From the Vaults: Tentmoot, the Original DashCon Fan Convention Disaster

Portland's Lord of the Rings mega-convention that never was.

Hobbit Hole

History repeats itself, even when it involves hobbits. The very public collapse of an Illinois Tumblr-centric fan convention called DashCon—organizers reportedly begged for money to keep the convention going, with hot seminar topics that included "Strange Google Searches" and "British Men with Cheekbones"—reminds us of a much stranger failed convention in Portland in 2003: Tentmoot.

The planned Lord of the Rings conference had roped in Sean Astin, but folded into an eventual Department of Justice investigation into alleged fraud, and a strange odyssey of the multiple identities (and genders) of would-be festival organizer Jordan Wood, aka Mr. Frodo.

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