This year Polcon travelled back to Toruń where it was held back in 2018. The main difference, however, is that this time it was joint with the local con – Copernicon, and thus the full name was Copernicon x Polcon. The latter is a huge event spread across most of the city centre.
So Many Things, So Little Time
The biggest issue I had at the con was a lack of time. Copernicon’s programme was huge with many interesting points to attend. Yet when I made my decisions about the most crucial parts of the con (in fact Business Meetings) it came out that I have almost no time for anything else.
My first programme item at Copernicon x Polcon.
On Friday I started with the two hours long Council of Fandom. We covered usual topics related to Polcons and site selection for next two years. On top of that we voted for the Piotr Rak Award of Polish Fandom for the first time. The award was established this year in memory of the late Piotr “Raku” Rak. It is given in two categories – Płomień Fandom (A Flame of Fandom) and Iskra Fandomu (The Spark of Fandom). The first goes to active fans with long history in fandom. The latter recognizes new fans with a maximum of three years of fannish experience.
The discussion about Polcons for 2025 and 2026 was rather long. There was one bid for 2025 but most fans were concerned about some aspects of it. Because of that there were multiple questions to the presenter. For 2026 we had two bids and one of them received many questions too. The site selection took place the next day during the Fandom Forum.
I attended Fandom Forum only briefly as I volunteered to count votes for the Janusz A. Zajdel Award. The counting committee is always selected at the beginning of the Forum, and then it goes to a separate room to count the votes. Because of that I haven’t heard all the discussions but in the end we selected sites for Polcons in 2025 and 2026. The winning bid for 2025 emerged on Saturday evening. Polcon that year will go to Warszawa where it will be held jointly with Bazyliszek. In 2026 Polcon will be held jointly with Bachanalia Fantastyczne in Zielona Góra.
Invitation for Polcon 2025 during Awards Ceremony at Copernicon x Polcon.
Counting of votes took us a few hours. I was happy to see the results but of course I couldn’t share them till the Awards ceremony. So I kept my mouth shut. It was not that difficult as after finishing the counting I ran to have some lunch as it was already after 4 PM. Afterwards I did some shopping (I had to buy gingerbreads as Toruń is famous for them), and then I headed for the ceremony. I had around 30-40 minutes prior to it which I spent talking with my friends.
Ceremony lasted till around 9 PM, and I didn’t attend any programme item once it finished. Instead I went to a pub to socialize with friends. So in the end my time for “standard” programme items was very limited. On top of this I decided to sleep longer on Saturday, and therefore I managed to visit only four programme items (and I was a panellist at one of those)
The Awards Ceremony
The Awards Ceremony was rather long. There were six different awards given out (some of them in a few categories). It started with a song played by Marta Bejma with her band. They also played a few more times in short breaks between parts of the ceremony. I liked their music however it would be better with fewer breaks. After the musical opening there was a speech given by Marcin Zwierzchowski. He is a journalist and editor who, for many years, worked at Nowa Fantastyka magazine. His speech was good and gave me some food for thoughts.
The first award was Quentin for the best RPG Scenario. It was followed by Copernicon’s awards for Best LARPs and LARP players. Those were called Kryształowe Pierniki (Crystal Gingerbreads – I told you that gingerbreads are important in Toruń). Then Mikołaj gave ESFS Award for Best Publisher. This one went to Wydawnictwo IX. It was originally presented at Eurocon in Rotterdam but the publisher was not there so Copernicon x Polcon agreed to hand it over during their Gala.
Then the time came for Piotr Rak Awards. The Płomień Fandomu went to the hands of Michał Szymański – a fan active in KSF (SFF Network of Kraków). He chaired the ZSFP (Societies Association Polish Fandom) in previous term and he did a lot of things in the last ten years. Iskra Fandomu also travelled to the south of Poland. Fans gave it to Szymon “Grue” Kania – a fan from ŚKF (Silesian SFF Club). Despite his short experience he is very active and one can meet him helping at conventions around the country.
grue accepts first ever Piotr rak Award in Iskra category.
The penultimate was Jerzy Żuławski Literary Award. It was also the biggest bloomer of the whole evening. The award has two honourable mentions and the first was given to incorrect person. At first Michał Cholewa was invited to the stage where the presenter realized that the statuette had incorrect name. Despite that he claimed that Michał won. The second mention went to Paweł Matuszek and the winner was Istvan Vizvary for his novel “Lagrange. Listy z Ziemi” (Lagrange. Letters from the Earth). Then there was a short musical interlude, and afterwards we learned that the first honourable mention was supposed to go to Radek Rak and not Michał Cholewa. I was very upset with the whole situation and I sympathize with Michał. He behaved flawlessly in this difficult situation. When Katarzyna Kosik (Radek’s publisher) was accepting the statuette Michał came to the stage and gave her the bouquet of flowers he got a few minutes earlier. After the ceremony he changed the whole situation into a joke.
Istvan Vizvary accepting his first award during the Award ceremony at Copernicon x Polcon.
The final part of the evening were Janusz A. Zajdel Awards. In the Best Short Story the winner was Agnieszka Hałas for her “Świerszcze w soli” (Crickets in The Salt). The Best Novel went to Istvan Vizvary for his “Lagrange. Listy z Ziemi” book.
Wydawnictwo IX who got the ESFS Award is a publisher of Istvan Vizvary and Paweł Matuszek. Considering their small size, and winning both of the most important literary SFF Awards in Poland I trust that the ESFS decision was well justified!
Winners of Janusz A. Zajdel Awards posing for a photography with Janusz’ wife and grandson.
Dragons!
At Copernicon x Polcon I was once again the keeper of Jadwiga the Dragoness. Yet this time it required much more effort. There was a “Dragon hunt” at the con. There were some prizes for the first few fans to meet all eleven of Imladris’ dragons (the first prize was convention’s membership). All of us, keepers, got special stickers and cards to give to people. Because of that I got stopped countless times and asked for the dragon sticker. It was a cool thing but I was late a bit for one of the programme items because of that. Still the whole competition worked brilliantly and I suppose it may take place in the future again.
The Con and The City
I love Toruń, and Copernicon is a great event to enjoy the city. Convention spreads across multiple buildings in the city centre. This allows to feel the convention atmosphere in the whole city. Both during the day and at night one was stumbling across many convention members everywhere in the city centre. I enjoyed walking around and being both at the convention and in one of the most beautiful cities in Poland. The big downside to it are access issues. The distance between the farthest buildings is a bit over 1 km and there are many cobblestones on the route between them.
The queue formed in front one of the venues just before door opening on Saturday.
The issue I had was the fact that I was tired. Because of that I didn’t spend enough time at a pub at night. On both Friday and Saturday I went back to the hotel before 11 PM. This left me with little time to spend with my friends. Which I of course did but now – a week later I am thinking whether I shouldn’t skip the sleeping part and enjoy longer nights… Well now it is too late to change that.
As mentioned earlier I was participating in one panel. It was a talk about the recent Worldcon in Glasgow. There were not too many people in the audience. The good thing is that some of them became interested in Worldcon. There is a chance that they will try to attend the next European Worldcon.
From the other items I visited, the first was a talk about the history of RPGs. It was given by Tomasz Kreczmar whose book on the topic had premiere at Copernicon x Polcon. He was kind enough to offer an article about history of RPG in Poland for my A~Zyn that I published for Glasgow 2024. The last item I listened to was a talk given by Siem. She discussed the “gravity” of fandom and she did it based on her years in our community.
Once Siem finished her talk I had to leave Copernicon x Polcon and head back home.
A Good But Short Weekend
All in all I enjoyed my stay in Toruń. I managed to meet some old friends and met new ones too! I would be happier should the con last for one more day but one cannot get everything. Some of the fans brought up issues that they saw at Copernicon x Polcon. I also faced some of those but they were minor to me and they didn’t spoil my experience.
Among the nice things that happened I was very happy to obtain the special Polcon coin and the Special issue of Biały Kruk Magazine. This is an online fanzine which got printed edition for the first time. Yet it is not only an item for my collection. Inside there is a very good interview with Jadwiga Zajdel. She is a widow after Janusz A. Zajdel and at the same time she is one of the good spirits of fandom in Poland. Reading this interview a day or two after the con was a good closure for me.
You can find more pictures in my FB gallery.
My next post will appear within two weeks.