Wait, you’d like to know more before joining us?

We’re bidding for summer 2029 in Dublin city centre. Our proposed dates are August 2nd to August 6th 2029.

Dublin was the host of the 2019 Worldcon – several of the 2029 bid team worked on that Worldcon – and we’d like to invite you back to celebrate speculative fiction in all of its forms. That's different genres in the form of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and also the different media; 2D and 3D art, fan fiction and original fiction, music, anime, films, comic books and graphic novels, academic research and more. 

What’s Worldcon?

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. 

Each specific year’s WSFS members also nominate and vote for that year’s Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award, and Astounding Award. They are also eligible to take part in the site selection process for the Worldcon two years down the line. So WSFS members in 2027 will vote on where the 2029 Worldcon will be.

Why Dublin?

Our crossroads lit by stories and stars.

Dublin 2029 invites you to the crossroads, a place both permanent and ever-changing. At the edge of Europe, the veil between worlds can be thin, which makes it a perfect gathering place to share stories, plant ideas, and strike deals…. Where we dance together and step apart to create anew, year upon year. 

Welcome to the crossroads. 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. Where we celebrate the up-and-comers in their fields and hear from new voices alongside established ones.

We contextualise the past and highlight the good while acknowledging where we could have – and should have – done better, and can do better now and in the future. 

The team and supporters

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. 

With an event and fandom this size, we are always building the team. Some of the people involved are Meg MacDonald, Alex McKenzie, JC Clarke, John Doody, Sadhbh Warren, Ila Khan, Marc Morris, Emily January, Andrew January, Catherine Sharp, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Declan Meenagh, Nicholas Whyte, Tommy Ferguson, Keith Smith, Owen Duffy, Kate Wood, Sasquatch Nelson, and Meredith Peruzzi.

We hope you'll join us at the crossroads.