SMOF News, volume 3, issue 11

Fan group destroyed by penalty clause, StarFest has a successor, and news in brief.

Fan Group Forced to Dissolve By Hotel Penalty Clause

The Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumers Guild, a longtime chapter of the International Costumers Guild, has been forced to dissolve after being unable to pay the penalty clause after not meeting its room block commitments for Costume-Con 40.

An email from the GCFCG’s representative to the ICG, as circulated on Facebook (first reported by File 770) reads:

I unfortunately have some difficult news to share. You might be aware that Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumers Guild (GCFCG) did not have the attendance we needed at Costume-Con 40 to meet the room block for the hotel, which is in large part because of complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One thing that worked against us is that the hotel penalized the convention heavily for not reaching a room block practically doubling the bill to $200,000. Since the con the guild has worked hard to come up with some means of paying the hotel to be able to continue the chapter and unfortunately we have exhausted our options.

The chapter board of directors, after looking at every option possible, had to come to the extremely difficult decision, due to the unmanageable debt, to dissolve the GCFCG. This is definitely not something we are doing lightly and to quote Sarah “It is painful and it hurts, but it has to be done.” All members will have their ICG dues paid for a year, so the T chapter will have to be created.

Jamie

GCFCG board rep

Costume-Con 40 was held in Bethesda, Maryland on April 1-4, 2022. It was the first Costume-Con held after the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Fan conventions often negotiate very high penalty clauses in exchange for lower room rates and other convention features valued by members. It is not uncommon for the penalty values to be high enough to destroy the sponsoring organization if invoked.

When COVID-19 first appeared, government restrictions on gathering sizes allowed conventions to invoke force majeure, allowing cancellations without having to pay penalties.

A new ICG chapter is reportedly being formed to replace the GCFCG.

GalactiCon Picks Up From StarFest

As previously noted here, StarFest, one of the longest-running media cons out there, held its last edition in May 2022. Westword reports that the new convention GalactiCon (Denver, Colorado, November 24-26) is attempting to carry the tradition forward.

The formation of GalactiCon was given urgency by the passing of one of StarFest’s longtime organizers:

Then, early in 2023, StarFest organizer Stephen Walker passed away. "All the talk about what might come next suddenly ramped up when we lost Steve," Newman reflects. "How were we going to fill this StarFest-sized hole in our hearts? So that's when I started talking with people. I had the network, I had the resources, I had the experience. I thought I could put together a dream team of people from StarFest, Denver Comic Con, a lot of other smaller events around town. We could make this work. We could make this happen."

And they are. But why on Thanksgiving weekend? "We knew that was going to be controversial," Newman admits, "but we have a couple of reasons for that. For one, it marks Stephen Walker's birthday on November 25, so that will be a great way to honor him.

Walker is credited as a co-founder elsewhere in the article, though Westword’s earlier article on the end of StarFest says that it was founded by his wife KathE and her sister Karoline Jobin, with Stephen Walker marrying into it later.

In Brief

• Cosplay Expo (Los Vegas, Nevada, December 8-10) has added Heartless Aquarius and CelloKat as guests.

• Kawacon (San Antonio, Texas, March 2-3) has added Griffin Burns and Paul Castro Jr. as guests.

• Trek Long Island (Hauppauge, New York, May 31-June 2) has added Alyma Dorsey, Adele Shepherd, Bonnie Gordon, and Clyde Kusatsu as guests. Thank you to the reader who pointed out that SMOF News has been reporting its location in the wrong state until now.

Event Calendar

Weekend of November 17-19

• Philcon 2023, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA

• CONjuration (fantasy), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• Dragonsteel 2023 (Brandon Sanderson works), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

• LIL-CON 7 (gaming), Lockport, New York, USA

• Con-Densed (gaming), Worthing, UK

• DAU Barcelona (gaming), Barcelona, Spain

• BGG.CON (gaming), Dallas, Texas, USA

• Meeple-A-Thon (gaming), Kansas City, Missouri, USA

• U-Con (gaming), Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

• Dragonsteel 2023 (gaming), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

• Gridcon 4 (boardgames), Taunton, UK

• Free Play Florida (retro video games), Lakeland, Florida, USA

• SNAFU Con (anime), Reno, Nevada, USA

• Kumoricon (anime), Portland, Oregon, USA

• Colossalcon North (anime), Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, USA

• Anime NYC, New York City, New York, USA

• Anime Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

• Anime Town Pensacola, Pensacola, Florida, USA

• Naiccon 2023 (media), Nairobi, Kenya

• Heroes Dutch Comic Con, Utrecht, Netherlands

• Memphis Comic & Fantasy Convention, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Weekend of November 24-26

• Westercon 75/Loscon 49: Enchanted Loscon, Los Angeles, California, USA

• Imladris XXI, Kraków, Poland

• ChamBanaCon 52: The Final Fannish Family Reunion (relaxacon), Normal, Illinois, USA

• Consequences P: Passionate Consequences (gaming), Christchurch, UK

• GobbleCon (gaming), Burlingame, California, USA

• LFG Canberra (boardgames), Griffith, Australia

• Asian Board Games Festival 2023, Singapore

• De Bello Ludico (wargaming), Bracciano, Italy

• Anime Festival Asia, Singapore

• Anime Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA

• Akimatsuri (anime), Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

• Milan Games Week & Cartoonomics (media/gaming), Milan, Italy

• Stars of Time Comic Con, Weston-super-Mare, UK

• Fan Expo San Francisco (media), San Francisco, California, USA

• GalactiCon 2023 (media), Denver, Colorado, USA

• Chicago TARDIS (Doctor Who), Lombard, Illinois, USA

• Starbase Indy: The Past is Prelude (Star Trek), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Weekend of December 1-3

• Smofcon 40 (con-running), Providence, Rhode Island, USA and online

• TeslaCon: The Curse of Anubis & the Arcane Mystery Machine (steampunk), Middleton, Wisconsin, USA

• Midwest Furfest: Snow Days (anthropomorphic), Rosemont, Illinois, USA

• Dragonmeet (gaming), London, UK

• PAX Unplugged (tabletop gaming), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

• Shorehammer (miniatures gaming), Ocean City, Maryland, USA

• Emerald Con (Pathfinder & Starfinder RPGs), Bellevue, Washington, USA and online

• Otaku U II (anime), Livonia, Michigan, USA

• Wintercon (media), New York City, New York, USA

• GalaxyCon Columbus (media), Columbus, Ohio, USA

• Geek Days Lille (media), Lille, France

• Abilene Comic Con, Abilene, Texas, USA

• Comic Con Okinawa, Camp Foster, Okinawa, Japan

• L.A. Comic Con, Los Angeles, California, USA

• Abilene Comic Con, Abilene, Texas, USA

• CCXP 23 (media), São Paulo, Brazil

• For the Love of Sci-Fi 2023 (media), Manchester, UK

Weekend of December 8-10

• XXVII Mereth Aderthad (Tolkien), Zaragoza, Spain

• Cosplay Expo, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

• FURUM 2023: Con Space (anthropomorphic), Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

• Midwest GameFest, online

• Everwinter (miniatures gaming), Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

• Cayden’s Ascension 4723 (Pathfinder and Starfinder RPGs), online

• 29 Manga Barcelona (anime), Barcelona, Spain

• Yama-Con: 11th Century (anime), Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, USA

• Anime Wonder Festival, Tucson, Arizona, USA

• Anime Frontier, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

• Ocean City Comic Con, Ocean City, Maryland, USA

• Maui Comic Con, Wailuku, Hawaii, USA

• Comic Con Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

• Tokyo Comic Con, Tokyo, Japan

• Raptor Con 2023 (media), Evansville, Indiana, USA

• RADP 28 (Disney theme parks), Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

Weekend of December 15-17

• Sac Gamers Expo (video games), Sacramento, California, USA

• DreamHack Atlanta 2023 (video games), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• Con+Alt+Delete (anime), Rosemont, Illinois, USA

• OtakuFest (anime), Miami, Florida, USA

• Nashville Anime Day, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA

• Mahoning Valley Comicon, Boardman, Ohio, USA

Coda

• Bird election tampering (BBC)

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