Frequently asked questions for the convention.
A convention is where a community comes together at a venue to watch panels, participate in event items, or just socialise with others. It differs from a conference in that all attendees, including participants in programme, are part of the community and is run by volunteers, rather than as a primarily commercial undertaking.
No, you can stay anywhere you like. However, if you want to stay at the hotel for convenience, we will have a group booking rate for the convention. See Our Venue for further information, including the discount booking link.
The software we are using in the website uses “subscrption” to mean someone who has paid and gives you access to update your profile etc.
No, not at all! Though members do get a discount on their ticket. With great events run throughout the year, and many member benefits, why not consider joining? Go to the British Fantasy Society for more information.
An Adult attending ticket means that you can attend all the activities of the event (subject to room capacities) apart from the Banquet (there is a separate ticket to cover the meal). It also includes voting rights for the British Fantasy Awards and World Fantasy Awards. A day ticket means you can attend the activities on that day. A Saturday day ticket does not include the Banquet. Tickets do not include a bedroom at the hotel or food. You can book a bedroom at the hotel with a 20% discount if you are attending the event. Please see our venue page for more details. If you have not purchased a ticket for the event you are not able to take part in any event activities.
There are a number of options; firstly with regards to cost. There are discounts in place for BFS members, full time students and people who are unwaged. If you are not sure if these apply to you, you are welcome to email us. With regards to accesibility; please do read our policy and the accesibility audit of the venue. We firmly believe that providing information allows disabled people to identify where/what the problems are for them and then talk to us about their individual needs where these are not covered. If you need further support, either financial or other aspects, please do fill in the form on the Bursary page or email us, if you prefer.
We select our programme participants from our attendees. While you do not need to have any particular qualifications, we will select people to try and get an interesting mix of views and experience as well as trying to balance some demographics. See Programme Participation for more info.
All attendees need to buy a ticket for the event, even if they are taking part in programme items. This includes panelists, people in launches or parties, dealers, artists etc. See Programme Participation for more info.
After you have bought your membership, please go to the Member Centre option and click on Edit Profile. Here you can fill in the name you would like displayed on the website. If you do not want your name on the website, please tick the Hide me from Member listing option. If your badge name reads as “Please Update” then it will not be displayed on the website, so please do ensure this is updated. This is also where you can upload your photo and edit your bio.
Please fill out the form on the Dealers’ page. We will consider applications and allocate space. We will aim to get a good balance of items being sold and support independent publishers. Self published authors with only one or two titles may be better putting their books on the fantasycon table, see details in the shop.
The Redcloaks are the team of volunteers who help us run the event. They do all sort of things including running registration, helping in the dealers room, assisting attendees and generally being superstars. You can identify volunteers when they are on duty as they wear a red high vis.
Yes, WFC is included in Fantasycon, although that was not the intention. See our blog post on World Fantasy for more information.
Fantasycon is an inclusive and welcoming environment. We want all our members to feel happy and comfortable attending the convention. You may use the name you are happy with when buying your ticket. Your “legal” name is not required for our payment system, however if you are claiming student discounts, you may need to show a valid student ID card, even if this is your “legal” name. You will also be asked to provide a “badge name” for the convention, which will be used to identify you as an attending member. This may be a nickname, pen name, include pronouns etc. It will also help us if you have claimed a BFS discount that your name on the joining form matches BFS data, but if this is not the case, please just let us know before the convention. For this or any other concerns, please contact us in the first instance, and we will help!
Fantasycon aims to be an inclusive and welcoming environment. There will be gender neutral toilets available as well as one with gender based labelling. All of the toilets have lockable cubicles. We would ask that you use the toilets that you are most comfortable with.
We do not police who uses which toilets as that would be invasive and likely to be discriminatory. If you are not comfortable using the general facilities then you have the option of using the accessible facilities.
Questioning why people are using a specific facility, invading other privacy, trying to prevent someone from accessing facilities or removing gender neutral signage will be treated as a violation of our code of conduct. We cannot guarantee that members of the public also at the hotel will adhere to our codes, but will work with the venue to ensure our attendees safety and comfort.
Fill out the form on the art show page.
There is a list of attendees on the website, but this only has the people who have opted in via the setting on our website, when the full programme comes out there will be more information about who is involved in what item. If they do not appear in either of these places the organisers will not be able to advise if they are attending or not, for privacy reasons. Many attendees also post on their social media to say if/when they are attending.
There will be a list of attening dealers and exhibiting artists in due course.