LT held its fifth annual Lyon Con on Feb. 25-26 in the SC Corral, where community members of all ages came together to indulge in shared interests and hobbies. The event took place from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. on both days. General admission was priced at $10, while children and in-costume attendees were $5. 

Lyon Con was created by advisor Bill Allan and former Corral faculty member Brian Thomas in 2018. Since then, the event has been modeled after similar conventions in the Chicagoland area, such as Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, or C2E2, Allan said.  

“We wanted to make our own mini-convention to celebrate gaming and fandoms, like comics, science fiction, anime, Star Wars, basically all of the things in geek culture,” he said. “Every year is a little bit different, but we’ve always had a great environment.”  

The convention showcased an array of board and card games, artists, vendors, photo-ops, and even an annual cosplay competition on the Saturday night, he said. Vendors consisted of local shops and artists across the area, like Fair Game and Blerds Underground. 

“[Vendors] do much more than just sell stuff,” Allan said. “They run special events like miniature painting, and they run games for people to learn how to play new games.”

LT art students were also featured at stands throughout the event, promoting their various pieces for patrons to purchase. 

“Being able to sell my art has been a really great experience over the last two years,” student art vendor Ellen Rife ‘23 said. “It’s definitely great practice for when I start selling my art for a career. It’s also super fun to see people around school wearing my buttons and shirts, and so many of my fellow students came out to support me and my fellow vendors.” 

With the help of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) Club, founded by Kat Farley ‘23 in 2019, club leaders led numerous tabletop roleplaying games that allowed individuals of all skill levels to participate in. D&D Club meets after school Wednesday in the NC lower level library from 3:15 p.m.

“[Lyon Con] is such a special way for kids within and outside of the D&D community to get together, have fun, and socialize in a way they maybe couldn’t without it,” Rife said. “It’s such an awesome thing for a high school to have a mini convention that the students can run.”