We are a growing group of fans who’d like to host the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Dublin in 2029. Would you like to see this happen? Or hear from us occasionally on our progress?
We’re bidding for summer 2029 in Dublin City Centre.
Dublin was the host of the 2019 Worldcon – in fact, several of the 2029 bid team worked on that Worldcon – and we’d like to invite you back where we can celebrate speculative fiction in all of its forms. Different genres in the form of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, sure, but also different media – 2D and 3D art, fan fiction and original fiction, music, anime, films, comic books and graphic novels, academic research and more.
Worldcon is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS). It was first held in 1939 and, after a hiatus during WWII, has been held continuously since 1946.
A specific year’s WSFS members also nominate and vote for that year’s Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award, and Astounding Award, plus they are eligible to take part in the site selection process for the Worldcon two years down the line. So, for example, WSFS members in 2027 will vote on where the 2029 Worldcon will be.
Ireland is a place where Neolithic tombs and warnings around the Sídhe still hold sway alongside cutting-edge technologies and pharmaceutical research. It’s where some of the oldest vernacular literature in the world has led to Swift and Stoker and Barlow and O’Brien (Fitz-John or Flann, take your pick), through pros-also-fans Bob Shaw and James White, and onward to today’s writers like Connolly, Long, Murphy, Zebedee, Ó Guilín, Rees Brennan, Griffin, Fennell, and more.
Similarly, we want the next Dublin Worldcon to embrace its function as a meeting-place. It’s where everyone is a fan, even the pros. It’s a holiday and a networking event and a safer space to be yourself, or so we work toward. It’s where we have hundreds, if not thousands, of programme items to discuss what we love – and sometimes to argue about it, too. We contextualise history and highlight the good while acknowledging where we could have – and should have – done better, and can do better now. It’s also where we celebrate the up-and-comers in their fields and hear from new voices alongside established ones.
The bid is led by Brian Nisbet and Marguerite Smith, fans in and from Dublin itself. Between them, they have been involved in conrunning for multiple decades in Ireland, the US and elsewhere. This experience ranges from small local conventions to Worldcons.
As we build our team and get permission to list names, we’ll add them here starting in 2024.