Thank you.
Five cons, four years, three locations, two shippable ladies, and one incredible family.
I'll let you in on a little secret: FaberryCon has never really been about Quinn and Rachel. (Well, it was, and it wasn't.) It was always about you -- the people who attended, the people who supported us from afar, the people who believed in what we were doing. It was about the girl who had never met any gay people and felt isolated until she arrived at the hotel for the first time. It was about the woman with crippling social anxiety who never thought she'd ever feel comfortable sitting in a room of fifty people, much less speak up in front of them. It was about coming out stories and personal growth and not feeling so alone in the world anymore. It was about the new relationships that were formed, whether romantic, platonic, sexual, or familial. It was about creating a community from pieces spread far and wide, building something we all needed for different reasons and in different ways. And that sense of love, of belonging, of safety, of importance -- that knowledge that we were a part of something special -- is what made FaberryCon the incredible thing that it was.Â
Those of us who were fortunate enough to have been a part of it, we will carry those memories and those relationships with us. We'll know what an incredible thing we had. But it's hard to explain to someone who didn't experience it for themselves. That's why it's so important that we pay it forward and bring that same magic to the next round of people who need it. There will always be people who feel alone or disconnected, who need a safe space to be themselves, who need to feel understood, and who seek community to celebrate what they love. I hope that FaberryCon is a beginning, not an end. We have so much more to do together. I hope you will join us as we move on to the next chapter of our con family's story, TGIF/F (tgifemslash.com).
But as this era comes to a close, I'm flooded with gratitude for everyone who has contributed to FaberryCon. The 33 attendees of East, 50 attendees of West, 53 attendees of North, 46 attendees of South, and 35 attendees of Five, who pushed themselves to new limits and built unbreakable bonds. The 100+ Supporting Members who cheered us on time after time after time. The incredible core staff -- Pooh and Karyn and Kristine and Kayla -- who believed in what we were doing from the start and brought the con to life with their dedication and talents and passion and enthusiasm. The auxiliary staff who took pictures and moved chairs and ran errands and fixed tech and hauled equipment and kept things running smoothly. The generous donors who paid for scholarships for dozens of Faberrians worldwide to attend the con or receive supporting packages, providing them an experience otherwise inaccessible. Our artists, patronustrip and KiWy, who gifted us with their amazing talents year after year. The artists and vendors and authors and musicians who generously shared their creations with us. Everyone who retweeted or reblogged an announcement, or bought a t-shirt or corsage, or purchased an auction basket or book, or bravely performed at Open Mic Night, or bought party room supplies, or filled a fic prompt, or urged a friend to take a chance and come give the con a try. You were FaberryCon.
Together, we celebrated Quinn's sexual discoveries and Rachel's Broadway success. We deconstructed every angle and aspect of their characters and plot lines and relationship, then we did it all again for fanfiction. We sang karaoke and danced til we sweat and screamed our voices sore. We supported each other through Cory's death and our own personal tragedies. We met our favorite fic authors and built new friendships that transcend the words on the screen. We watched Probable Robot and read Leah's scripts and listened to James and Paul serenade us. We walked across New York City together from Penn Station to Times Square and took over a theater to watch four women bust ghosts on those same streets. We witnessed Pooh and Kristine get engaged in the same place they met years before, and watched Karyn and Pouty turn a first kiss into domestic bliss. We raised $14,000 in auction funds and money for various charities and organizations. We drew ridiculous Pictionary clues and wrote outrageous timed stories and caught Murderers at McKinley and Geeked Out on trivia. We crowned prom kings and sobbed over amazing vids and jumped on hotel beds in our underwear at 6am. We shared our most personal histories and religious beliefs and coming out stories and traumas and personal celebrations. We laughed and hugged and cried and drank and loved and loved and loved.
We did it all. And with every FaberryCon, I swear we lived.
Thank you for being a part of this incredible experience. I know I’ll never forget it, or you.
- jarrow
