Eurocon 2004
01/09/2004 . Source: Radi Radev 

Radi Radev reports from this year's European Science Fiction Convention. While the convention was first created in 1972 in Triest, Italy, this was the first year it's been hosted in Bulgaria.

The European Science Fiction Convention Eurocon 2004 was held from the 5th till 8th August in the city of Plovdiv. This convention was first created in 1972 in Triest, Italy. This year it took place in Bulgaria for the first time.

There were over 360 Bulgarian and about 200 foreign participants from 17 countries at the event - among them SF writers, publishers, translators, journalists and, of course, fans.

Eurocon 2004 was held under the patronage of Plamen Panajotov - vice-premier of the Republic of Bulgaria. The main organisers of Eurocon were: Ivan Krumov - owner of the specialised SF publishing House Kuasar, Yuri Ilkov - the publisher of Terra Fantastica magazine and winner of Eurocon for number one fan, Fantastica Foundation, the municipality of Plovdiv, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Culture, Club for Science Fiction and heuristics Ivan Efremov, Club for science fiction - Earthsea, Club for ecoculture and fantastic art - Uibrobia, Tolkien Club - Rin Ennor, Society Words, Bulgarian Federation for electronic sports, Valinor Paladium Ltd.

The greatest person to be present at the festival undoubtedly was the writer Robert Sheckley. Apart from him there were Ian Watson - a writer from UK, Andrzei Sapkowski - the best selling Polish fantasy writer; Patrick J. Gyger - the director of Maison d'Aillieurs, a Swiss museum housing one of the world's largest collections of Science Fiction. Mr. Gyger also presently serves as artistic director of the Festival International de Science-Fiction Utopiales, Nantes/France/. At Eurocon 2004, also took part was Roberto Quaglia - one of the most promising Italian Science Fiction writers.

Unfortunately, the world famous Russian SF&F writer and winner of many prizes like Strannik/Wanderer/, Interpresscon, Eurocon 2003 and Aelita, Sergey Lukyanenko did not visit the Eurocon, although he had previously confirmed his participation and his name was on the agenda. However, Eric Simon - one of the most famous German SF writers, whose works were published in the former Soviet Union and other so-called 'Eastern block' countries (in the time of communism!) came to the event to the greatest pleasure of all participants and fans.

The various activities on Eurocon were held in the halls of the City House of Culture, Plovdiv. Sometimes, the activities were on three at the same time and it was hard to choose which one exactly to visit.

No doubt the most interesting and exciting event was the meeting with Robert Sheckley, held on Saturday, 7th August. The second most interesting event was the meeting with Patrick J. Gyger - the director of Maison d'Aillieurs - the museum housing one of the world's largest collections of Science Fiction. I should not forget to mention the fact that the first European performance of the movie 'I, Robot', inspired by the short stories of the immortal Isaac Asimov took place at Eurocon 2004.

Another thing that attracted the attention was the nominations for Eurocon 2004. A voting was organised but the results had not come out at the time this present article was written. The participants had the opportunity to see the presentations of Eurocon 2005 and Worldcon 2005.

Lecturers at the festival were Alexander Alexandrov, Prof. Alexander Nedelikovich, Atanas Slavov, Dr. Dimitar Kabaivanov, Georgi Ivanov, Grigor Gachev, Ilina Konakchieva, Ilian Iliev, Ivailo Ivanov, Ivan Atanasov, Ivan Ivanov, Ivan Popov, Liza Moroz, Dr. Lachezar Filipov, Lyubomir Nicolov, Martin Kadinov, Silvia Rasheva, Todor Yalamov, Yuri Ilkov and Zdravko Georgiev.

It is interesting that at least half of the time, the participants separated to made contacts between or to create contacts.

I want to finish my report with the words of Agop Melkonyan/ the second most famous Bulgarian SF writer after Lyuben Dilov/, said at the Meeting with young Bulgarian SF writers:

'Write something. If it is liked by at least one more man except you, then it has been worth writing it! No man can write for everyone. Write for yourself.'

Radi Radev

Written and translated by Radi Radev
www.swordandmagic.com
(c) Radi Radev 2004
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