Pyrkon 2015

I have known about the now huge Polish SF convention in Poznan since Kontakt in Zagreb. And have been wanting to get to it ever since! When I got back from my GUFF trip to Australia and New Zealand, the Pyrkon program book for that year – a thick, heavy thing filled with awesome things – was waiting for me courtesy of Polish fan and con-runner, Radoslaw Kot. (Thank you!)

I think I even remember him mentioning that after seeing how much of the Zagreb Eurocon was in English, they decided to make tracks in English a permanent item of Pyrkon.

And what a track it is! A huge one, where even guests of honor are numerous and this year it is the likes of Ted Chiang, Joe Haldeman, Jasper Fforde and Dmitry Gluhovksy! I will be spending the weekend trying to find some books I want signed!

Lauren Beukes was one of their GoHs last year and she was in awe of their numbers, too! Pyrkon gathered 15 000 people last April and I am sure it will gather even more this year. It is the largest SF con in Europe!

And this year, in exactly one week I will be leaving for Poznan & Pyrkon! (Because it takes about 13 hours to get there by car and it seemed like a good idea at the time!) Am even on the program , talking, of course, about Croatian fandom!

It is a shame that Pyrkon and the Russian Eurocon fell on the same weekend but I take comfort in the fact that the very same weekend would have also been the traditional SFeraKon weekend as well, had our venue not moved us to mid-May due to their midterm exams, in which case I would have not been travelling at all.

I look forward to seeing the multitudes of Polish fans, especially as I plan to invite them both to attend SFeraKon 2015 and to vote for the Hugos and the site selection this year. Helsinki is closer to them than it is to me, after all!

My talk is on Croatian fandom and literature is scheduled for Sunday, in the English presentation room, at 14:00.

A small country with a BIG fandom, Croatia boasts 6 SF conventions, one genre writing festival and a week long academic event dedicated to SF. Three annual anthologies, two national genre awards, an academic magazine and a commercial one, award winning fanzines, original LARPs and a fandom run by women – this is all part of the very the vibrant Croatian SF scene that will be presented by Mihaela Marija Perkovic, Croatian SF writer, conrunner and member of the Zagreb based SFera SF Society. Come & ask silly questions!

But you can also find me at the Fan Village where there will be a Croatian table with all kind of goodies, even if no Croatian fans! (Am pretty sure all of us will be go missing in action while investigating the huge con! I for one will be chasing down some GoHs to see if they can come to Croatia some day).

Alas, there will be no GUFF auction at Pyrkon as Polish law does not allow it but it has been explained to me that there are gifts one can get just by being a member of Pyrkon! So I will be bringing complimentary memberships from 3 Croatian conventions – Rikon, Liburnicon and SFeraKon as well a number of interesting things, such as an illustrated Terry Pratchett Calendar from Dysprosium and a number of books!

Come and find me and say hello, buy a SFeraKon membership or get a special Pyrkon issue Parsek, the award-winning Croatian fanzine!

Pyrkon 2015