Balticon 50: Survival of the Filk-i-est
The 50th Balticon is in the books. We survived. Mostly.
As you know if you were there, and may have heard rumored if not, there were significant anomalies in the way the program was put together this year. Key people failed to delegate when needed, made decisions without consulting the affected program track head(s), or otherwise failed to communicate. (In a few cases the communication failures were mine. I certainly apologize for those.) At least six different rooms were used for filk or music-related events over the course of the weekend. Open filk was scheduled for a different room each night, though we ended up using the same room Saturday and Sunday to fix a Sunday program conflict. (So we could test the acoustics and decide which room we liked best, I was told.)
Also, not surprisingly, there were some growing pains in the first year at a new hotel, not to mention the basic challenges inherent in accommodating 2800 attendees, even given the larger area of function space available in the Renaissance. (It is noted the space has capacity for 3200 people.) I suspect next year's team will be taking a look at how we used the space and perhaps reduce the extent to which people are attempting to travel vertically up and down within the hotel. Better identification of which stairs can get you where would also be useful.
That being said, I believe we had a very successful music program, despite the game of Follow the Bouncing Filk Room. billroper and daisy_knotwise had fun, performed a fine concert on Saturday, and participated in a bunch of programming on and off the music track. Gretchen was a presentation judge for the Masquerade, continuing the tradition Marty Gear accidentally started by empaneling ladyat and Heather Dale in consecutive years. The Saturday night circle possibly set a Balticon record for actively-participating singers and musicians. I am certain we've had more warm bodies in the room other years (e.g. the Sunday Open Filk in 2008 when UT were the Music GOHs) but high listener-to-performer ratios.
I took advantage of BSFS inviting all the previous living Author GOH's - 18 of whom accepted and attended - to set up a Story and Song program. It was a bit touch-and-go due to the above-mentioned anomalies, but we pulled it off. Connie Willis, Larry Niven, Harry Turtledove, Steve Miller and Sharon Lee contributed readings, and Bill, Lauren Schiller, Ada Palmer, Roberta Rogow and I contributed songs. ladyat will be happy to know that Lauren, Ada and I did a fine job with "A Gown too Blue". (Unfortunately, I now have filkerdave's parody stuck in my brain. Thanks, Dave.)
For the music program we celebrated Balticon's 50th year by spotlighting performers who have been part of filk and fannish music at Balticon and elsewhere in the Baltimore/Washington corridor for many years. Concerts included Dr. SETI, Roberta Rogow, osewalrus, T.J. and Mitchell Burnside-Clapp, the Boogie Knights, and maugorn.
We were delighted to see Fran Wilde win this year's BSFS Compton Crook Award for her debut novel Updraft. the_sheryl knows Fran from Buffy/Angel fandom, and recently we've tried to at least meet for coffee when we're all at a con. We didn't quite manage that at Balticon, but I did finally get to sing "Bridge Shanty" for her. According to her Twitter feed she is now "dedOfSquee."
We wrapped up the music program with a panel titled "Expanding the Circle". Perhaps an ironic title given the recent growth in Balticon filk, but actually inspired by the sprawling discussion on the MASSFILC list that followed Concertino. There was some good food for thought and some good ideas for programming to try at next year's Balticon and other local conventions.
Hope everyone who joined us at Balticon had a good time despite the nuttiness with the program and new hotel growing pains. Look forward to seeing y'all soon!
As you know if you were there, and may have heard rumored if not, there were significant anomalies in the way the program was put together this year. Key people failed to delegate when needed, made decisions without consulting the affected program track head(s), or otherwise failed to communicate. (In a few cases the communication failures were mine. I certainly apologize for those.) At least six different rooms were used for filk or music-related events over the course of the weekend. Open filk was scheduled for a different room each night, though we ended up using the same room Saturday and Sunday to fix a Sunday program conflict. (So we could test the acoustics and decide which room we liked best, I was told.)
Also, not surprisingly, there were some growing pains in the first year at a new hotel, not to mention the basic challenges inherent in accommodating 2800 attendees, even given the larger area of function space available in the Renaissance. (It is noted the space has capacity for 3200 people.) I suspect next year's team will be taking a look at how we used the space and perhaps reduce the extent to which people are attempting to travel vertically up and down within the hotel. Better identification of which stairs can get you where would also be useful.
That being said, I believe we had a very successful music program, despite the game of Follow the Bouncing Filk Room. billroper and daisy_knotwise had fun, performed a fine concert on Saturday, and participated in a bunch of programming on and off the music track. Gretchen was a presentation judge for the Masquerade, continuing the tradition Marty Gear accidentally started by empaneling ladyat and Heather Dale in consecutive years. The Saturday night circle possibly set a Balticon record for actively-participating singers and musicians. I am certain we've had more warm bodies in the room other years (e.g. the Sunday Open Filk in 2008 when UT were the Music GOHs) but high listener-to-performer ratios.
I took advantage of BSFS inviting all the previous living Author GOH's - 18 of whom accepted and attended - to set up a Story and Song program. It was a bit touch-and-go due to the above-mentioned anomalies, but we pulled it off. Connie Willis, Larry Niven, Harry Turtledove, Steve Miller and Sharon Lee contributed readings, and Bill, Lauren Schiller, Ada Palmer, Roberta Rogow and I contributed songs. ladyat will be happy to know that Lauren, Ada and I did a fine job with "A Gown too Blue". (Unfortunately, I now have filkerdave's parody stuck in my brain. Thanks, Dave.)
For the music program we celebrated Balticon's 50th year by spotlighting performers who have been part of filk and fannish music at Balticon and elsewhere in the Baltimore/Washington corridor for many years. Concerts included Dr. SETI, Roberta Rogow, osewalrus, T.J. and Mitchell Burnside-Clapp, the Boogie Knights, and maugorn.
We were delighted to see Fran Wilde win this year's BSFS Compton Crook Award for her debut novel Updraft. the_sheryl knows Fran from Buffy/Angel fandom, and recently we've tried to at least meet for coffee when we're all at a con. We didn't quite manage that at Balticon, but I did finally get to sing "Bridge Shanty" for her. According to her Twitter feed she is now "dedOfSquee."
We wrapped up the music program with a panel titled "Expanding the Circle". Perhaps an ironic title given the recent growth in Balticon filk, but actually inspired by the sprawling discussion on the MASSFILC list that followed Concertino. There was some good food for thought and some good ideas for programming to try at next year's Balticon and other local conventions.
Hope everyone who joined us at Balticon had a good time despite the nuttiness with the program and new hotel growing pains. Look forward to seeing y'all soon!