This post is a result of seeing people from Europe talking on Twitter about possibly attending World Fantasy in Brighton in 2013 and Worldcon in 2014 in 2014. If you are going to spend a lot of money on a trip to the UK it is important to know what sort of convention you are going to, and these two are very different.
World Fantasy is a professional convention aimed at writers, artists, editors, agents and so on. Membership is capped: 1,000 at most, often lower, and fans are discouraged from attending. Programming is limited and generally quite dull. Given that Steve Jones is running this one, it will probably be focused on UK horror. Attendees get one panel or reading at most. There’s no costuming, and the dealers’ room infamously won’t allow the sale of anything “non-literary”, including comics. It does give out the World Fantasy Awards, but the ceremony is at a banquet and unless you stump up for bad hotel food you’ll have to stand at the back when the action starts. If you are a professional writer, this is a great place to hang out with your peers without having all the additional demands of a fan convention. Otherwise you may want to give this one a miss.
Worldcon is a fannish convention. Attendance is not capped and should be over 4,000, but could be a lot higher if the London committee do a good PR job. There are multiple streams of panels covering every subject under the sun (and a few under other suns as well). There’s the Masquerade, there’s an exhibit space that will be full of cool stuff, a dealers’ room with fabulous merchandize, and of course there’s the Hugos. It will be hard to find people because there are so many of them, but it is a convention for everyone except those spooked by large crowds.
I’m going to both. I’m going to World Fantasy because it will give me a chance to catch up with friends in the business whom I haven’t seen for ages due to being barred from North America. I’ll also be talking to writers on behalf of Wizard’s Tower. I’m going to Worldcon to catch up with fannish friends, and to do publicity for Wizard’s Tower.
Hopefully that will help people make up their minds. If you have any questions, please ask.
Thank you very much for summing up those differences!
Sounds like both cons are worth going for writers, but that maybe World Con is best for fans.
I guess one should sign up to World Fantasy con 2013 asap since membership is capped.
I’ll add that World Fantasy Con is completely dependent on fannish volunteer labor and conrunning expertise, but gives fandom no respect or recognition for it. For example, major invitation-only WFC parties have on more than one occasion omitted to invite any of the people who are doing the work of putting on the convention.
WFC membership rates are deliberately set high. That’s why I won’t be attending this year. Tor made a last-minute decision to send Patrick, and will pay for his membership, but it won’t pay for mine. The current price of a membership is $250.
The ban on costumes is especially irritating in the U.S. because World Fantasy Con is held over Halloween weekend, which for fans and mundanes both is a traditional occasion for costume parties. That’s not just expressing a preference; that’s making a statement, and it’s not one I entirely agree with.
One further observation about World Fantasy Con: it can be socially a bit competitive. If you’re a newbie writer, you have to ask yourself how much you enjoy mutely hanging around the edges of other people’s conversations.
My advice to writers new to the convention scene would be to attend the Worldcon for the annual gathering of the tribe, and otherwise try out some of the smaller, more literary, program-intensive conventions like Armadillocon or the 4th Street Fantasy Convention.
Thanks Teresa. I’ve had the occasional run-in with the World Fantasy Board myself. Suffice it to say that if SFSFC were based in the UK I would be sorely tempted to sue them for libel.
I’m not suggesting that the convention or anyone associated with it is inherently wrong or bad, but it’s an under-examined institution, and it shouldn’t be.