Eurocon

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Eurocon, formally European Science Fiction Convention, is a traveling convention organized under the auspices of the European Science Fiction Society, where the European SF Awards are voted and presented. It has increasingly tried to emulate the Worldcon and the WSFS, with site selection two years in advance but by "National Delegates". During the Cold War, much effort was given to alternate both sides of the Iron Curtain; this met with some difficulties but was perfected during the Eurocon heyday ca. 1990–2010, simply due to differences in purchasing power. A traditional part of the opening and closing ceremonies is displaying the original ESFS flag and then passing it to next year's organisers.

The first Eurocon was held in Trieste, Italy, in 1972, after the West European fandom met at the 1970 Heicon and was inspired to organise similar events. Further ones followed biannually, leaping odd years until 1983 and 1987, becoming annual ever since (except, partly, 1998). To complicate the fanhistory, at the 1980 Eurocon 5 (or V – roman numerals were more official back then) it was decided to include retroactively in the counting the First International SF Convention in Zurich, Switzerland, August 1959 (not to be mistaken for the alternate title of the 1951 London Festivention!), so the 1982 follow-up became "Eurocon 7", skipping 6 and bringing much bad luck (after THREE standalone bids folded or backed out, the main parts were moved to a sercon German event at several weeks' notice). This caused some confusion in the 1980s (not to mention the 2010s Wikipedians, counting backwards without bothering to read the period newszines), however around 1984 such a form of serial numbers was largely well-lost to "Eurocon YEAR", or other event name.

(To confuse the matters even more, "EUROCON" – usually capitalised – is also the European conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, started in 1971. They own many domains in the form of eurocon20XY.com.)

The ESFS Statutes also allow "organising", or rather bestowing a title of "European Science Fiction Conference (Euroconference)", apparently to provide some recognition as well as stimulus to other events with international programming beside the year's single Eurocon, or to offset the travel/financial difficulties it might pose for a part of Eurofans (compare US zoning and NASFiC, but unlike it, clashing terms are prohibited); however this has been used only exceptionally.

# Date Location Convention GoHs, Notes
1 July 12–16, 1972 Trieste, Italy Eurocon 1 John Brunner, Kurt Steiner (André Ruellan, FR writer), Roberto Vacca (IT, scientist-writer)
2 July 8–13, 1974 Grenoble, France Eurocon 2
3 Aug 19–22, 1976 Poznań, Poland Eurocon 3 Brian W. Aldiss
4 Nov 1–5, 1978 Brussels, Belgium Eurocon 4 Frank Kelly Freas
5 May 1–4, 1980 Stresa, Italy Eurocon 5
6 August 20–22, 1982 Mönchengladbach, (West) Germany Festival der Fantastik John Brunner, Wiktor Bukato, Wolfgang Jeschke, Josef Nesvadba
7 September 16–18, 1983 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Yugoslavia Eurocon 8 local event Fantazija was also natcon Yukon
8 April 20–23, 1984 Brighton, UK Seacon '84 Pierre Barbet, Waldemar Kumming, Josef Nesvadba, Christopher Priest, Roger Zelazny
Eurocon 1985 announced by Soviet Union for Riga, Latvia, soon ran into problems with the regime and was cancelled
9 July 10–13, 1986 Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia Ballcon (SFeraKon) Sam Lundwall
10 Oct 29 – Nov 1, 1987 Montpellier, France Eurocon 1987
11 July 7–10, 1988 Budapest, Hungary Eurocon 1988
12 May 18–21, 1989 San Marino (/Italy) Eurocon 1989 Frederik Pohl, Norman Spinrad
13 Nov 1–4, 1990 Fayence, France Eurocon 1990
14 May 9–12, 1991 Krakow, Poland Cracon Poul Anderson, Gianfranco Viviani, Boris Zavgorodny, Roelof Goudriaan
15 April 24–26, 1992 Freudenstadt, Germany FreuCon XII John Brunner, Iain Banks, Norman Spinrad, Daniel Walther
16 April 9–11, 1993 Jersey, UK Helicon John Brunner, George R. R. Martin, Karel Thole, Larry van der Putte
17 May 26–29, 1994 Timisoara, Romania Eurocon 1994 John Brunner, Herbert W. Franke, Joe Haldeman, Jean Giraud (Moebius), Norman Spinrad
18 August 24–28, 1995 Glasgow, UK Intersection (Worldcon) Samuel R. Delany, Gerry Anderson, Les Edwards, Vincent Clarke
19 April 25–28, 1996 Vilnius, Lithuania Lithuanicon no GoH due to miscommumication
20 Oct 25–27, 1997 Dublin, Ireland Octocon 8 Harry Harrison, Chris Reed
No Eurocon in 1998, apparently for lack of bids; annual SFeraKon in Zagreb, Croatia was declared Euroconference
21 May 21–24, 1999 Dortmund, Germany Trinity Brian Aldiss, Diane Duane, Harry Harrison, Sam Lundwall, Roger MacBride Allen, Peter Morwood, Terry Pratchett, Ian Watson
22 August 2–6, 2000 Gdynia, Poland Tricity 2000 Walter Jon Williams, Kir Bulychev
23 16–19 August 2001 Capidava, Romania Atlantykron Norman Spinrad, Joe Haldeman, Ion Hobana, David Lewis Anderson
24 3–7 July 2002 Chotěboř, Czechia Parcon 2002 George R. R. Martin, Robert Holdstock, Jim Burns, Kir Bulychev (RU), Andrzej Sapkowski + 10 lower-tier "Eurocon guests" (see article)
25 August 1–3, 2003 Turku, Finland Finncon 2003 Michael Swanwick, Steve Sansweet, Karolina Bjällerstedt Mickos, Boris Hurtta, Jonathan Clements, Björn Tore Sund
26 August 5–8, 2004 Plovdiv, Bulgaria Bulgacon Robert Sheckley, Ian Watson, Sergei Lukyanenko, Andrzej Sapkowski, Roberto Quaglia, Patrick Gyger
27 August 4–8, 2005 Glasgow, UK Interaction (Worldcon) Christopher Priest, Robert Sheckley, Jane Yolen, Greg Pickersgill, Lars-Olov Strandberg
28 April 13–16, 2006 Kiev, Ukraine Portal Harry Harrison and Andrzej Sapkowski
29 September 21–23, 2007 Copenhagen, Denmark Eurocon 2007 Anne McCaffrey, Stephen Baxter, Zoran Živković, David A. Hardy, Niels Dalgaard
30 May 15–18, 2008 Moscow, Russia Eurocon 2008 Harry Harrison and Sergei Lukyanenko
31 March 26–29, 2009 Fiuggi, Italy Deepcon 10 Giuseppe Lippi, Lolita Fatjo, Marina Sirtis, Anthony Simcoe, Max Grodénchik, Janet & Larry Nemecek, Ian Watson, Sergei Lukyanenko, Bruce Sterling, Geoffrey Landis, Mary Turzillo
32 August 26–29, 2010 Cieszyn, Poland + Český Těšín, CZ Tricon / Polcon 2010/ Parcon 2010 Orson Scott Card, Juraj Červenák (SK), Andrzej Sapkowski (PL), Miroslav Žamboch (CZ)
33 June 17–19, 2011 Stockholm, Sweden Eurocon 2011 Elizabeth Bear, Ian McDonald, John-Henri Holmberg and Jukka Halme
34 April 26–29, 2012 Zagreb, Croatia SFeraKon 2012 Tim Powers, Charles Stross, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Darko Macan, Cheryl Morgan + Ghost of Honour Joanna Russ, Andre Norton
35 April 11–14 2013 Kiev, Ukraine Eurocon 2013 Chris Priest, Andriy Valentynov, Olga Gromyko, Andriy Dmytruk, Maryna & Serhiy Dyachenko, Henry Lion Oldie, Vadim Panov
36 August 22–24, 2014 Dublin, Ireland Shamrokon Jim Fitzpatrick, Seanan McGuire, Andrzej Sapkowski, Ylva Spangberg
37 April 23–26, 2015 St. Petersburg, Russia Eurocon 2015 Joe Abercrombie, Michael Stackpole, Jukka Halme (FGoH), Pavel Vinogradov (cosmonaut)
38 November 4–6, 2016 Barcelona, Spain Bcon Aliette de Bodard, Richard Morgan, Péter Michaleczky, Enrique Corominas, Andrzej Sapkowski, Johanna Sinisalo, Rosa Montero, Rhianna Pratchett
39 June 16–18, 2017 Dortmund, Germany U.Con Aleksandar Ziljak, Andreas Eschbach, Autun Purser, Dave Hutchinson
40 July 19–22, 2018 Amiens, France Nemo 2018 (also natcon) Vladimir Arenev (UA writer), Pierre Bordage, Philippe Curval, Laurent Genefort (FR writers), Aliette de Bodard, Ian Watson; maybe others incl. “African Science Fiction”?
41 August 22–25 2019 Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK TitanCon 2019 / Eurocon 41 George R. R. Martin, James Roberts, Pat Cadigan, Peadar Ó Guilín
42 October 2–4, 2020 Rijeka, Croatia / virtual (Covid-19) Futuricon / Eurocon 42 Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ivica Puljak, Robert Whitehead
43 March 18–21 July 15–18, 2021 Fiuggi, Italy Eurocon 2021 Marco Casolino, Giuliano Giuffrida, Shun Iwasawa, Hanne Madeleine Paine, Maurizio Manzieri, Chase Masterson, Ian McDonald, EricA. Stillwell, Licia Troisi
44 April 7–10, 2022 Dudelange, Luxembourg Luxcon 2022 Arkady Martine
45 June 8–11, 2023 Uppsala, Sweden Konflikt (Swecon 25) Martha Wells, Johan Egerkrans (SE), Merja Polvinen (FI), Francesco Verso (IT)
46 August 16–19, 2024 Rotterdam, Netherlands Erasmuscon Bo Balder (NL writer), Jasper Fforde, Andrzej Sapkowski, Iris Compiet, Gary Erskine
47 June 26–29, 2025 Mariehamn, Åland Islands, Finland Archipelacon 2 Jeff & Ann VanderMeer, Mats Strandberg (SE), Emmi Itäranta (FI) https://archipelacon.org
For further years, there are only single uncontested bids from large annual cons: 2026 – MetropolCon, Berlin, Germany; 2028 – SFeraKon, Zagreb, Croatia


Convention
1972
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