Eastercon Diary – Good Friday 25th March 2016 – Arrival And Opening Ceremony

Tweet

Mancunicon, The 67th annual Eastercon science fiction and fantasy convention officially started at noon. It was my 15th. Having registered on the Thursday I arrived about 10.30 AM to see various friends as they arrived. Everything was quite relaxed. I went up the Beetham Tower to its highest public floor, (the top half of the tower is privately owned), and I took photos of the cityscape of Manchester and Salford through the windows. The three elevator lifts were busy and guests amused themselves guessing at which lift would reach their floor first. It was often one that seemed further away that came in fastest. We should have run bets. The opening ceremony was short and sweet. We were given a quick introduction to the committee members who had all voluntarily worked to make the weekend happen, and the main guests of honour, authors Aliette de Bodard, Ian MacDonald, David Clements, Sarah Pinborough and scientist David L Clements. There were a few announcements of programme timetable changes and basic convention etiquette and then it was back to the bar for more of the best range of real ales and ciders seen at such a convention in many years. It was like a beer festival running parallel to the SF itself. Arthur Chappell