Hundreds of Activities Part of New NerdFest 2021
With your ticket to NerdFest 2021, you’ll have access to hundreds of activities happening at this new festival on August 27-29 in the Quad Cities. Celebrating and supporting all the different nerd, geek, and fandom cultures, NerdFest 2021 takes place in the Quad Cities (IL/IA) bi-state regional destination at the RiverCenter and other close venues in downtown Davenport, Iowa.
Come ready to play at the hundreds of trading card games and tabletop games, featuring Audio Dungeon. There will be tournaments and casual play for Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, Yugioh, Digimon, and Dragon Ball Super. You’ll also find Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, StarFinder, and a great-sized selection of board games. The video game section will have most major titles for competitive and casual play, with competitive speed runs.
Organizers are partnering with QC Co-Lab to create the world’s largest Dice Tower with 100% of the proceeds going to charity. Dive into the interactive world of Lego Robotics and S.T.E.M. with the Davenport Community Schools CTE program. They’re bringing lots of cool interactive and family friendly activities.
Meet the well-known cosplayers at the All-Star cosplay corner, such as Sunny Doom, Vampy Snow, Papa Bear, and Orangegofish. Saturday includes a Red Carpet cosplay contest and on Sunday is a Jr. Nerd cosplay contest at 1 p.m. followed by a family-friendly cosplay parade.
Panelist listings will be released shortly. Some of the topics include Cosplay, Anime Trivia, Card Deck Building, and Dungeons & Dragons. Attendees will hear live music entertainment from rapper Erik Stephen. Erik describes himself as a “dad, husband and pop-culture fanboy. My favorite things to rap about are Jesus, my family, and superheroes.”
Friday night includes an outdoor live music concert, Live @ 5, at the River Music Experience in downtown Davenport from 5-7 p.m. sponsored by NerdFest, followed by the kick-off party for pass-holders from 7-10 p.m.
NerdFest Co-founder Kevin Hurt says, “We are excited for all of the plans coming together, including so much for kids to do. We’re ready to welcome fellow nerds to our event with safety protocols in place. Mike Byers [co-founder], myself, and our team at Nerd HQ know our passion is to celebrate the nerdy lifestyle we cherish and to strengthen the Quad Cities.”
In addition to concessions at the RiverCenter and downtown restaurants, food trucks will be available outside the RiverCenter.
NerdFest organizers are taking these safety precautions: background checks on staff, hand sanitizing stations throughout the facility, use of UV sterilization wands, pre-packaged sealed card product when possible, 20 ft. walkways between vendors with 8 ft. pipe and drape separators, and masks are definitely encouraged.
New items will continuously be added to the NerdFest schedule. Check the website at qcnerdfest.com and their Facebook page www.facebook.com/qcnerdfest.
Tickets are now on sale at www.qcnerdfest.com/tickets. Get the early-nerd special in which three-day passes are $60. VIN (Very Important Nerd) Passes are also available for $100 and include exclusive access, early entry, and some cool NerdSwag!
Also on the website at www.qcnerdfest.com, information can be found about vendor booth space, volunteering, sponsoring an activity, and artist submissions.
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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