BronyCon's Final Event - A Letter from Convention Chairs Sheva Goldberg and Eliana Summers

BronyCon will forever hold a special place in my heart, and my liver, as the place where some of the most absurd, yet somehow magical moments the fandom has ever witnessed, took place. They're part of the reason that Horse News exists in the first place. Many great friendships, and great stories were created there, and it saddens me (and the members of SSF6) to hear of its ending drawing near.

The con-chairs have distributed a message, or perhaps more aptly a eulogy for the huge annual event, that we have pasted below.

BronyCon’s Final Event


For the past seven years, BronyCon has been a constant within the “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” fandom. Tens of thousands of people have walked through our doors to be a part of our community, with many more working behind the scenes to make it all happen.

It’s been a wild ride, but all rides end eventually—and BronyCon 2019 will be our 11th and final event.

As a group, we did not come to this decision lightly. Thousands of hours, hundreds of people’s efforts, and gallons of unicorn magic are put into every BronyCon. It’s a hard job, and one we do with love for the community. Love for the community that helped us make a major shift in cities in 2013 when we moved from our original New York home to Baltimore; the community that came out over ten thousand strong to set the record for the largest My Little Pony convention the world has seen; and the community that has raised over $155,000 for incredible charities like CureSearch.

However, as the fandom ages and changes, so too does the convention scene. Activity in the community has slowly been declining for the last several years, and while many of us wish things could stay the same forever, the one constant in life is change. At BronyCon, we could try to change, but we feel that to do so would cause us to become something that is not BronyCon. It would not be the event we know and love, and that we look forward to attending all year.

Rather than let our fire dwindle into embers that eventually fade away, we wish everyone to remember BronyCon at its best. Next year, we’re turning BronyCon into the best celebration of the fandom we possibly can, and we’re making the event bigger than ever before.

BronyCon 2019 will take place Thursday, August 1st, through Sunday, August 4th, 2019, at the Baltimore Convention Center. We're becoming a 4-day celebration for the first time, and we’re inviting anyone and everyone who wants to party with us to come to Baltimore and join us in one last incredible celebration of community, love, friendship, and magic.

We invite each and every one of you to join our celebration and become a part of the story we’ve written together. It’s a story of countless strangers who each found something special in a little thing called My Little Pony. A story of how those strangers came together in scattered locations, online and in real life, and who formed bonds of joy, friendship, and love. A story of those bonds touching life after life, spreading positive change and inspiring all of us to chase our happiness, whatever it may be. The story of BronyCon has been written with many authors. It is a beautiful tapestry we have all had a part in weaving together, and now the time has come to inscribe the final pages in our massive, shared tale.

To potential attendees, old and new—join us. To anyone who values and strives to live by the positive lessons MLP:FiM seeks to impart, you are welcome and wanted here. If you are a newcomer, we can tell you with certainty that BronyCon is a place to make lifelong friendships. We know, because it has happened to us time and time again.

If you’ve never attended, now is the time.

If you’ve attended once before, we would be delighted to have you come celebrate with us once again.

If you’ve joined us for years, through thick and thin, and already know you will be coming to our last party: welcome back. We can’t wait to see you.

And finally, to all of you, everyone who had a part in this tale: we never could have done it without you.

We are sure many of you have questions, and we’ll do our best to share more details in the coming months. For now, we have a request for all of you: start thinking about what you want to do to make your BronyCon 2019 special. Think about what will make that final weekend the best one ever—and then do it.

If you have crazy awesome ideas that you think the con should officially be hosting, tell us! We want to know. If we can do it, we will. And who knows? You may find yourself being invited to join our staff and see your dream become reality for everyone.

We hope you can join us next August. Together, we’re going to build something beautiful.


Your chairs,


Sheva Goldberg and Eliana Summers