ICon: Tel Aviv 2023

The theme for this year’s ICon, held Oc­tober 3-5, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel, was ‘‘Antiquities’’, a perfect fit to the rich and long history of this country. It afforded an opportunity to a collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority, that had its own booth with artifacts and held workshops and lectures about the art of making mosaics and practicing archeology. It is also a theme that allowed for a fascinating talks, panels, and other events related to the genre. From Star Wars’s old republic to the British Empire in fiction, from Tom Bombadil that remembers ‘‘the first raindrop’’ to the first generations of games of all sorts. One interesting panel that I was privileged to take part in dealt with the beginning of genre writing in Israel. We dis­cussed, for example, the important place of the internet and forums in bringing together writers, readers, and editors. It is a rather recent history, considering that genre writing in Israel came into its own only the late 1990s and early 2000s, but we could still point to three or four generations of genre writing in Israel.

In addition to six lecture halls, this year ICon also operated up to eight gaming events at any given time. Here too many of the games were themed around history and antiquity.

As with other conventions in recent years, special attention was paid to events for children and young adults. These include anything from ‘‘story time’’ for children as young as four, to games for six- to ten-year-olds to lectures aimed for a younger audience. One workshop that caught my eye (but I didn’t attend) was ‘‘Antiquities from the Future’’, in which the participants tried to ‘‘interpret’’ their everyday objects as if they were archeologists from the future. The emphasis on events for children and young adults arises from the practical needs of the fandom. These events allow fans that have children both to share their field of interest with their children, and attend conventions without needing to find expensive solutions for child care (ICon is held over a school holiday).

There are few media events in Israel along the lines of Comic-Con, and ICon is also one of the places where cosplayers can show their works. In the last few years, an official ‘‘red carpet’’ event is being held where people appear in co­splay and awards are given. Unfortunately, there was no original production this year, but the special events included a ‘‘Task Master’’ style show, and a reading of a science fiction-action-comedy movie that is in development now. We are also still struggling a little bit financially, so once again we were unable to have a guest of honor at Icon this year.

Overall just under 300 different events were held over the three days of this year’s Icon, and almost 10,000 tickets were sold to these events. At one point the authorities in charge of safety in the venue said we might have to close the gates, because the place was close to reaching its maximum capacity, underscoring the fact that we do need to find a new place for ICon, but thankfully nobody had to be turned away.

–Ehud Maimon

Please note: this con report was written before the recent attacks in the region, and as such does not comment on them. Our hearts go out to all who are impacted by the violence there.
This report and more like it in the November 2023 issue of Locus.

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