#fandom conventions

The 2025 Worldcon has issued a statement about the risks of travel to the US due to the Trump Administration. Unfortunately this statement is very misguided and makes incorrect assumptions about the current situation.

It is not only LGBTQ travellers who have to fear entering the US. It is not every single person entering the US from abroad to travel to a fandom run convention.

This is because of the following:

CBP and other Homeland officers now have to meet quotas of people deported.

CBP and ICE officers have been authorised to interpret the regulations at their full discretion.

You can be determined to be attempting to illegally enter the US for work if you are volunteering or expected to volunteer in any capacity.

You can be determined to be a dangerous foreign national if the officer finds two items of evidence for it, such as having a tattoo and having posted anti-trump content on your social media.

This new arbitrary hostile environment has already ensnared travellers from Germany and the UK.

Being deported from the US under the current administration is not just being put on the next plane back. You are placed into general population detention with everyone else detained that day. Then you may be transported to another Homeland Security detention facility, possibly in a different state. You will be held there for weeks until you are processed even if you have asked to be voluntarily returned to your country.

The detention facilities are overcrowded, and there are currently multiple outbreaks of infectious diseases. Detainees are treated as criminals who's detainment is a punishment. Detainees are kept in general population detention until they can be presented before an immigration judge, who have week long waiting lists.

No amount of travel insurance, consular support or legal support is going to get you out of that detention facility before they decide to let you go home.

It is almost certain that some percentage of foreign attendees to Worldcon will be detained on entry and placed into one of these facilities.

DO NOT TRAVEL TO THE 2025 WORLDCON OR ANY OTHER FANDOM OPERATED CONVENTION.

all these physical meetups and conventions and things getting cancelled and not very many people seem interested in just moving online?

i guess it's bc they figure: they're online all the time, it's not special, it's nothing different

maybe it's all moved to discord or streaming services? but it's just that, to me, tumblr would actually be great for this

we used to have events on here - remember jaegercon? and with the new group chat and photo/video functions it would be even easier to do so now?

some people have jumped on the idea: making and reblogging posts to support artists or crafters that won't be making con money, etc. for example

but why not just have a con here? i say tumblr instead of discord or twitter because 1) public, so larger audience 2) hosts multiple kinds of media: video, links, photos, long texty explanation posts 3) unlike twitter everything on a single blog is chronological, uninterrupted, easy to see by scrolling and 4) people can submit posts or use a specific public tag to make their additions visible to those interested

people have already set aside the time

'staff' make an account for it - announce a date and time

set up livestreams for the panels or just have panelists post their main thoughts and then take turns answering asks during a specific time period (just like tumblr itself does with promos),

let artists or sellers submit posts with their wares to 'artist alley' or whatever so people can browse

have groupchats in specific timeslots for that convention hall feeling

you can still have cosplayers posting photos even if there aren't physical photo ops

just, like, take the time and make it an actual online Event somewhere - pick a site, pick a manner of access, set up a way to take donations or get payments for admission to a 'convention space' if you have to

why let all the work go to waste? some things are lost - find other ways to make good things happen. people love to feel a part of something, give them something to feel a part OF

“Connexions, a little every-other-year slash con held just outside Washington D.C., is seeking vids made between August 2018 and August 2019 for its vidshow. The call for vids says they're looking for vids "that are a) slash and b) multimedia"--I assume they mean both at once maybe? But if you want to ask for any clarification, it looks like the person to contact is Ker at [email protected] . For more details on the con, see their website at http://www.connexions-south.com/. The page on their site that focuses on the vidshow specifically is here. “

From their Dreamwidth post

Slash submissions should be m/m, f/f, or poly.

If you wish to submit a gen vid, it should deal with the canonical representation of the fandom.

An individual vidder can only submit 3 recent (made since August of 2018) or premiering vid.

We do ask that vids not include explicit materials from sources other than the shows themselves.

On an as-of-this-recording recent episode of Charlie Jane Anders & Annalee Newitz podcast “Our Opinions Are Correct”, they discuss ways that SF cons (implicitly meant to be LitSF cons) can be more equitable in how they’re organized and run – and they present a lot of solutions that Anime Conventions have been using successfully, but without getting into that anime cons have been using those…

Registered for Escapade 36? Check! Hotel reservation made? Check! If not, head over here: https://escapadecon.net/escapade-36-hotel-and-registration-information/

Now the fun part, tell us what you want to see for programming!

We promised that if you're one of those people who loves to bounce ideas off of other folks, we will have panel submission brainstorming parties, and we weren't kidding!

Panel Suggestion Parties will be on Discord, in the atrium voice and chat channel, on these dates/times: Sunday, October 19, 2025 1:00 PM Pacific PDT Saturday, November 15, 2025 1:00 PM Pacific PST Saturday, December 13, 2025 1:00 PM Pacific PST

Note that these are Pacific Time, and the clocks "fall back" between the October and November parties, so "daylight time" and "standard time".

If you want to participate in one of the parties and aren't on Discord (yet), email [email protected] for an invitation.

If you've never made panel suggestions before, the parties are a great way to see how ideas end up as panels and to get inspiration from what others are saying.

For the Escapade "Old Timers" among us, come to the parties and share what fannish fun is keeping you going these days.