That last weekend I attended the Seminarium Literackie 2025 ran by Silesian SFF Club (ŚKF). I must say that it was exactly the con I needed now. The mix of programme and socializing was perfect and I came back home filled with positive thoughts. (I won’tsay that I came back relaxed as I was quite tired).
A Happy Weekend
Similarly to last year I may say that it was a happy weekend. The reasons may be to some extent different but the happiness is a fact. Sometimes, when writing reports, I need to ask myself whether a con made me happy thanks to how it was organized or thanks to who decided to attend it. I have been to events that were poorly organized but I had a great time nevertheless. Yet it also happened that I didn’t have a good time despite the fact that the convention was prepared very well. In case of Seminarium Literackie 2025 both the concom and coming members were a great fit for my needs. I am also sure that for this case the way how the event was ran impacted who decided to come. So to sum up this part – I am very thankful to the team running the con for making it such a good experience for me.
Vinga’s presentation about the dark side of fairy tales was very interesting.
Seminarium Literackie 2025 was a small and cosy convention with around 100 members. There were two streams of programme and enough time to talk with friends. Thanks to the size there was no need to be in a rush. I could enjoy everything in a leisure pace, and I did exactly that. When I fancied I was in one of the programme rooms, when I wanted to socialize I had many opportunities to chat. Lastly when I needed to rest I had the option to do so in my hotel room.
More Programme Than I Expected
During the convention I had a feeling that I spent most of the time chatting with my friends. When I came back home and downloaded the pictures I realized that apart from that I managed to visit surprisingly many programme items. I mean it was not a lot but more than I expected. I attended seven talks on various topics and participated in two events. This gives me nine programme items in total which is pretty cool.
The extended name of the con was Seminarium Literackie 2025 – Every Possible Universe. My selection of the programme to some extent reflected the second part of the name. The opening item for me was a very good talk on Silesian Mythology. I barely knew anything about this topic and now my knowledge extended a bit. When it comes to myths there was also a great talk about mythological retellings. The presenter had a vast knowledge of the topic and was a great speaker. It was one of the best (if not the best) items I attended. To close the convention I went to a talk about dystopias in SFF. This was both fascinating and scary topic. Seeing how close we are to certain of those visions is deeply disturbing.
Presentation on mythological retellings.
I managed to attend two talks that I have seen in programme on other conventions. I didn’t have the opportunity to listen to them before so it was a welcomed opportunity. First of those was a presentation called Journeys with Olvidos. It was a talk that explained some of the inspirations for the very interesting book – Olvido. Sadly the book is available only in Polish. The second talk in this category was The remix culture of Polish People’s Republic. It was given by Tomasz Kreczmar whose presentation at last Nordcon I complimented before. He is not only covering topics that I find interesting but is a great speaker.
The Second Venue
This year, for the first time, Śląkfa Awards Ceremony was held in a different building – Silesian Planetarium. It is rather close (~20 minutes by foot) to Skaut Hotel where the convention took place. To get there one could either take a ropeway or go by foot across the Silesian Park. The building was renewed in recent years and looked nice. My previous time there was in early 90s so I cannot compare how much has changed as I don’t remember too many things. Yet what I can tell is that the auditorium selected for the ceremony was very nice and big enough for our needs.
The venue for Śląkfa Awards Ceremony at Seminarium Literackie 2025.
I was tasked with guiding a group of other fans to the Silesian Planetarium so had to go by foot. The upside to that is that on the way we saw a roe grazing in the “wilder” part of the park. It was not afraid of humans and we even managed to make a short photo session. My guiding duty was not that hard as a local fan was also going and she took the lead. This allowed me to make sure we won’t leave anyone behind.
The ceremony itself was short and professional. The Fan of the Year Award went to Paweł Majka and Cezary Zwierzchowski for the podcast they do. Muduko Publishing House received the trophy in The Publisher/Promoter of The Year category. The statuette for The Creator of the Year went to Andrzej Sapkowski. The jury appreciated him writting a prequel to the Witcher series – Crossroads of Ravens. The other writer nominated in the last category was Krzysztof Rewiuk for his novel Olvido. I regret that he didn’t win but I understand the decision of the jury.
The Śląkfa Awards Ceremony
Bonfire
In the evening after the Awards Ceremony there was a bonfire. Well at least an event akin to bonfire. There was a lot of food available – from salads to cakes. And of course there were also dishes for the grill. The whole thing took place in an amphitheatre just outside of the Skaut Hotel.
I started with catching some light food and cakes. Once done I had the time to talk with other fans. After some time two artistic performances took place. It started with the quire of the Tolkien Chapter of Silesian SFF Club giving their first ever public performance. They did well with singing, however the event was a bit spoiled by the concert that was held in the nearby Silesian Stadium. They were followed by the dancing performance given by the RubiRin Chapter of the ŚKF.
The quire of Tolkien Chapter of ŚKF during their first public performance.
Once the performances finished there was plenty of time to talk, eat, grill something on one of the two small bonfires, and talk again. It was a good evening and it allowed me to relax. I also had the opportunity for some deeper conversations. Yet as always the night came and in the end I decided to go to sleep.
Doggies and Good Atmosphere
As stated I had a great time at Seminarium Literackie 2025. Thanks to the leisure pace I fully enjoyed the convention. It was small but it only meant that I knew many of the people who attended it. The atmosphere was cosy and calm. Organizers did their best to make us all feel welcomed and they definitely succeeded.
At the con there were four dogs. At least I have seen and pet four beautiful doggies. Playing with them was a cool addition to the conversations I had at the time. As a person who loves animals but don’t have any, I am using opportunities to interact with them. And here I had quite some time to do so, and Filifionka was (as always) very friendly.
I didn’t take any pictures of the dogs (I was too busy petting them) so here is a picture of a roe in the Silesian Park. I didn’t pet it so I remembered to take a photograph :).
Speaking about good atmosphere I got a small but very important gift. A pin to commemorate one of my fannish friends. I appreciate it a lot and am thankful for it.
Considering how good the weekend was for me it should not be a surprise that I am hoping to attend Seminarium Literackie again next year. The dates were already announced (29-31 May 2026) so now I just need to circle them in my calendar.
You can find more pictures in my FB gallery.
My next post should appear within 3 weeks and treat about Archipelacon 2 – 2025 Eurocon!