…and I’m two days too late.

AccessAtlanta reports…

This year is the fourth Decatur gathering for tribal belly dancers, women whose dancing springs from an amalgam of feminism, a touch of punk, “modern primitive” ideas such as tattooing and body piercing, and a love of combining different ethnic offerings, such as Japanese jewelry and Indian music.

“It’s less glitz and more dust,” said Zi’ah McKinney-Taylor, who like many of the performers this weekend prefers to go by her stage name, “and more about the dance and the costuming as opposed to the female body.”

Zi’ah, who teaches belly dancing at Several Dancers Core in Decatur, started TribalCon in 2005, with just 80 people signed up and a surprise ice storm that canceled the first day. The convention, which pulls women from all over the United States, has grown so that Decatur’s Holiday Inn Conference Center can barely hold it at 300-plus attending. The weekend’s workshops are sold out, and about 50 remaining tickets will be available at the door for the big show at 8 p.m. Saturday.

The Holiday Inn can’t contain more than 300 people? Lord, it sounds like we really do need an additional hotel in this city that can accommodate more moderately sized conventions. Obviously we couldn’t (or would want to) compete with the likes of the GWCC or the larger convention centers in Cobb and Gwinnett, but a walkable community like Decatur would seem the perfect host for smaller gatherings.