Glasgow Worldcon Report

Glasgow 2024

A Worldcon for our Futures

The last Worldcon we attended was Dublin 2019. Being our hometown of course it was special. But we had been to Glasgow 1995 (with our six-week old daughter Jenny who ended up on the front page of the Daily Record being held by a Cyberman!) and other cons in that city over the years – an Eastercon or two, a Star Trek convention (Silvercon) too. I had attended Albacon 80 in the city and my hotel was on Sauchiehall Street. Following Saturday’s busy programme and anxious to get to bed I decided to walk from the con hotel to my hotel, late in the evening. When I got back to the con on Sunday morning and casually mentioned I’d walked along Sauchiehall Street at about 12.30 a.m. The local fans were either very impressed or amused that I’d survived the trip, that street and it’s adjoining areas being well known for questionable characters! Yes, Glasgow is always a fun place to go!

Yet at one point just before the con we questioned why we were going. Although we were delighted to be Guests of Honour at the Irish National convention Octocon some years back we had pretty much fallen out of fandom. Of course we still read the books, watched the tv series and films but we hadn’t been to a convention abroad for years! The most fannish thing we did was produce part 1 of a history of Irish Science Fiction from our perspective for the 30^th Anniversary of Octocon in 2020. (Part 2 is in the works, honest!) But our fannish enthusiasm was reignited once we walked into the SECC, being greeted by James Bacon and Gareth Kavanagh within minutes. The feeling of ‘belonging’ again stayed with us all weekend.