This year wasn’t my 10th BristolCon (thanks, COVID), but it was my 10-year anniversary. So this isn’t going to be a journalistic write-up of panels and programme items. I didn’t pay overly much attention to the “professional” side of the con this year, ahem. I did visit some panels, but I never really take pictures or notes of those. The post is more me sharing the love for a con that has become a second home.
How it started
Years ago I met Marielle in the Fantasy-Faction Facebook group, and we became pretty strong friends. In 2016 we decided to try BristolCon, because some of our other online friends would be there.
We were both pretty anxious about it all. The plan was to go together, and if everyone turned out to be awful, we’d just hide out in our hotel room and read.
I also brought my emotional support husband, Andreas. I’m not just struggling with social anxiety; travel is also a nemesis of mine. Not the flying itself, but everything before it: cancelled trains, endless security queues, the vague fear of having accidentally packed a bomb. As soon as my bum sits at the gate I’m calm, but everything up to that point is horrible. So even though Marielle would be there, I loved my secondary “security blanket”!
The bubble grows
Once there, we met up with our online friend GR Matthews, whose books were my first introduction to indie fantasy. (Seriously, if you’re looking for an easy, quick, fun and sarcastic sci-fi read that takes place under water instead of in the sky, you’ve got to read Silent City!) He introduced us to some other friends of his, and from there the bubble grew.
Rather quickly my own circle of friends grew too, and at first TO Munro really was the social glue that kept me going. TO is actually called Matthew, but will also answer to Theo, because a friend once introduced him wrongly to all of us, and it just stuck. He is amazing at meeting people and at having whisky stashed everywhere, which can really help with the jitters.
Around him, my circle filled up with other reaviers and favourite indie authors alike. Before each con I message them and ask them to bring every book they’ve released since last year, signed. Then I PayPal them, so there’s no postage, and the books go straight into the suitcase. This is why we arrive with two sad, not even half-full suitcases, and leave with two that are bursting with books…
The motley crew is ever growing. While there is always new faces joining, others you lose along the way, because they move or their life just goes in a different direction. And these days, Andreas is at least as involved with all these people as I am, so he has progressed from initial emotional support to lifeblood of the group.
We loved it so much that we’ve gone back every year since, unless a stupid pandemic got in the way.
Small con, big bar
BristolCon is a small con: two panel rooms and a few smaller rooms for the art room, the dealers’ room, workshops and the like.
It’s also lovingly called BarCon, because we spend an insane amount of time in the hotel bar. This year we drank it dry of whisky, and then, for good measure, of coffee too. Late nights and early mornings with horrendous self serf coffee are a thing, but not a good one..
Why small beats big for me
This is what I love about it most. I know a few dozen people, and it’s small enough that wherever I go, I find friendly faces.
The first few years, that meant I could hide behind one of them when I got overwhelmed, and join back in once my social anxiety had settled. By now I’ve been so many times and know so many people that I’m not anxious at all. It feels like a second home, and that’s what I really love about it.
Is it a bit chaotic and way less “exciting” than WorldCon? Absolutely. Did I enjoy going to Glasgow and Brighton for the bigger cons, with mostly the same circle of people but way more big names? Yes. It was cool to see the difference between the very small, “group effort” BristolCon and a big, more professional con.
But would I still prefer Bristol to the big cons by about 100%? And if I had to choose one or the other, would I go to Bristol? Yes!
Especially if you’re not great with big crowds, or with getting lost in giant hotels and convention centres, a smaller con is just so much nicer. In Glasgow, for example, I disliked just how many spaces and bars there were. I barely met some of my friends because it was all so scattered.
At a tiny con you will see everyone at some point. It’s easy to flit between tables and friends and spend time with everyone. And you don’t get lost, wandering around strange corridors without seeing a single friendly face because there are thousands of people to sort through.
This year
The SPFBO panel
This year I was on the SPFBO panel for, I believe, the third time, and it’s getting less awful. The whisky helps here again, though this year there was random toffee vodka, which was even more my thing. I don’t drink at home, only on special occasions, and BristolCon is one! It definitely makes cons a lot easier for my social awkwardness and my inability to speak to an audience.
Late nights and loading doors
Good panels, amazing friends, a great time, and making it to 2am. Then, because the clocks went back that night, making it to 2am all over again, and beyond.
I usually help carry stuff from the van to the rooms, and once the con is over I do the same in reverse. This year the van’s lock was broken, so someone had to lock the loading door from the inside. That someone was me.
Picture it: a van packed almost to the roof with programmes, speakers, flight cases and assorted assembled bits and pieces, and me on top of it all, crawling towards the front of the loading space on hands and knees. Every move came with a little wince, hoping not to hear a crack, or to set off an avalanche of flight cases behind me. I made it to the side door and climbed out with everything (and everyone) intact. Being small and decently limber finally paid off!
The bookshop crawl and book haul
Aside from the con we always have some extra time on hand, so this year we did a good bookshop (and adjacent) crawl, including along other destinations:
- Waterstones
- HMV
- Forbidden Planet
- Bookhaus
- Excelsior
- Storysmith
We really only meant to go to Storysmith, but then we walked past Spirited on the way back… and couldn’t resist.
Any hobbit would understand: we had to try the Second Breakfast, along with the Interstellar.
The Second Breakfast sounds very… interesting and comes in a teacup, but it was really nice!
More like a lemonade, with no taste of toast or marmalade whatsoever.
And while we were there, we of course had to taste a couple of whiskeys. Would have been a shame not to, wouldn’t it?
We also finally visited the Bristol Museum for the first time.
The only one missing was the dog, who at least got to pose with the book haul for scale.
The BristolCon haul: two suitcases’ worth of signed books, bookmarks, pins and emergency Tim Tams.
The only one who didn’t come along, posing with the book haul for scale.
My people
Here are a few of the most important people for me. This is not an exhaustive list, and I’ve surely forgotten someone. The authors are definitely worth looking up!
Authors
Others that are my Con lifeblood
Barbara, Jude, Marielle, Alan, Rita, Tom, Nicola (sadly missing this year), Timy, James, Jon and Dan.
New to me faces
- El McInerney
- Kerry, a fellow Fantasy-Faction judge, all the way from New Zealand!
- DB Rook, who is more patient than most saints and a wonderful human being
- Richard D Andrews
There and back again (and again)
Ten years ago I set off for Bristol with an escape route to my hotel room already planned, like a reluctant hobbit who’d rather be at home. Instead I found my fellowship. These days the hardest part of the journey is the walk out of the hotel once it is over.
There and back again, every October. I’ll absolutely be back, again and again.
