Past Labor Day Travels – September 03rd

As mentioned over the last few days, we went to Worldcon or NASFiC eight of ten years in ten years between 2000 and 2009. I had gone to Worldcon or NASFiC (and in 1979 I went to both, one of only two people to do so that I know of, the other being my college roommate who introduced me to fandom and conventions in 1978) twelve times in the twenty-two years between 1978 and 1999. But in the 2010’s? Nada.

By 2020 of course we were dealing with COVID and lockdowns and travel restrictions. The 2020 Worldcon in New Zealand was cancelled in the real world, but held virtually. We had serious plans to get to the 2021 Worldcon in Washington, D.C., but COVID was still an issue, they had some serious problems with their hotel shutting down, the convention got moved to December, and we ended up not going.

By 2022 most of the travel and other COVID restrictions were gone (we can debate elsewhere whether that was wise) but it was time for us to get back on the Worldcon trail.

2023’s Worldcon is in China and they’re having some issues that have caused them to move it to October. There are also many folks in fandom, including a number of prominent authors, who will be skipping the Chengdu Worldcon due to various human rights policies and violations by the Chinese government. But, with Worldcon out of North America, there was a NASFiC, which brought us to Winnipeg six weeks ago.

Next year Worldcon is in Glasgow, Scotland, with a NASFiC in Buffalo, NY. We would like to get to Glasgow having never been to Scotland, and a trip to Buffalo might also be nice. We’ll see.

2025’s Worldcon location will be determined by Worldcon members voting at Chengdu. So far only Seattle has a bid to host the convention. We like Seattle.

As I learned at my first Worldcon in 1978:

FIAWOL = Fandom Is A Way Of Life = can be true

FIJAGDH = Fandom Is Just A God Damned Hobby = should probably be true, but too often isn’t

FIJAGDWOL = you do the math, but it’s the greatest truth of the three