Imaginales May Be Over
Imaginales is a literary science fiction and fantasy festival which has been held since 2002 in conjunction with the city of Épinal, France. This year’s edition, which ran May 19-22, may be the last, or at least the last in its current form.
Cheryl Morgan summarizes its abrupt end:
… I have learned that the new mayor, Patrick Nardin, has fired Stéphanie Nicot, the Creative Director of the festival, and many other staff are leaving in protest.
Stéphanie was the founder of Imaginales, and has been in charge since it started. She is getting on in age these days, but had put a succession plan in place. Possibly more importantly in this case, Stephanie is a trans woman, and one of the better known advocates for trans rights in France. I’m hearing of various women and people of colour complaining that their role in Imaginales has been reduced since the new management took over.
Télérama has an interview with Nicot with her reaction to all this. Meanwhile, Stéphane Wieser, Épinal’s director of culture, lays out his views about how the festival should evolve in an interview with ActuaLitté.
Wieser looks at Imaginales as having already entered a new phase, broadening its appeal from “la fan base” to respectable family audiences, and thinks that this should continue by expanding from mere books to movies, video games, and so forth.
Wieser also calls for “professionnalisation” of the festival, which Nicot and her staff have taken as an implicit accusation that their management has been amateurish.
Other stresses are hinted at in one or both interviews: unstable funding, accusations of fascism at City Hall, and the Marsan Affair, in which the head of a major publisher was accused of inappropriate behavior (summarized here by Locus Online), some of which may have occurred at Imaginales.
A call for proposals to steer future editions of the festival is open here.
Costume-Con 40 Needs Help
Costume-Con is one of the travelling conventions, like the World Science Fiction Convention, World Fantasy Convention, and so forth, which is held as a series of one-off conventions hosted by a different fan group in a different location each year. This means each edition has its own separate budget and hotel contract to manage.
Costume-Con 40 was held in Bethesda, Maryland, April 1-4 this year. Due to the ongoing pandemic, two of its revenue sources took a major hit and it is now reaching out to the community with a GoFundMe campaign to help with the resulting debt. As it explains:
Because of the sudden cancellation of Costume-Con 38 and the rescheduling of Costume-Con 39, we lost any potential advertising and seed money that might have been generated by those events. So far, we have been able to cover all our expenses except one, the venue cost.
Many of our attendees, especially our international members, were unable to attend due to Covid travel restrictions were levied right before the convention. Because of this, over a fourth of our registered members (100+ people) were not able to attend. This led to our not meeting the room night obligations in our contract, and so we must pay a hefty “attrition” penalty.
Costume-Con 38 was to have been held in Montréal in 2020, but was cancelled due to limits on public gatherings at the time. Costume-Con 39, originally scheduled for 2021, was moved to 2023.
The GoFundMe goal is $80,000. If it raises more than Costume-Con 40 needs, the excess will be donated to Costume-Con 39.
Event Calendar
Weekend of August 5-7
ArmadilloCon 2022, Austin, Texas, USA
AMA-CON, Amarillo, Texas, USA
CrossingsCon 2022 (sf books), Montréal, Québec, Canada
PulpFest 50, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Surrey Steampunk Convivial, Epsom, UK
Megaplex: Electric AvUwU (anthropomorphic), Orlando, Florida, USA
Tierra de Nadie (gaming), Mollina, Spain
Gen Con 2022 (gaming), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Continuum 2022 (gaming), Oadby, UK
Game On Expo, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Fragapalooza 2022: Hybrid Venture Showcase (LAN gaming), Leduc, Alberta
Crunchyroll Expo (anime), San Jose, California, USA
Otakuthon (anime), Montréal, Québec
Advík (anime), Prague, Czechia
Puchicon NJ (anime), Teaneck, New Jersey, USA
KO+Con (anime), Lewisville, Texas, USA
Anime-zing!, Davenport, Iowa, USA
Queen City Anime Convention, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Animangapop Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Animethon 2022, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Mid City Micro-Con (comics), Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Fanboy Expo Knoxville (media), Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Dublin Comic Con, Dublin, Ireland
Really Cool Comic Con, Flint, Michigan, USA
Bell County Comic Con, Belton, Texas, USA
Weekend of August 12-14
Geek Out at Staten Island, Staten Island, New York, USA
CONvergence 2022: Your Reality May Vary, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Argentina FurFiesta (anthropomorphic), Buenos Aires, Argentina
Wild Prairie Fur Con: Tropical Paw-radise (anthropomorphic), Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Wild Game Roundup, Austin, Texas, USA
Long Island Retro Gaming Expo (video games), Garden City, New York, USA
Grand Tribunal (Atlas Games products), Cheltenham, UK
Abunai!: The Good, the Bad, and the Cheeky (anime), Veldhoven, Netherlands
Anime Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
Ronin-Expo (anime), Los Angeles, California, USA
Superstar Anime, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
AniBash (anime), Rochester, New York, USA
MatsuriCon 2022: Tana's Night Market (anime), Columbus, Ohio, USA
Pretty Heroes (female-centered anime), Toronto, Ontario, USA
MAPLD Fan Fest (media), Matteson, Illinois, USA
Sunrise Comic Con, Sunrise, Florida, USA
Fan Expo Boston (media), Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Fandom Fest 2022 (media), Schenectady, New York, USA
Monster-Mania 50 (horror media), Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA
Starfleet International Conference 2022 (Star Trek), online
TFNation (Transformers), Birmingham, UK
Weekend of August 19-21
SchlossCon 3/SFCD-Con 2022 (German national sf convention), Schwerin, Germany
Epic Nerd Camp, Darlington, Maryland, USA
NecronomiCon Providence (weird sf), Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Discworld Convention 2022, Birmingham, UK
DenFur (anthropomorphic), Denver, Colorado, USA
Game & Party Con, Jacksonville, Florida, USA
MaricopaCon 9 (gaming), Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Ragnarok XP (gaming), Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
QuestCon Orlando (gaming), Orlando, Florida, USA
Coulee Con 2022 (gaming), La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA
HistoriKC Fest (miniatures gaming), Overland Park, Kansas, USA
Nashcon 2022 (miniatures gaming), Nashville, Tennessee, USA
SCG Con Baltimore (collectible card games), Baltimore, Maryland, USA
MAGWest 2022 (video games), San Jose, California, USA
Delta H Con (anime), Houston, Texas, USA
Shikkaricon (anime), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Kitacon (anime), Warwick, UK
Flame Con (diverse comics), New York City, New York, USA
Nerd-Vana (media), Oxford, Mississippi, USA
Soda City Comic Con, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
Emerald City Comic Con, Seattle, Washington, USA
Kelowna ComiCon, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
Hub City Comic Con, Lubbock, Texas, USA
Weekend of August 26-28
F-Con (59th Japanese national sf convention), Fukushima, Japan
Bubonicon 53, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Dni Fantastyki, Wrocław, Poland
Asylum Steampunk Festival, Lincoln, UK
Eurofurence 26 (anthropomorphic), Berlin, Germany
Camp Feral! (anthropomorphic), Algonquin Park, Ontario
Furrydelphia (anthropomorphic), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
IndyFurCon 2022: Furries on Broadway (anthropomorphic), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Dragonflight Gamecon 42, Bellevue, Washington, USA
FallCon 35: Return to Analog (gaming), Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Tacticon (gaming), Aurora, Colorado, USA
Epic.LAN Tabletop Edition (gaming), Coventry, UK
Tabletop Scotland (gaming), Perth, UK
Great Escape on the Lake (gaming), Bradford, New York, USA
Draconicon 2022 (gaming), Tel Aviv, Israel
2D Con (video games), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Kokorokon (anime), St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Kazokukon (anime), Toledo, Ohio, USA
Kin-Yoobi Con (anime), Union City, California, USA
PopCult Anime Con, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
AniNite 22 (anime), Vösendorf, Austria
HanamiCon 2022 (anime), Graz, Austria
Stars of Time (media), Weston-super-Mare, UK
Fan Expo Canada (media), Toronto, Ontario, Canada
East European Comic Con, Bucharest, Romania
Comic Conroe, Conroe, Texas, USA
Everfree NW (My Little Pony), Bellevue, Washington, USA
Power Morphicon (Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers), Pasadena, California, USA
Weekend of September 2-4
Dragon Con, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
CoKoCon 2022, Tempe, Arizona, USA
San Diego Afro Con (Afrofuturism), San Diego, California, USA
Oxonmoot 2022 (J. R. R. Tolkien), Oxford, UK
Big River Steampunk Festival 2022, Hannibal, Missouri, USA
Tails & Tornadoes Fur Con: Ren Fur (anthropomorphic), Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Mephit Fur Meet 2022: Trick or Treat (anthropomorphic), Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Pacificon Game Expo 43, Santa Clara, California, USA
SaltCON End of Summer (gaming), Layton, Utah, USA
Alamo City Game Convention, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Electric City Dice and Cosplay (gaming), Great Falls, Montana, USA
WGGCon (gaming), Croton-on-Hudson, New York, USA
LincCon (gaming), Merrill, Wisconsin, USA
PAX West 2022 (gaming), Seattle, Washington, USA
Gateway 2022 (gaming), Los Angeles, California, USA
TCEP 2022 (gaming), Sterling, Virginia, USA
GrandCon 2022 (gaming), Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
ConsimWorld Expo 2022 (gaming), Tempe, Arizona, USA
NOVA Open 2021 (wargaming), Washington, DC, USA
ReaperCon (miniatures gaming), Denton, Texas, USA
Pixel Expo (video games), Perth, Australia
SCG Con (collectible card games), Columbus, Ohio, USA
Nan Desu Kan 25 (anime), Aurora, Colorado, USA
San Japan 13 (anime), San Antonio, Texas, USA
Tracon (anime), Tampere, Finland
Anime Escape Fest, Grand Prairie, Texas, USA
Saboten Con 2022 (anime), Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Comic Con Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
Fanboy Expo Orlando (media), Orlando, Florida, USA
Tucson Comic Con (media)/RinCon (gaming), Tucson, Arizona, USA
Long Beach Comic Con, Long Beach, California, USA
Robcon (media), Abingdon, Virginia, USA
Giganticon (media), Killeen, Texas, USA
Meta Con Minneapolis (media), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Whooverville 13 (Doctor Who), Derby, UK
Coda
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