(På engelska, då då det även når utrikes. --AE)
Finncon 2016, Tampere, July 1-3
This year's Finncon in Tampere celebrated the con's 30th anniversary. However,
it's the 34th anniversary for sf cons in Finland! In 1982 Sam J Lundwall
(Sweden's Mr SF), Tom Ölander (1945-2002, Finland's Mr SF at the time) and
others (incl Yours Truly) organised King-Con in the Old Student house,
Helsinki, with Brian Aldiss and Harry Harrison as GoHs. Tom managed to get the
main Finnish news bureau FNB/STT to send out a news telegram, resulting eg in
two evening news reports on TV from the con!
King-Con was important in another manner: it established Finncon as a free
convention, having no admittance fee. The background is that the Old Student
House in Helsinki (site for both King-Con and the first Finncon in1986, also
organised by Tom Ö) had a higher rate for events charging a fee. "Fine!" Tom
thought, "so we'll make it a free event then!" And this tradition has since
prevailed. The financing comes from cultural grants, book table rents and
selling advertising space in the program boo. (The colour cover program book of
Finncon 2016 looked very nice but most of it was in Finnish, with some English
here and there).
Finncon used to be co-organised with Animecon, getting many thousands of
visitors. The attendance is lower now as Finncon stands on its own legs, but I
estimate that at least 1000-1500 people gathered in the Tampere University
which hosted the event. Of these the Swedes were over a dozen, but there were
also attendees from the UK, US, Russia, Australia, Spain, Italy, Estonia - and
probably other countries. Guests of Honour were writers Jasper Fforde,
Catherynne Valente, Anne Leinonen, Eeva-Liisa Tenhunen (Fan-GoH) and Raffaella
Baccolini (Scholar-GoH). There were extensive book selling tables on three
levels of the building, hundreds of yards of them.
The program ran in up to nine (!) tracks and one couldn't possibly attend
everything. Most was in Finnish, but there were always alternative programs in
English (and also a few in Swedish, which is an official language of Finland,
though a minority one).
Just a few snippets from the program, and due to the extensive program I
probably missed Your Favourite Item...
* In the GoH interview Jasper Fforde sad he began writing at the age of 27, "as
I realised I was allowed to write; I thought it was something only clever
people did..." He didn't have much ambitions with it to begin with, and his
success came as a surprise. His early inspirations included TV sitcoms, Monty
Python, and shows like "Porridge" and "Dad's Army". A piece of news is that
his "The Last Dragonslayer" is being filmed for TV, to be shown on British Sky
One in December
(http://www.theknowledgeonline.com/the-knowledge-bulletin/post/2016/01/21/the-last-dragonslayer-in-the-pipeline-at-sky-one
).
* Next year's Worldcon 75 in Helsinki was presented. They seem to aim for ca
4000 attendees. Most program will be in English (but there might be a little
programming in eg Swedish, Russian and why not Spanish). The convention space
in Messukeskus is booked. GRR Martin and Robert Silverberg are coming (but
aren't GoHs). A Science Guest of Honour is to be announced later. Everything
seems to be on the track for a good worldcon - only the fourth one outside an
English speaking country (previous ones were in Germany in 1970, Netherlands in
1990 and Japan in 2007). There will be free local transports for members, eg
with the green Helsinki trams.
* The traditional tabletop ice hockey tournament was won by Pasi who beat
Michael from Sweden in the final with 2-1. For some strange reason Yours
Truly reached the semi-final, despite playing really bad...
* Nick Falkner presented science fiction from his native Australia. He gave a
vivid description of the vastness and desolation of this "Mad Max" country.
Australians write about alienation, being an outsider, fear of the unknown,
myths, colonisation, overpowering geography, we learned.
* One of the program tracks was the Academic program. I heard for instance a
presentation of The World Hobbit Project,
https://www.facebook.com/WorldHobbitProject/ . It's an international research
about the audience of the Hobbit films, involving 145 researchers in 46
countries. JRR Tolkien himself didn't care much for movies and rejected movie
offers during his lifetime. Did you BTW know that The Beatles planned to make a
version of The Lord of the Rings
(http://whatculture.com/film/best-films-never-made-1-the-beatles-lord-of-the-rings
) or that Ingmar Bergman was once offered to make a version of the LOTR
trilogy! ( http://forums.theonering.com/viewtopic.php?t=55647 ;)
* "Society and zombies" was a panel investigating the surging interests in our
friends the Living Dead. The original zombie myth wasn't about "living dead",
but about living people under control by witch doctors and drugs. Zombies
entered popular culture after 1915 when the US invaded Haiti (to keep the
Germans out) and a number of films where made in the following years. However,
the modern zombie interest started with the film "The Night of The Living
Dead" (1968). The panel saw zombies as a symbol for that we can't control
nature or science - Things Will Always Go Wrong, you know.
* I heard a presentation of the computer game Cities: Skylines (
http://www.citiesskylines.com/ ;), made by the Finnish company Colossal Order
and marketed by Paradox Interactive of Sweden. It can be described as a
combination of Sim City and The Sims, where you live, age, marry, go to your
job etc in a simulated city. Sounded very interesting and advanced.
* One of the Swedish program items was the presentation of the Turku club
Föreningen för Underliga Intressen (The Association for Strange Interests)
which seems to be a funny and "fannish" gang, organising eg computer keyboard
throwing competions. ("Fannishness" is the lighter, humorous side of fandom,
dealing with fandom itself, going way back in fannish history.) At other times
they dress up as aliens, using newspapers, tape and aluminium foil. The club
also organise a small minicon named Bacon. They have pub meetings, gather to
see films or play games and ca 40 members. (There are several Finnish
sf-clubs, in all major cities, the oldest being the Turku SF Society founded in
1975.)
* Filk of three nations was lead by Dave Weingart (US), Karl Johan Noren
(Sweden) and Päivi Itäpuro (Finland), telling about the history of fandom's
"filksongs" and singing examples of them. We have for instance the classic
"Pappersframmatningen är trasig" ("The Paper Feed Is Broken") by the (later)
Tolkien translator Erik Andersson, from the early 1980's. It's the sad story of
a fanzine editor's troubles with his duplicator (the Swedish original is here
http://videolagump3.com/mp3/view/152661885/pappersframmatningen-ar-trasig.html).
Here a few lines in translation:
The paper feed is broken
The papers crumbles into small, small balls
Oh, the zine will be delayed
The paper feed is broken, so broken
The subscribers will get angry
If the zine doesn't arrive on Friday
But the program had much, much more. There were awards ceremonies, a fancy
dress show, a small art show, a con newsletter (a total of four issues), a free
pinball machine and other stuff. The program ended 6pm every day, and in the
evenings there were official convention gatherings in nearby pubs. The weather
was sunny and everyone seemed happy. I managed to fire off some Twitter
messages (see https://twitter.com/sfjournalen ;) and those interested in the
Finncon tweeting should look for hashtag #Finncon2016.
On the closing ceremony last on Sunday GoHs, gophers and all program
participants were thanked and next Finncon was presented, which will be in
Turku, July 14-15th 2018.
There won't be a Finncon in 2017, since there is a little event called
Worldcon 75 instead.
--Ahrvid Engholm
Awards on Finncon
The Atorox Award
(to best Finnish short story 2015
1.Magdalena Hai: Kaunis Ululian (Kristallimeri. Osuuskumma)
2.Oskari Rantala: Didin historiat (Portti 4/14)
3.Tuukka Tenhunen: Ugrilainen tapaus (Spin 4/14
Tähtifantasia Award
(to best translated fantasy book 2015)
Etäisten esikaupunkien asioita, short storty collection by Shaun Tan (Tales
from Outer Suburbia)
Tähtivaeltaja Award
(to best translated sf book 2015; this award was announced before Finncon)
Uusi maa, by Margaret Atwood (MaddAddam)
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