VCON is a fan run fantasy, gaming, and science fiction convention held annually in the metro Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. It has been hosted by the West Coast Science Fiction Association (WCSFA) since 1993, and by the Western Canadian Science Fiction Convention Committee Association (WCSFCCA) before that.
Contents
Corset at vcon vancouver sciencefiction convention
History
VCON is the oldest fan run science fiction convention across Canada and in the Pacific Northwest, spawning other fan run conventions in these regions (especially the Pacific Northwest) including Norwescon, OryCon, Con-Version and KeyCon. The first "VCON" (which was actually called the Vancouver SF Convention) was held April 9 and 10, 1971 at the Hotel Georgia in Vancouver. Its sponsoring organisations included the University of British Columbia Science Fiction Society (UBC SFFEN), the B.C. Science Fiction Association (an offshoot of the UBC club) and the Simon Fraser University Science Fiction Society (SF3).
Although 2011 was the 40th anniversary of the first VCON event, the event held in that year was VCON 37. This oddity in numbering occurred as a result of two things:
- For several years in the mid-90's no official VCON event was held (though it was sometimes replaced by another WCSFA sponsored event without the VCON name, such as "The Science of Murder" in 1994 and "The Science of Survival" in 1995),
- Due to various time and resource constraints there were two VCON events that were deliberately organized to be smaller and more intimate and which were given the "half numbers" of 18.5 and 19.5.
VCON has hosted Canvention, Canada's national science fiction convention several times: VCON 14/Canvention 6 in 1986, VCON 26/Canvention 21 in 2001, VCON 32/Canvention 27 in 2007, and VCON 39/Canvention 34 in 2014. VCON has also hosted two Westercon, the travelling science fiction convention for Western North America, with Westercon 30/VCON 7 in 1977 and Westercon 44/VCON 19 in 1991.
Schedule
At present VCON is regularly held one weekend prior to the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend which, as the observed Canadian Thanksgiving holiday is the second Monday in October, means that VCON is typically the first weekend with a date in October (although it will be the last weekend in September whenever October 1 falls on a Monday). The registration desk and the member hospitality room opens at noon on Friday, with programming starting in the mid afternoon, and the event continues until early Sunday evening.
Features
At VCON the Elron Awards for most dubious "achievements" in science fiction are presented, often with selected passages from the offending winners publicly read to the delight of attendees. R. Graeme Cameron, president of the British Columbia Science Fiction Association (BCSFA), has stated publicly that the name "Elron" is not an allusion to science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. The awards are reported each year in the BCSFA's science fiction fanzine BCSFAzine.
Another VCON tradition is the Turkey Readings, during which panelists read selections from the worst published science fiction and fantasy books that the group has been able to collect. At the same time, volunteers from the audience act out the story being read, and artists make a poster inspired by the story (and the actors.) After the first 30 seconds, audience members can bid to make the reading stop, but other audience members can bid higher for the reading to continue. The bids must be deposited in cash in order to be counted. The reading continues until there are no more bids to make it continue. After the Turkey Readings, the "art" is auctioned off. The funds raised go to CUFF, the Canadian Unity Fan Fund.