In the beginning of July I attended the Bazyliszek 20024 by Avangarda Association in Warsaw. Comparing to the previous one I have been to (in 2022) a lot has changed. It seemed way bigger than before, and also way broader in the programme terms.
Short Friday
I arrived quite late on Friday evening. I had to finish work, then travel to Warsaw and lastly leave my luggage. So when I came to the venue the last programme item of the day was already in progress. I used the time to register, greet some of my friends (who were not at the programme) and that was it. Well it was it for the main venue. Once everything finished we headed to the convention bar.
I didn’t plan to stay long. I thought that by 11 PM I will be back at my place and able to sleep. Yet it all came out differently. Once I was thinking of leaving, Seji approached me with a proposal to take part in a Pub Quiz. I agreed. We wanted Krzyś to join us but he refused. So when we had to choose the name for our team we decided to go with Bez Krzysia (“Without Krzyś”). Three other fans joined us (we didn’t know each other before).
Pub Quiz at Bazyliszek 2024.
It went pretty well. Somehow each of us had a different specialization and thanks to that we covered most of the areas of the questions. Of course we didn’t know everything but to my surprise we won. Bazyliszek 2024 gave us medals and tea mugs.
The questions were pretty cool. I mean I would change some of them but I appreciated a lot that Kapitan Fandom (who ran it) selected different franchise for each of them. The quiz however took some time and because of that I didn’t go to bed at 11 PM nor at midnight but a bit later.
Social Day
I spent most of Saturday engaging in social activities. Yet I had to start with something else. At 10 AM there was a talk about Japanese woodcut printing. I think I haven’t yet mentioned that but, I love this form of art. I found it fascinating both in terms of how they are made and in what is the outcome. Recently I even attended a series of virtual lectures on the subject. I was both very happy and a bit disappointed by the presentation at Bazyliszek 2024. Airis knew the subject pretty well and she spoke about it in a very interesting way. The only thing I missed is the fact that I didn’t learn too much from it. Still it was a very good talk!
Beginning of the presentation about Japanese woodblock printing.
Even before the aforementioned presentation I spent some time at the dealers’ tents outside. I talked to a person who had the ceramics booth. I loved some of the works she made and we chatted about the techniques and our experiences with clay (well her experience and my trials years ago). Later I talked a lot with my friends. Somehow I spent some time at the ZSFP booth where I had to come later for my shift at the table. It was very cool to talk to people – both those I knew and those I haven’t yet met. I even finally got the chance to talk to Łukasz Kucharczyk for a longer period of time.
The big drawback of the time spent outside was the heat. After two hours long shift at the table I definitely felt that the sun is way too cruel. I know that 30C+ heat that we experience here is nothing compared to other parts of the world but it is already barely bearable for me.
The ceramics store that enchanted me.
Some of the Saturday Programme
Apart from the talk about woodcut printing I managed to attend three other programme items on Saturday. At 1 PM I was a panellist in the panel about the situation of Polish fandom after pandemic. What I found interesting there is the fact that each of us came from very different background. Because of that we had completely distinct perspectives. My co-panellist were Vasia whoose main activity lies in the online fandom and Mateusz – leader of Heroes Orchestra. Our fandom “bubbles” were facing completely dissimilar challenges when the pandemic struck. Lifting of the restrictions also meant very different things to us. I was a bit concerned that we are lacking common points to make a discussion. Fortunately Rynvord, who was a moderator, managed to lead us into some (I think) interesting topics.
I didn’t take any good picture of the audience on our panel so instead I am sharing the gamers.
In the evening I listened to the first hour of presentation about poisonous plants. Then I headed to the concert of Liz Katrin. It was held to celbrate the 30th anniversary of Copernicus Corporation. I must admit that I haven’t heard Liz Katrin before but I was quite enchanted by her skills. Some of the songs were pretty amazing. I also liked the fact that she was singing music related to quite a few different SFF franchises. In the middle of the concert Liz invited the owners of the Copernicus Corporation to the scene. Of course thw whole room cheered for them. And then the company workers brought them a surprise gif. It was really sweet.
After the concert we again headed to the convention pub. Apart from usual integration Copernicus continued their celebration in a less official way. This time evening was a bit shorter for me. I managed to go to sleep before midnight. I would not bet on it but I am almost sure I did.
Liz Katrin and the Copernicus Corporation.
And Another Short Day
Sunday was sadly another short day. I woke up a bit too late and then the rain started to pour down. I was hoping for it to stop soon but it didn’t. In the end I had to take a cab to the Bazyliszek 2024’s place. Even though, I was quite wet from the short time I had to spend outside (despite using the umbrella).
Instead of the discussion about the borders between magical realism and SFF there was a talk given by the Sebastian Musielak. He is a translator of Fishing for the Little Pike and he talked about this book. The talk covered bestiary of the creatures appearing in the novel. Sebastian also explained some of his translating decisions.
Karl sitting behing the ZSFP table.
I had some discussions with Sebastian last year when we brought him the ESFS Award from Uppsala. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to meet at the time. So after the presentation we had the chance to chat a bit. Well this bit changed to full hour where also some other people joined us. And once the time passed we headed back to the main programme room to the panel about translating. Sebastian was a panellists and I gladly listened to the discussion.
And this was end of the con for me. A few of us gathered together and we headed towards the city centre to eat something and travel back home.
A Great Weekend
I had an amazing weekend. It was short but quite satisfactory. Maybe in terms of programme I didn’t manage to visit all the items I wanted but at least I got the opportunity to recharge my batteries. This is quite important for me as we are on our last sprint towards Glasgow 2024 and it is quite engaging right now.
You can find more pictures in my FB gallery.
My next post will treat about Glasgow 2024 and will appear in the second part of August.