BayCon 2023

BayCon 2023 was held July 1-4, 2023 in person at the Santa Clara Mar­riott in Santa Clara CA. Catherynne M. Valente, Tehani Farr, and Brad Lyau were guests of honor; Laser the Boy and Brianna Wu were special guests; and Frank Wu was toastmaster. Around 750 memberships were sold, including 16 VIP memberships, five Patrons, and two support­ing memberships, with 737 warm bodies. Programming offered 429 items total including genre panels, gaming, maker’s workshops, and more. Panels covered topics such as ‘‘Designing a Basketball Team on Mars’’ with Gregg Castro, Candace Lowe, Brad Lyau, G. David Nordley, and Frank Wu; ‘‘How the Evolution of Walking Can Inform SFF Biology’’ with Lorelei Esther, Edward Kukla, and H. Emiko Ogasawara; and ‘‘Hopepunk: What Is It, and Why Should We Be Writing More of It?’’ with Father John Blaker, J. Scott Coatsworth, Colin Fisk, and Mar­garet McGaffey Fisk. Other of­ferings included six readings, the Variety Show & Masquerade, an all-ages drag show, a screening of the film Shakespeare Sh*tstorm, small gatherings with the guests of honor, a talk and autograph session with Robert Picardo, a concert from Laser the Boy, plus performances by local Star Wars club Lux Saber Corps.

The art show featured 14 art­ists; the dealers’ room had about 25 vendors, including Tachyon Publications. Parties included an annual Twin Peaks party. Nine tickets were sold to the four-day Gallowclass writing workshop hosted by M. Todd Gallowglas.

BayCon ran its annual Blood Drive and raised over $5,000 for this year’s charity recipient, The Planetary Society, not including “a personal donation of $1000 from Robert Picardo (from his earnings doing autographs) or the $300 from a script he sold of an episode of Quantum Leap that he was in.”

BayCon 2024 is planned for July 4-7, 2024 at the Santa Clara Marriott, with Elizabeth Leggett and MariNaomi as guests of honor and Bonnie Gordon as toastmaster. More info is available at their website.

Photos by Arley Sorg.

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