Questions From Billycon Attendees Answered By Aaron Fechter

This weekend, the event was held known as Billycon 2025.  It's a convention of Rock-afire fans who meet once a year in Barboursville, WV, at Billybob's Wonderland that features a full Rock-afire Explosion.

Our own ambassadors of the Rock-afire Spirit, Gene and his two daughters Ally and Adylyn, not only attended this year's convention, but they also represented Creative Engineering in such a positive way that the benefits accruing to us all are, in my mind, immeasurable. 

They created and fostered friendships, delivered positive news and hope for the future of our band, and even set up a vendor table to sell our vintage brochures and authentic parts left over from our manufacturing days. They raised thousands of dollars bound to help pay for the development of our soon to be open museum and interacted with an impressively large number of fans who travelled great distances to attend this year's festivities.

Gene and Ally and Adylyn also developed and installed their own colanders for the Rock-afire and threw a Colander Head party for the fans, many of whom even made and wore their own decorated colanders.  It was exactly the kind thing I would have loved when I was younger.  It was such an honor to see the pictures Gene and some of the parents sent me from this year's event.

I was not personally ready to attend and represent our company at this annual event as I (and Kerry) are still suffering from PTSD from recent years of attacks from the bad side of the fandom.

I regret that the dark side of this fandom has taken me away from the good fans, the ones who just want to enjoy our entertainment efforts without stealing my intellectual property, creating harmful videos on YouTube, ganging up against me on Instagram, injuring my reputation with false stories, breeding hate among new fans including children and even creating fear for my family with death threats.

I just can't whitewash that or pretend that I am just too busy to attend a convention that honors my life's work.  But avoiding the bad people, many who conveniently identify themselves as "Rock-afire Mafia" have taken my love for the fan community and shredded it. 

That's one huge reason we have The Premium Channel, so that I can separate the good fans from the bad, the ones who really want to help me from the ones who want to see me dead.  I just do not want to expose myself to a group of people, among which are a few really bad dudes and dudettes.

Well, that's where Gene comes in.  Gene wants to deliver my message of love to the good fans, and isn't suffering from the PTSD brought on by the relentless hate and criminal activity of the losers with nothing better to do than to make me sorry I attended a fan get together after which they will meet on Instagram and laugh and share their stories of hate.

But Gene has brought me such wonderful stories about the thankful families he's met at Billycon, combined with the rising phenomenon that the haters and troublemakers have dwindled in numbers to a few impotent, and aging losers who don't appear to have the influence they once had.  And many of those who once hated me for no good reason have written and asked for a "reset" and admitted they were wrong.

I am actually thinking about attending next year's Billycon event. I'm really thinking about dipping my toes back in the water, but I'm also thinking I might be crazy.

But this year Gene talked me into doing a Q&A video that he could play for the fans at Billycon. I really did want to reach out to the good fans who travelled 100's of miles to be there and be honest about why I was not there with them, but at the same time, be happy and funny and hopeful of our future together.  And here is that video: