Finncon Beginning

It’s time for the Finnish national convention once again. This year Finncon will be held in Jyäskylä, GoHs are Ellen Kushner, Pat Cadigan, Sari Peltoniemi, and fan GoH Liisa Rantalaiho. Also appearing are American fantasy author Delia Sherman, British editor and critic Cheryl Morgan, and a whole bunch of Finnish writers and other interesting sf persons.

So far the arrangements have gone recently well. The foreign guests arrived safely and were yesterday taken to a dinner cruise in the Helsinki archipelago. Today started with a press conference (which went very well), followed by a drive to Jyväskylä, just in time for the city reception (for the Jyväskylän kesä arts festival that Finncon is part of).

After a very hot day it was very nice to go to a lakeside cabin in the vicinity of Jyväskylä (which we found, eventually, with only a couple of wrong turns) for some evening snacks, a sauna, and a swim at the lake.

Tomorrow, the convention program starts with some literature and film programming, and the convention proper takes place on Saturday and Sunday at the university main building. See you there!