Boskone 25

Boskone 25 was held January 29-31, 1988 at the Sheraton Tara Springfield and the Springfield Marriott in Springfield, MA. The GoH was Greg Bear, the Official Artist was David Mattingly and the Special Guest was Ellen Asher. It was chaired by Jim Mann and Laurie Mann and attendance was 1327.

In the aftermath of Boskone 24, the Boskone from Hell, no Boston hotel was willing to host Boskone, and NESFA was forced to look outside Boston. Three sites were located, in Marlboro, MA, in Springfield, MA, and in Hartford, CT. The Marlboro site was only 45 minutes from Boston, but consisted on a single hotel on a semi-rural site in a very distant suburb with a small convention center on the other side of a large parking lot and was judged to be pretty horrible for an sf con. The Hartford and Springfield sites were both a pair of adjacent downtown hotels in mid-sized New England cities about an hour and a half from Boston, and, after careful site visits, the Springfield site was chosen. (The date was also changed from the previously announced date to a date which was actually available.)

None of the potential sites could handle more than about a third of the members that the Sheraton-Boston could, so NESFA knew that a radical downsizing must take place. Additionally, all of the hotels were aware of what happened at Boskone 24 and demanded policy changes which would prevent a recurrence. While the hotel search was on-going, NESFA created and sent a letter to all Boskone 24 members telling them of the new policies. (In retrospect, this candor made many enemies, but it's unclear that there were any other reasonable options.)

Ultimately, the Springfield site was selected as the least-bad option and a successful convention was held. Boskone stayed in Springfield for five years.

The Boskone Book for Boskone 25 was Early Harvest a collection of stories by Greg Bear.

• Boskone 25 publications and photos on fanac.org

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Boskone 24	Boskone	Boskone 26
	1988

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