Student-led Eagle Con attracts over 300 attendees

by CHARLIE LI

Staff Writer

Starting out as a small idea between friends, Eagle Con happened on Saturday, Feb. 18 from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. and attracted more than 300 attendees. Five months ago, the four showrunners—Maha Momtaz, Naomi Jones, Sky Shane and Jack Yatsko—could hardly believe what the result of their extensive planning within such a small time frame and with a limited budget would be. 

Jones, a junior biochemistry and communication and digital studies double major, explained the showrunners’ vision for the event.

“It’s a Comic Con. It’s a convention just like the ones they have in Santiago and Richmond but just on a smaller scale,” said Jones. “We were really looking to just bring fun and excitement to UMW over the weekend. Our hope is that this will become an annual thing. We don’t want to tread toes on other conventions happening around Fredericksburg.”

There was a large variety of themed booths ranging from “Ghostbusters,” “Scream,” K-POP and anime. Cosplay was encouraged but was not enforced during the event. Along with this, many of the vendors were selling candles, stickers, posters and old comics. 

Vendors from all over the greater Fredericksburg area attended after being contacted through social media. 

Yatsko, a sophomore creative writing major, described the process of finding vendors for Eagle Con.

“We contacted vendors mainly through our Instagram. It started off as people being interested in the event in general and eventually, we announced that we were looking for vendors. Through the people that already followed us, they talked to their friends and then slowly we started making more announcements about vendors,” said Yatsko.  “It was a great response and we’re happy that so many vendors showed up today.”

Momtaz, a sophomore studio art major, described the arrival of vendors at the event as “unreal and amazing.”  
Shane, a junior communication and digital studies major, had big plans for Eagle Con from the start.

“I really wanted to get the ball rolling early because I knew how big I wanted this event to be,” said Shane. “It was around Oct. 17 when Jack and I sat down and wrote down all our ideas, goals and deadlines we wanted these done by. From there, we all worked together to make everything come to life. So in around three and a half months, we had all of this planned completely out.”

There were celebrity guests such as Lexi Rabe, who played Morgan Stark in “Avengers: Endgame” and Nancy Anne Ridder, who played the girl in the bathroom in “Scream.”

Overall, the event coordinators are looking forward to next year’s Eagle Con and hope to implement some new improvements, such as a larger venue to house more vendors and more volunteers to help around during the event. The coordinators received positive responses from the vendors, and they are excited to come back next year.