áyA Con, Colorado’s Indigenous comic and art festival, is back this October for its fourth year. It has a new home at the LVC CoBank Arena in the National Western Center, with a four-day schedule and a few events on the edges. This year’s lineup covers fashion, education, blacklight powwow, marketplace, and a cosplay contest.
Things kick off Oct. 8 at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station with the Futurism Fashion Showcase. Indigenous designers will show their work on the runway, and the Two-Spirit drag collective Indigenous Haus of Barbie and sister musicians, Lobatomy, will perform.
On Oct. 9, the arena hosts the Learning & Leadership Tribal Symposium from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s aimed at educators and at high school and college students.
That night brings what organizers call the only powwow in the world held entirely under black light. Grand entry is at 7 p.m. Steve LaPointe is the MC and Sid Whiting is arena director. Red Hawk Express is the host drum, with Robert Hawk as head man and Ebony Arevalo as head woman.
The Indigenous Marketplace & Music Showcase opens Oct. 10 and runs 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Artists, nonprofits, and Native-owned businesses will fill the floor, and 2MX2 will perform midday. Upstairs, visitors can find an Indigenous food market and an “Indigenous Worlds of Star Wars” exhibit featuring a StarLab from Cherry Creek Schools.
The market continues Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., when Meow Wolf sponsors a cosplay contest. Winners can take home cash, Meow Wolf tickets, and youth awards, and any fandom is welcome.
Voter registration will be available all weekend. Drag performers are running a Drag the Vote table to get attendees signed up.
The festival has always been about more than art, and this year that’s easy to see. Voter registration will run throughout the weekend, and drag performers will host a Drag the Vote table where attendees can sign up and learn how to get involved in local elections.
That push lines up with what festival founder Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand is doing outside the arena. She’s running for Denver City Council, a body that has never had a Native American member. For a city with a sizable Native population and a long history tied to tribal nations, that gap is hard to ignore, and it’s one she’s pointed to as a reason for running.
Her campaign grows out of the same work that built áyA Con. Over four years, she and her team have made space for Native artists, designers, performers and business owners, and they’ve put young people at the center of that effort, from the student symposium to the youth cosplay awards. She said she’s glad to talk with reporters about Indigenous representation in Denver, her council run, and the work her team does to support Native creators, families, and youth.
The team behind the festival, Create áyA, is also helping put together Denver’s second annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration on Oct. 12 in City Park. The day will include a four-directions march and parade, vendors, performances, and speeches from city officials.
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