About Confiction 1990
It all started with a phone call from a fan in New York way back in 1984. Then it took three years of bidding to win the race in Brighton in 1987. Another three long years to make ConFiction1990 a fact in The Hague, the second World Science Fiction Convention on the continent of Europe.
We have created this website and social media avenues to preserve the past for the future and… to promote our intended Reunicon 2020 to commemorate 30 years after ConFiction 1990. Not only attendees and supporters from the original convention are welcome, but all science fiction & fantasy fans from all over the world are welcome. And who knows, your visit might ignite a spark in your local fandom and before you know it, you are organising the next Worldcon yourself!
We look forward hearing from you or seeing you in 2020 in The Hague and till then, enjoy the memories we wish to like and follow or share with you all ConFiction1990.
First contact; phone call from New York fan Neil Belsky to initiate possible worldcon in the Netherlands with suggested site Amsterdam.
Formation of bid team with Kees van Toorn, Angélique van Toorn, Johan-Martijn Flaton, Jo Thomas, Larry van der Putte, Annemarie van Ewijk, Roelof Goudriaan and Lynne-Ann Morse.
Suggested site of convention changes from Amsterdam to the Hague after consultation with Dutch Board of Tourism with the Congresgebouw as possible venue, first negotiations with venue and hotels; sponsor deal with KLM for bid.
Busy year with promotion of Holland in 1990 with trips around the world to conventions like Boskone, Saarcon and Eastercon with worldcon in Atlanta as last change to convince fans to vote for Holland in.
First contact with possible GoH candidates, expansion of the team and more promotional tours to spread the word of Holland in 1990. The name ConFiction pops up during one of the committee meetings and will be the name of the convention if the bid is won at the worldcon in Brighton.
A caravan of cars with committee members, loaded with cheese, buttons and beer travels to Brighton where we win the bid and announce our Guests of Honour (GoH): Harry Harrison, Wolfgang Jeschke, Joe Haldeman and Andrew Porter, with as toastmistress Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
Another possible GoH who was approached and initially agreed to accept unfortunately died but would he have lived, the name of the convention might have been DuneCon – which would have been appropriate given that this was Frank Herbert and the Hague lies at the sea with beautiful dunes and beaches.
A year of hard work, expanding the committee, setting up a network of agents around the world and going from one to the other convention get support for ConFiction and trying to get as many members as possible.
At NolaCon II our committee members were thrown in front of the lions as the convention there faced complete disaster and failure due to the collapse of the organising committee shorty before the event. The floating worldcon committee stepped in and we were invited to join, work for and at Nolacon which proved to be a valuable learning process.
We publish our first progress reports.
Our team work hard on all fronts, Jo Thomas comes up with first draft of the programme, we ask and get help from both UK, US and fans from all over the world. We organise a first small get to know each other convention and work convention in the Hague, preparing ourselves to work as the “shadow committee” in Boston at Noreascon 3. There we officially become the seated worldcon with just one year to go.
In Germany the Wall comes down, which meant a huge number of fans from the former Eastern European countries gearing up to come to ConFiction in the Hague.
We organise a second work convention at Ockenburg with both US and UK fans to meet the European and Dutch fans; things are falling into place and in August the convention takes place – sadly the war In the Middle East prevents a large number of US fan to come over to Europe, but ConFiction becomes a melting pot with fans from all over the world, busloads full from the former East Block.
With over 3500 members it is the second worldcon on the continent and a huge success.
Publications
Progress Report 1 – Winter 1987
Progress Report 2 – Autumn 1988
Progress Report 3 – Summer 1989
Confiction core team
Meet the people who were behind the Confiction 1990 and are now organising the ReUnicon 2020.
