, May 26th, 2007:

- Fairy Sightings: In England under the reign of Queen Victoria, Fairy sightings were abundant and increasingly captured in paintings and on film. We’re going to capture the spirit of Victorian Fairy Photography here and now: As you’re out and about, keep your eyes peeled for our C13 fairies – capture one (on your digital camera), and bring it to HQ for extra goodies (think of it as a kind of urban hide-and-seek with prizes)! At the end of convergence, we’ll put together an online fairy album, with pictures of our fairies and the people who captured them.

- Pre-Raphaelite's Art Exhibit & Silent Auction:
The Pre-Raphaelites were an artistic movement in Victorian England, and played a role in the revival of Gothic architecture. While the original members of this unique brotherhood have long since passed, their spirits inspire as we bring this perrenial Convergence favorite to life.

- Ballyhoo’s Boutique: The traditional Convergence vendor’s bazaar kicks off Saturday morning with clothing and merchandise from an astonishing array of vendors – travel the world without leaving your hotel!

- AGF Shopping Trip: Portland, with no sales tax, is a great place to go shopping. This perennial event will take you to the best fashion shopping that Portland has to offer.

- AGF Clothing Swap: Here’s a great way to update your fashions and accessories without spending a dime! The clothing swap is another time-honored Convergence tradition – just swap your old fashions and accessories with someone else, and walk away with a brand new style!

- Portland Saturday Market: Can’t get enough tax-free shopping? Then come with us to Portland’s Saturday Market! The Portland Saturday Market — open Sundays too — is the largest continuously operated open-air arts and crafts market in the nation.

- Shanghai Tunnel Ghost Tours: All along the Portland waterfront, from the North End (today's Old Town, Skidmore Fountain, and Chinatown) to the South End (today's southwest downtown area), "Shanghai Tunnels" ran beneath the city, allowing a hidden world to exist. These "catacombs" connected to the many saloons, brothels, gambling parlors, and opium dens, which drew great numbers of men and became ideal places for the shanghaiers to find their victims. The catacombs, which "snaked" their way beneath the streets of what we now call Old Town, Skidmore Fountain, and Chinatown, helped to create an infamous history that became "cloaked" in myth, superstition, and fear.

"Northwest Paranormal Investigations" has proclaimed that the shanghai tunnels are the most haunted place in Oregon and, perhaps, the most haunted place on the West Coast.

We’ll meet at Hobo’s Restaurant before and/or after tour for drinks and/or food. Space for each tour is limited to 45-people, so sign up early!

- PDX Garden Tour Part One: Portland Classical Chinese Garden: A year-round wonder, the Portland Classical Chinese Garden is an authentically built Ming Dynasty style garden. Covered walkways, bridges, open colonnades, pavilions and a richly planted landscape frame Zither Lake, creating views that are never twice the same. This urban oasis of tranquil beauty and harmony, built by Suzhou artisans will inspire and engage all who visit.

- War of the Worlds: H.G. Wells released an alien invasion on an unsuspecting public when he first published War of the Worlds in 1898. We tip our top hats to Mr. Wells and the C11 San Diego committee by bringing back another round of epic battles in the C13 LAN party!

- The Library: Some of our most beloved literature has roots in the Victorian era. Where would we be today without the work of Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, among others? Before you head out to dinner, join us for an intimate afternoon in The Library, where performers in costume offer readings from classical tales of horror and the macabre.

- Murder Mystery Dinner Theater: Jack the Ripper is a continent away, but in our hilariously twisted version of the traditional Convergence formal dinner, no one is safe! Who’s the victim? What was the cause of death? Is the killer seated at your table? Is that cheesecake? Join us for a new tradition in our interactive audience participation mystery theater!

- Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde’s Night of a Hundred Elixirs at the Crystal Ballroom: Are you naughty or nice – or, like most of us, a little bit of both? Let your dark side run wild with live musical entertainment, DJ’s, a costume contest, and more potions and elixirs than you’ll want to remember the next day. Don’t forget to let our very own Dorian Gray capture your inner beast with a timeless portrait that will last through the ages.

- Magic Lantern Theater: A precursor of the modern movie projector, magic lanterns came into popular use in Victorian Britain. Our “theater's” technology is a bit more advanced, but our name is a nod to this legacy. We will continue this new tradition from C12 by screening vintage horror classics and scene movies 24-hours a day!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

- Fairy Sightings: In England under the reign of Queen Victoria, Fairy sightings were abundant and increasingly captured in paintings and on film. We’re going to capture the spirit of Victorian Fairy Photography here and now: As you’re out and about, keep your eyes peeled for our C13 fairies – capture one (on your digital camera), and bring it to HQ for extra goodies (think of it as a kind of urban hide-and-seek with prizes)! At the end of convergence, we’ll put together an online fairy album, with pictures of our fairies and the people who captured them.

- Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Art Exhibit & Silent Auction:
The Pre-Raphaelites were an artistic movement in Victorian England, and played a role in the revival of Gothic architecture. While the original members of this unique brotherhood have long since passed, their spirits inspire as we bring this perrenial Convergence favorite to life.

- Ballyhoo’s Boutique: The traditional Convergence vendor’s bazaar kicks off Saturday morning with clothing and merchandise from an astonishing array of vendors – travel the world without leaving your hotel!

- Picnic and Tour at the Pittock: Picnics were popular with the Victorians, perhaps because it supplied them the opportunity to escape from formal dining rituals. Weather permitting we’ll converge upon the grounds of the Pittock Mansion, a fully furnished, magnificent, turn-of-the century, architectural treasure offering a sweeping view of the surrounding Cascade Mountains and the city of Portland. Tours of the mansion are available for a small fee, but the picnic and croquet on the lawn will be free! Limited space is available, so sign up for this early!

- Mad Hatter’s Tea Party: Lewis Carroll was another influential Victorian era author, and his masterpiece, Alice in Wonderland, is the inspiration for yet another twist on a Convergence classic – the Tea Party. Costumes and hats are highly encouraged, but not required.

- PDX Garden Tour Part Two: Washington Park - International Rose Test Garden: Portland has long had a love affair with roses. Portland has 200 miles of rose-bordered streets and had been dubbed the 'City of Roses'. Portland's International Rose Test Garden is considered the oldest official, continuously-operated, public rose test garden in the United States. It is designed in rows to allow visitors to get up close and personal with the 8,000 rose bushes located here. In the southeast corner of the Test Garden is the Shakespeare Garden. Containing botanicals mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare, this garden features a formal walkway, a raised sitting area, and immaculately tended flora.

- Shanghai Tunnel Ghost Tours: All along the Portland waterfront, from the North End (today's Old Town, Skidmore Fountain, and Chinatown) to the South End (today's southwest downtown area), "Shanghai Tunnels" ran beneath the city, allowing a hidden world to exist. These "catacombs" connected to the many saloons, brothels, gambling parlors, and opium dens, which drew great numbers of men and became ideal places for the shanghaiers to find their victims. The catacombs, which "snaked" their way beneath the streets of what we now call Old Town, Skidmore Fountain, and Chinatown, helped to create an infamous history that became "cloaked" in myth, superstition, and fear.

We’ll meet at Hobo’s Restaurant before and/or after tour for drinks and/or food. Space for each tour is limited to 45-people, so sign up early!

- War of the Worlds: H.G. Wells released an alien invasion on an unsuspecting public when he first published War of the Worlds in 1898. We tip our top hats to Mr. Wells and the C11 San Diego committee by bringing back another round of epic battles in the C13 LAN party!

- The Library: Some of our most beloved literature has roots in the Victorian era. Where would we be today without the work of Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, among others? Before you head out to dinner, join us for an intimate afternoon in The Library, where performers in costume offer readings from classical tales of horror and the macabre.

- Masquerade and Bohemian Ball: We officially end our Convergence 13 weekend at the Crystal with Music, Theatre, Drinking, Dancing & Extreme fashions. It’s Paris, circa 1850, at the height of the Bohemian Revolution. Our grand finale will blend live music, and DJ’s with a stunning fashion show, burlesque with the Green Fairy, and of course you’ll want to have your timeless portrait made with Dorian Gray.

Monday, May 28, 2007

- The Mourning After: Official Convergence 13 activities end on Sunday, yet you’re still here? Join us in our abbreviated version of the Victorian mourning rituals: Yes, we’ll wear black, and yes, we’ll lament Convergence’s passing. But those of you who are still around can join us for breakfast and clear those cobwebs from your head before returning to your respective homes. Breakfast kicks off our period of deep mourning, half-mourning commences at lunch.

- Evening at the Fez: For those of you staying a little longer, we’re planning another wonderful night at The Fez Ballroom, one of Portland’s premiere Goth-Industrial venues. 18+ to enter, 21+ can buy booze. Your C13 laminate gets you in free.