July 9 - 12
at the Burlington Marriott (Burlington, MA)
Woohoo! Readercon starts tomorrow! If you haven't registered yet, you can do so at the door.
See the program here. See the list of guests/speakers here.
Timewarp Back to the 80s for an Unexpected Dance Party
Bring your dancing shoes. There will be an 80s Dance on Friday night at Readercon 26. Yay!
After our Meet the Pros(e) party, DJ Sioban will break out a playlist of A-ha, Depeche Mode, Cyndi Lauper, The Go-Gos, Rick Springfield and many more to take us back to a time known for great dance tunes and zany clothing trends. You don’t have to go anywhere; everybody there will simply fall through a timewarp right back to the 1980s.
Why is a dance party on the Readercon program after 25 years of building a convention brand 100% focused on speculative fiction books with a very strong (ahem, mandatory) emphasis on books?
The short answer is that Kelley Eskridge, SF author and wife of Nicola Griffith, one of our R26 Guests of Honor, suggested it. We thought it sounded like a fun way to balance out the intellectual seriousness of the conversations, panels, and other programming throughout the weekend. Kind of like chocolate covered pretzels, which combine salty and sweet into something extra delicious. (Note: Even if you don’t like this pretzel analogy, you may still enjoy the 80s Dance.)
A slightly longer answer from Kelley herself about why she suggested it:
Because I love to dance with speculative fiction book-lovers, who are the most seriously rocking people in the universe. I tweeted this wild wish after reading about John Scalzi's 80s dance at Detcon last year, and was delighted when Readercon responded You betcha!, without even knowing that I was (briefly) a go go dancer who specialized in... that's right. I can't promise to be the best dancer in the world, but I am enthusiastic and entertaining and I LOVE THE 80s. Please, please come dance with me!
So come join us on Friday night at 11:30 pm for Readercon’s first ever 80s Dance. Decade appropriate clothing is encouraged and may even be celebrated with an award or two.
Dig through your closet, your basement, your storage unit, or your local consignment shop for a signature 80s party look that you can rock.
In fact, dressing like a character from an 80s SFnal video like Patty Smyth's "The Warrior" or Rick Springfield's "Human Touch" is HIGHLY WISHED FOR by the Readercon staff, but not required.
See you there!
