Eastercon/Orbital questions

[matgb]

jonnynexus has some questions:

I know nothing about Eastercon, and the main website doesn't seem to answer any of the questions I have. Which are chiefly:

a) Is it purely SF, or is there a fantasy element to it? (Given that my novel's comic fantasy).

b) What sort of numbers attend? (i.e. roughly, 200? 500? 2000?)

He can go to a games convention and promote his gaming products, or he can go to an SF convention to 'mingle' with SF types, which should he do? For those unaware, this is the guy behind the award winning Critical Miss gaming humour webzine.

Comments

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

the_magician would be a good person to ask here but IIRC it is mainly SF.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

I've not been for a few years, but Eastercon's alweays been the big multi-ring circus of UK conventions: at least as much fantasy as SF, and not just restricted to written media: TV, film and gaming get a reasonable crack of the whip.

Numbers used to be creeping up towards the 1000 mark, but the combination of rising prices (at least partly driven by rising expectations of what a hotel should provide) and increasing difficulty of access by public transport (itself not as cheap as it used to be) seemed to kick the curve back down again. I'm saying nothing about the days when you could have several people crashing in the one room

May also be worth looking at eastercon or orbital_2008....

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Do you want questions answered here?

If so...

Yes - there is a fantasy element to it, as you can tell by Neil Gaiman and Tanith Lee being among the guests for 2008.

I'd guess numbers would be around 800. Things are a little odd with the smaller than usual 'con last year balancing against the London effect that usually brings more people along. The guests this year will also have an effect. I'd guess 800 to 1000.

Hope this helps!