History

Past Eastercons
See also the Fancyclopedia and Wikipedia entries

This list is based on the list generated by Pat McMurray for the Memory Hole Annex. The original research for this page was done by Pat and based heavily on the historical work of Rob Hansen. Additional research and updates have been offered by several people, with particular thanks to Peter Weston.

Eastercon is a fairly loose term, by which is meant the British National SF Convention. This loose terminology would imply that it cannot legitimately be held in the Channel Islands or Northern Ireland, but the politics of terminology are beyond the scope of this document. We have followed Rob Hansen's listing in general, only making changes where we have documentary proof to back them up, or the convention chair has contacted us. For example, Rob lists 1952 as Loncon, but the 1952 Programme Book makes no such reference. The 1949 Programme Book calls that convention Loncon. We've followed Rob in calling the 1953 convention Coroncon, though from the Programme Book and other documents, it appears this convention was not called that at the time. We've also added some Guests where there are supporting documents, and added all committee members, again where the documentary proof exists. The committee members are those listed in the Programme Book or similar at-con or post-con publication as being on the committee. Corrections and additions are welcome.

Guests, especially in early years, are a complicated issue. One in particular we'd like to mention. At the 1944 Eastercon, Professor A M Low was intended to be the Guest Speaker, as per the Progamme Book, but he was unable to attend due to other commitments. We feel that guests that were invited but could not attend should still be listed.

This page would not exist without Rob Hansen's assistance, and we have accepted his numbering system as it stands. We would also like to quote his introduction to his revision of the list, produced for the 1989 Eastercon, Contrivance:

"The current series of British National conventions is traditionally numbered from the 1948 Whitcon. It was, however, not until 1955 that the national con was held over Easter rather than Whitsun, and the name 'Eastercon' came to be applied to the series. The earlier 1944 convention is not considered to be an 'Eastercon' in that sense."

"Previous convention lists have not shown a national convention in 1957. Recent research has, however, revealed that one took place, which necessitates a certain amount of renumbering. Fortunately, a case can be made for not counting Festivention, in 1951, as a national convention. It was planned as an international convention, to tie in with the Festival of Britain, and was, indeed, more international than many Worldcons of the time. It had attendees from as far away as the USA, Canada and Australia, as well as several European countries. With these adjustments, the 1971 convention can still be called Eastercon 22, and Contrivance remains the 40th British National SF Convention."

Early Conventions

Eastercons

Note: in 2006 Convoy was chosen to be the 2007 Eastercon, but a combination of factors, primarily a very low membership takeup meant they had to fold at the end of October 2006. Contemplation was formed at Novacon 2006.

Similarly, Pasgon was chosen to be the 2017 Eastercon but was unable to run the convention (primarily due to issues with the venue), so Innominate was chosen at the 2016 Eastercon to replace it.

Concentric was chosen to be the 2020 Eastercon, but was cancelled outright following Government guidance on Covid-19 safety. A Bidding Sesssion was run Online to select the 2021 Eastercon.

ConFusion was chosen to be the 2021 Eastercon, intended to be at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole, but was run as a full Online convention following Government guidance on Covid-19 safety.