Lituanicon is an annual science fiction convention in Vilnius, Lithuania. I went to Lituanicon on our trip to Lithuania in May of 2004. Lithuanian science fiction fandom traditionally holds a science fiction short story and art contests a few months before the Lituanicon, and presents awards to the winners at the Lituanicon. In May 2004, the topic for the short story contest was “The futures of Lithuania”. The stories had to be in the genre of science fiction or fantasy and deal with the topic of a possible future of Lithuania.
p323 One of the winners of the science fiction / fantasy short story contest is presented an award by Ruta, one of the contest judges (right). The title of the contest was “The futures of Lithuania”. The stories had to be in the genre of science fiction or fantasy and deal with the topic of a possible future of Lithuania.
p0000324 The winner of the short story contest “The Futures of Lithuania”, who wrote under a pen name Zumis, receives his award. The stories that competed in the contest had to be at least indirectly related to the future of Lithuania, hence the name. Not an easy task, to say the least, but some of the stories were pretty good. And some other were SO BAD they were good!
p0000327 The judges of the short story contest talk about their judging criteria. Left to right: Gediminas K, Lina, and Gintas
p328 Romas and Kastytis gave a presentation on the potential futures of Lithuania. They examined current political and economical trends and extrapolated from them.
P0000344 Board meeting of Lithuanian fandom. A fairly representative sample of Lithuanian SF/F fans: heavily into all black/goth look — though their interests are much broader than the color range of their clothing — and rather young (in their 20s). I discovered that the thirtysomethings such as myself and other people I knew from way back when, are now referred to as “the old fandom”. Sigh. Well, we may be a minority, but we are not surrendering our positions.
p345 30- and 40-somethings: the “old fandom”, among the ranks of which I count myself. These are the people who got involved in the Lithuanian science fiction fansom in the 80s and 90s – the founding fathers and mothers, as it were. Left to right: Herta, an unidentified guy, Gediminas K, and Gediminas B. The latter was also a long-time president and founder of Vilnius science fiction club “Dorado”.
p346 Lithuanian SF/F fandom is having a board meeting. Representatives of science fiction clubs from various regions of Lithuania have come together at the Lituanicon to brainstorm on how to make future conventions better, how to gain more visibility in the mainstream society, and… well, I’m not sure what else. The two people on the right are Ruta and Justinas. I don’t recognize the rest; they must have joined after I left.
p347 Two not-so-obscure personalities of Lithuanian SF fandom, Variagas (left) and Monika (right).
p0000348 Narimantas, one of the speakers at Lituanicon 2004, gave a talk where he argued that vampires may actually be nanotech-enabled space travellers.
conducted the award / closing ceremony at the Lituanicon 2004.
p0000355 Gabrielius and Edita conducted the award / closing ceremony at the Lituanicon 2004.
p358 Gediminas, the longtime president and founder of Vilnius science fiction club “Dorado”, is listening to the Lituanicon award / closing ceremony.
p0000359 SF fans socialize around Variagas (center) in the hallway of the theater where the convention took place. Ah, the contrasts of soviet era buildings: “gold” candelabra and peeling paint.