Finncon | |
---|---|
Genre | Speculative fiction |
Location(s) | varies between Helsinki, Turku, Jyväskylä and Tampere |
Country | Finland |
Inaugurated | 1986 |
Attendance | 3000–15000 |
Organized by | Finncon-yhdistys ry |
Website | http://www.finncon.org/ |
Finncon is the largest science fiction convention in Finland and, with up to 15,000 participants, one of the largest SF conventions in Europe. Finncon is unique among SF conventions because it has no participation/membership fee, and is funded primarily on various cultural grants as well as income from traders. The event is organised annually in different cities in Finland.
From 2003 to 2009 and in 2011 the convention included the anime convention Animecon, which boosted the convention's attendance and public visibility significantly. Since then the conventions have separated, and the future of the Finnish Animecon is currently uncertain beyond the 2011 combined Finncon-Animecon.
Finncon alternates between different cities in Finland without a formal rota. Recently the event has been held almost every year, but occasionally a year is skipped if no city is found to host the event that year.
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Tom Ölander was one of the main actors to kick-start an active fannish culture in Finland. He was the prime mover for the second Finnish sf convention King Con in 1989, with the assistance of a boat load of Swedish imports, and regularized the tradition of convention holding by working to institute the biannual Finncon tradition. For these efforts he is domestically known as the "father of Finnish Fandom", and internationally as "Finland's Mr. Science Fiction". In recognition of his significant role in the Finnish science fiction fandom, Ölander was a Guest of Honor of Finncon 1989.
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