The weekend of 8-10 September was quite busy for me. There were two conventions happening nearby. The first was Lemcon – a one-day event devoted to Stanisław Lem (part of the writer’s birth anniversary celebration). It was held in Kraków and my friends were organizing it. Therefore I helped a little bit the day before and on Saturday morning. Then I travelled to a nearby city of Tarnów for Tarcon – an old convention that was reactivated this year.
Good and bad sides of Polcon 2017
Polcon is one of the most important conventions to me. Since my first one in 2010, I try to attend it each year and till today, I have succeeded with just one exception: in 2015. Every year Polcon takes place in a different city and is therefore organized by someone else. A week ago it was held in Lublin, in the eastern part of Poland. Hod did the Polcon 2017 go?
Medalikon – a time machine
My last convention was like a time machine. It brought me a few years back – but in a totally positive way. Medalikon – as the convention is called – reminded me of the times when I was new to the convention-going. This feeling was evoked not only by the event itself but also by the way I was participating in it.
Warsaw Comic Con – first Comic Con in Poland
The majority of Polish conventions are made by fans for fans and they aren’t run for profit. Still, with fandom being relatively big, it was only a matter of time when commercial cons would appear. Warsaw Comic Con that took place in the first four days of June was the first to happen, but not the first that had been planned.
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Polish con culture and traditions
In the response to my first post Understanding Polish conventions I received a question about the con culture. I promised I would write about it but the task is certainly not an easy one. Being as deep in the fandom as I am, I might have problems to spot some important things. To certain extent, it is easier for me to spot them in other countries as I am looking at the convention partially from the outside. Still, I tried to give it a thought and to pin down some elements of Polish con culture and traditions.
Pyrkon 2017 convention of many queues
Pyrkon is the biggest Polish convention – last year there were over 40 000 people. This year the number of participants has not been yet announced but I really doubt it will be significantly smaller. Being so big has some perks but also some disadvantages. All in all Pyrkon is doing a great job promoting SF/F and overall geekiness, however for me this edition wasn’t as good as the previous ones.
Lajconik – RPG and Polish legends
Lajconik is a small convention devoted to tabletop Role Playing Games. For the first time it took place in 2011 and in the beginning it was not held regularly. Over last few years it has taken place around March/April. 2017 was not an exception and I again got a chance to participate in this lovely convention. I like it very much for a few reasons but the most important one is the atmosphere.
KONgres 2017 – first Polish convention for conrunners
In February I have attended Conrunner 4. My first convention in March was KONgres – the first ever Polish convention created for conrunners. Comparing those two events is simply inevitable. Still my perception of KONgres is deeper than of Conrunner – I am deeply involved with Polish fandom and hence I knew much more people there and I was more involved in the programme. Continue reading “KONgres 2017 – first Polish convention for conrunners”
Understanding Polish conventions
The first topic I have chosen for this blog is not an easy one: I want to present what is important for Polish conventions. I wanted to extract the core of convention-going. However, the only way I can look at Polish cons from the outside is to try to compare them to foreign conventions I have attended (mainly Eurocons and Worldcon). This comparison is not ideal as both Eurocons and Worldcons are very specific events. Still, this is the best option so I will be using this imperfect comparison. Continue reading “Understanding Polish conventions”