FantasyCon 2020 Announcement

It will no doubt come as little surprise that, due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, we have made the decision that FantasyCon 2020 will not go ahead. It is simply not realistic to expect us to be in the position where having 500 people crammed into a convention space will be a sensible proposition. The FantasyCon 2020 committee have not taken this decision lightly, but it is the right decision to protect you, our members.

The FantasyCon 2020 committee will, instead, be running FantasyCon 2022, and we have some exciting information about this, below.

FantasyCon 2021 is still scheduled to happen, and although it is too early to confirm with 100% certainty, the FantasyCon 2021 team is aiming to run the convention in the Midlands. You can expect more details on this over the coming months.

FantasyCon 2022 will be in London, and as we are no longer running to a tight timescale for this, we will be running it from a hotel that has all the facilities we need, so if you wish to stay onsite you can, and with over 2 years to plan you can expect a great convention! Details to come in due course (but see below for Guest of Honour announcements).

FANTASYCON 2022

We are delighted to be able to confirm two Guests of Honour already for 2022!



LIZ WILLIAMS published her first sf novel, The Ghost Sister, in 2001 and has published six stand alone novels and four series since, including the urban fantasy Detective Inspector Chen sequence and the very funny Diary of a Witchcraft Shop (volumes 1 and 2). Liz has been shortlisted for both the Arthur C. Clarke and the BSFA awards and has a PhD in History and Philosophy from Cambridge. She is secretary of the Milford UK SF Writers’ Workshop. Her recent books include the already acclaimed Comet Weather (NewCon Press) and Miracles of Our Own Making: A History of Paganism (Reaktion Books).

RIVERS SOLOMON writes about life in the margins, where they are much at home. Their debut novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, was a finalist for a Hurston/Wright and Lambda award and appeared on the Stonewall Honor List. In addition to winning the Lambda award, their novella, The Deep, has been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards. Solomon’s next book Sorrowland is forthcoming 2021, about a young woman who begins to transform monstrously after escaping the isolated religious compound where she grew up.

I’ve paid for FantasyCon 2020. What will happen to my membership fee?

You have three choices:

1) You can receive a refund.

2) You can transfer your membership to FantasyCon 2021 (The Midlands)

3) You can transfer your membership to FantasyCon 2022 (London)

(Nice to know your convention fees are paid so far in advance!)

We will be emailing details of how to do this over the next week or so. Refunds may take a little while to process as we’ll need to process them all individually.

I’ve paid for a hotel. Will you refund that?

Sadly, no, but it is worth checking with your hotel what their cancellation policy is for your specific booking. We know that a number of you have booked with the Travelodge, and we understand that there are two types of booking: Flexible Rate and Saver Rate. Flexible Rate bookings are fully cancelable and refundable, so that’s straightforward. Saver Rate bookings are usually not cancelable, but Travelodge are offering vouchers for any COVID-19-related cancellations. These vouchers are redeemable at Travelodge properties until the end of 2021. See here for details: https://www.travelodge.co.uk/about/voucher-terms-conditions/

For other hotel bookings refer to the terms of your booking or travel insurance.

The British Fantasy Awards and the British Fantasy Society AGM

The BFS will announce specific plans for these, but they are planned to go ahead, online.