Credit: Mélanie Schons

More than 3,700 visitors attended this year’s LuxCon / EuroCon event, which took place at the opderschmelz cultural centre in Dudelange from Thursday 7 to Sunday 10 April 2022.

Organised by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Society Luxembourg (SFFS) as part of Esch2022 – European Capital of Culture, the ninth edition of Luxembourg’s Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Fan Convention (LuxCon) was paired with the 2022 European Science Fiction Convention (EuroCon).

Including volunteers, artists, vendors and other booths, as well as visitors, there were over 4,300 people on site over the four days of the convention.

Speaking to Chronicle.lu, Gérard Kraus, President of the SFFS, explained that the organisers were "all very happy" that the event could go ahead despite the COVID-19 pandemic; the 2021 edition was held in a hybrid format, with two days of online streaming and an in-person art show at Neumünster Abbey (neimënster) in Luxembourg-Grund.

Returning to this year's event, Mr Kraus stated: "Many of the friends, artists, cosplayers and visitors I spoke to have expressed the relief that the [convention] could take place under somewhat normal conditions and that a lot of the usual faces were present, making it the family gathering we had become used to before the pandemic. A relief and spark of joy to [almost] everybody".

The journey to hosting the 2022 EuroCon

When asked about how LuxCon came to host the 2022 EuroCon, Gérard Kraus said that it all began in 2016 "when we [SFFS] threw our hat in the ring at the Barcelona EuroCon, at that point to put on the 2020 EuroCon". He added: "When the people of Rijeka's [Sci-Fi & Fantasy Convention] Rikon, renamed Futurikon for the occasion, approached the convention organisers with the idea to do 2020 because Rijeka was a European Capital of Culture, we happily moved to 2022, which would then allow us to possibly become part of Esch2022. We had an interview with the first coordination team and promptly ended up in the first bid book and were encouraged by the then artistic coordinator of the subsequent team to put in our application when the call for projects was made public".

Organising the 2022 LuxCon / EuroCon

When asked about what additional work had to go into putting together this special edition, the SFFS President explained that "organising a EuroCon meant putting on a longer show". Consequently, the organisers opted to divide the event into an opening night and three days – a format which represented "over 33% more time in programming", according to Mr Kraus.

The organisers also reached out to some of "Europe’s main science fiction, fantasy and horror creating countries" to obtain a more "pan-European list of guests and participants" for this edition. As Mr Kraus explained: "Hosting all those guests and transporting them to and from the transportation hubs is another challenge that was bigger this year".

"In addition, doing all of this three years after the last one, with limited ways of meeting in groups and with a couple of the core team having left made it so fewer of us had to carry the load, making for its own challenges", he continued. "The original idea of LuxCon came out of our association's [SFFS] monthly meetings and the bond welded during those".

To meet these challenges, the organisers "ran through a number of scenarios in the lead up to the event [and] as pandemic restrictions waxed and waned, so did our plans". Gérard Kraus added: "We were relieved when the government lifted the restrictions earlier this year as it meant that we would be able to run a somewhat normal event, and the strain on the organising and security teams would be lessened".

Regarding the organising team and volunteers, Mr Kraus explained that "LuxCon could not run without volunteers and fellow fans giving some of their time to make sure all the duties are taken care of, and so we were very happy to see that new faces joined the team for the weekend, and even more so that some of them have expressed an interest in joining the core team organising the event".

He noted that Esch2022 had offered "vital financial support" for the 2022 LuxCon / EuroCon (up to 50% of the total budget). Being part of this project also allowed the SFFS "to get in touch with their Remixers (volunteers who can apply to be part of Esch2022 events) and have them come in and help, most of whom were very positively surprised by the warm atmosphere of the event and have promised to return next time even outside of their Esch2022 commitment".

2022 novelties

Concerning what was new for the 2022 LuxCon, Gérard Kraus noted that the SFFS' links with the head of the opderschmelz cultural centre "allowed us [the organisers] to explore that new venue".

In addition to a new location, the EuroCon dimension "brought with it a few mandatory programme items like the two general meetings and the European Science Fiction Awards ceremony", he noted. “It brought with it a need to provide information and coordinate with hotels. It made the event longer, which had all kinds of repercussions".

On the subject of this year’s European Science Fiction Awards, Mr Kraus recalled that "Luxembourg's Claude Peifer was awarded the European Grand Master award for his tireless dedication in organising the fan communities in Luxembourg and Germany, his writing, his support of young writers and ceaseless encouragement of anything related to the fantastic cultures".

Guests

The SFFS President noted that this year’s guests included Arkady Martine, who won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel for her debut novel "A Memory Called Empire" (and who has been nominated for her second such award) and her wife Vivian Shaw, as well as multiple award-winner and Hugo nominee Aliette De Bodard and Star Wars actress Femi Taylor (who played Jabba the Hutt's Twi'lek slave dancer Oola in the 1983 film "Return of the Jedi"), as well as German bestselling fantasy author Bernhard Hennen and his partner in writing Robert Corvus.

"We had the pleasure of having online interventions by German bestselling authors Kai Meyer, Andreas Eschbach and Tommy Krappweis", continued Mr Kraus, adding: "Swedish horror and roleplaying game authors Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén delighted us with [their] presence along with Poland's Agnieska Halas".

An international convention

When asked if this year's LuxCon had attracted more international visitors than usual, Gérard Kraus emphasised that "LuxCon has always been able to draw visitors from far afield". He continued: "One anecdote from the first edition saw a Swiss couple show up and state that they'd always wanted to visit the Grand Duchy and the convention had finally got them to come".

Nevertheless, the number of European countries represented at this edition was certainly higher than in previous years, with delegates coming from Ireland, the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, France, Sweden, Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Belgium, Israel, the Netherlands and Poland, among others.