It’s been another quiet year for me con wise due to a clash of other things and holidays but this weekend I was very pleased to attend Fantasycon because Gentle Reader at one stage it was looking like the convention wouldn’t happen at all. Only a few weeks ago the previous organiser pulled out with no prior warning to attendees but the British Fantasy itself swept in and very kindly at the same hotel and with only a slightly reduced number of days still managed to deliver a supremely enjoyable and successful convention.

Elephant in the room first and again this was largely down to the previous organiser – the Radisson Red Heathrow seems understaffed, over-priced and a little clueless on how to help people. It is not a straightforward location to get to and there is hardly anything around to offer alternatives for food (£25 for burger and chips!) although the conference rooms were large there wasn’t affordable room for a Dealer’s room bar a few impromptu stalls during the weekend. The garage opposite though did sell some tasty snacks and a convenience store did too, but I think everyone including the BFS agreed this would not be a hotel we would return to anytime soon. Largely this was because many people (including me) were not thinking Fantasycon was in any danger of being cancelled had rooms we could not cancel and get a refund for. But this is the only complaint I really have on the whole weekend and let it be noted again more down to the previous organiser than the heroic BFS who saved the weekend!

The Programming this year was excellent spread across five key room and there were so many clashes of good stuff (this si always a good thing). Real effort had gone into the choices of subject some more for writers on writing or gaining an understanding of the mysterious world of publishing. Great guests and bar some allowance for timekeeping and some people in the audience still thinking comments are questions they all ran smoothly. I even saw a loose T-Rex running down the corridor.

For me highlights were

Friday – Dungeons and Disorderly – this unexpected event for what was the unofficial social night for the con had a little surprise in the form of the D&D game hosted by David Thomas Moore and this time intrepid dungeoneers – Maura McHugh, Anna Smith-Spark, Stew Hotston and Mike Brooks. This time urban fantasy but thanks to the ‘kind’ audience input also involving a spa pool, children’s flipflops and a hellmouth infected shopping mall. It was funny and just the best way to relax into the weekend and remember you’re with a great bunch of people.

Saturday

Fantasy Worldbuilding – how language, food and culture influence place (& vice versa) – Neil Williamson (mod), Ian Green, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Liz Williams and Stark Holborn. This panel was a really good opening discussion on how authors look at their worlds - some start with character, plot, or maps. You definitely get the sense that authors know a lot more about what goes on in a world than we just see in the story and also no one approach can work for anyone. This applies to SF as much as fantasy.

Retellings – Pete Sutton (mod) Tasha Suri, Claire North, Eliza Chan and Lucy Hounsom. A real highlight as this panel all had an intelligent discussion about why we return to the stories we were and told and how you add new perspectives and also what to be careful of. Funny, passionate, and thoughtful with quite a bit to think about.

Putting the Science in Science Fiction – Allen Stroud (mod) Emily Inkpen, Stewart Hotston, Kevin Elliott and John Dodd. This SF focused panel approached how to make us readers understand the science. There were varying degrees of expertise with science on the panel but the consensus of making something understandable was very much agreed with. One perspective I really want to think about was the split between Technology, Engineering and Science which we tend ti wrap up under the Science banner in SF. This point by Stewart Hotston was a really intersecting perspective to chew on.

Saturday also saw the Launch of two new Black Shuck book horror collections, the Subjective Kind of Chaos Awards and the British Fantasy Awards. All of which I thoroughly enjoyed, and the awards went briskly and without any major incident (a lesson to others…)

Sunday

Mental Health in SFFH – Penny Jones (mod) Tej Turner and David Green. This panel ensured the hottest room I was in but delivered a smart conversation about bringing your own perspectives of metal health, avoiding the tropes and giving broader representation to those with mental health issues. Covering books, tv and films it was a really interesting panel on a subject the genre is still getting to grips with.

Worldbuilding beyond Medieval Europe – Juliet E McKenna (mod) Anne Lyle, Shona Kinsella, Steven Poore, Ryan Cahill – This panel interrogated why medieval Europe was often used and in realty all agreed that’s a heavily filtered view of medieval life that wasn’t accurate in the first place. Then it moved onto on-medieval settings and the delicate act of using other cultures as inspiration.

I also attended the BFS AGM and what I suspect many thoughts would be getting barnacles of the boat to get it ready for the 2020s was more like fighting a giant squid. But despite everything throw at the Executive the con was a huge success, membership has risen by over a hundred (I’ve never seen that before) and as well as Birmingham next year we have on the horizon and Glasgow Worldcon and even potentially a World Fantasy con bid to look forward to over the next few years. A shiny new website was demonstrated to us; and the overall sense is that the BFS team know what they’re doing and are not going to lose momentum any time soon.  My huge thanks to them all and I hope their next year is even more successful than this one.

Fantasycon is slightly more on the author/publishing side regards guests But bloggers and indeed fans would I think all find something to enjoy going. You will also realise that everyone is very much a fan too! The last few years have been strange, and I suspect it won’t change any time soon but it was lovely to meet old friends, people that I’d only met online and new people for the first time also just enjoying being around people who all love this genre – and have fun in the process. Early bird tickets are already available for 2023’s Fantasycon which is back in the hotel we visited last year but with more space likely too! I hope I see you there?