RushCon

RushCon is the biggest convention in North America of fans of the rock band Rush.

RushCon has been held every year since 2001 in Rush's hometown of Toronto, Ontario. The dates of the convention have been anywhere from the months of May and September.

Slogans
Each convention since the first Rushcon has been given a slogan that consists of actual phrases from one of Rush's songs.

*RushCon 2 - Citizens of the World (from "Territories" off Power Windows)
*RushCon 3 - Celebrate the Moment (from "One Little Victory" off Vapor Trails)
*RushCon 4 - Hearts and Minds United (from "Cygnus X-1: Book Two" off Hemispheres)
*RushCon 5 - Because We're Here (from "Roll The Bones" off Roll The Bones)
*RushCon 2112(6) - Strong As Life (from the "Presentation" movement of "2112" off 2112)
*RushCon 7 - Feel the Current Flowing (from "Far Cry" off Snakes & Arrows)

Activities

At virtually every convention to date, there have been some usual events. Among them are:
*In The Mood Mixer - This is where the attendees over the age of 19 get together and eat, drink, and talk with others. This always starts at "a quarter to eight" (7:45 PM) local time on Friday evening.
*Charity Auction - Usually held in the afternoon on Saturday. Attendees bid on donated Rush items ranging from simple record collections to rare and autographed pictures and other memorabilia, and the money has gone to support the Daily Bread Food Bank of Toronto and the UNICEF Tsunami Relief Fund.
*Games - There have been a multitude of Rush-inspired games played at the conventions for prizes. Some of them are based after actual game shows like Jeopardy, Match Game, Family Feud, and Name That Tune.
*Tribute band - Late on Saturday night, a Rush tribute band will perform at a local rock theater in Toronto.
*Optional Sunday Event - Some RushCon's have featured a trip to Lakeside Park - As part of Sunday activities, those who pay separate for it can board a bus and take a trip to Lakeside Park in St. Catharines outside of Toronto. The city is where drummer Neil Peart grew up, and the park is featured in the song of the same name off Caress of Steel. Other years, a private yacht has been hired for an afternoon "Gangster of Boats" tour of Toronto Harbour and the Toronto Islands. At RushCon 4, the boat cruise ended by actually dropping fans off at the Molson Amphitheatre to see Rush play on Sunday night.
*Anthem Records tour - Either on Saturday or Sunday, a tour of the studio of Rush's own record label, Anthem, is held.

RushCon 2112
In a minor change of pace, the sixth RushCon was titled RushCon 2112. The reason behind this is when one adds the digits in 2112 up individually, it equals 6, but more importantly, it was held in the year of the thirtieth anniversary of the release of the album 2112. The In The Mood Mixer featured a mock New Years Eve celebration as though it was December 31, 2111, and the countdown was actually done for 9:12PM local time (which is 21:12 in military time). For Saturday, the usual games and such were scrapped in favor of a marathon of film clips and shows featuring Rush sightings of some kind. (The charity auction and tribute band concert still went on).

At this particular RushCon, a new ritual was born where attendees started yelling out "peert" whenever someone in the video clips pronounced Neil's last name "purt", which is an overly common mispronunciation of his last name.

Trivia

*RushCon 4 was the first RushCon held on the same weekend Rush was in Toronto for a concert. RushCon 7 was the second.
*Seiji Harada, a Rush fan from Japan, is the only person from outside North America who has attended every single RushCon to date.
*In six years, the Charity Auction raised over $40,000 CND.
*Rock author Martin Popoff signed copies of his RUSH book, Contents Under Pressure, at RushCon 4. He also was a guest speaker at that convention.
*RushCon, along with EUCon, was listed as number three of the "5 Things You May Not Know About RUSH" on MelodicRock.com (News Archives, Wednesday, March 21, 2007)
*RushCon is mentioned on page 297 of Neil Peart's 2006 book, .
*Donna Halper, the media industry consultant/writer/historian who is credited with discovering RUSH, spoke at RushCon 2001 and RushCon 4.
*RUSH's longtimer producer, Terry Brown, spoke at RushCon 2001.
*Other guest speakers have included lighting designer/engineer Howard Ungerleider, graphics and visual effects designer/producer Greg Hermanovic of Derivative, Inc., photographer Andrew MacNaughtan, and Chris Stankee of SABIAN.
*Blender Magazine did a short article about RushCon 2001. The magazine, not the article's author, did not "Ged it."
*The Canadian Music Scene Ben Rayner - Toronto Star, August 22, 2004 - Still No RUSH To Join The Fan Club.

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