[Introduction: Gary Westfahl has authored, edited, or co-edited over thirty books about science fiction and fantasy, including the Hugo Award-nominated Science Fiction Quotations (2005) and the two-volume Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia (2021). In 2003 he won the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award for his lifetime contributions to science fiction and fantasy scholarship.]
By Gary Westfahl: The time has come to cancel or move the 2025 Seattle Worldcon.
And to cancel or move the 2026 Los Angeles Worldcon.
It has to be done, in order to honor a century-old tradition of science fiction.
From its beginnings as a recognized genre in 1926, science fiction has warmly embraced writers and readers from around the world. Hugo Gernsback happily published letters from foreign readers in his magazines and featured stories by several foreign authors. When he established the Science Fiction League in 1934, he included chapters in other nations. The first major science fiction convention in 1939 was proudly named the World Science Fiction Convention, which has been the case for every subsequent event, including two dozen held in foreign countries. Science fiction scholars have also embraced the international community by inviting foreign experts to visit America and having several conferences of the Science Fiction Research Association in other countries. As David G. Hartwell said,
Internationalism has been appealing to the Anglo-American SF community since the 1940s; for more than four decades the colorful fan, agent, and Esperantist Forrest J. Ackerman, for example, has traveled widely to spread the greetings of American SF. In the 1970s there was a large enough international science fiction community among the peoples of the developed nations for Harry Harrison to call a conference in Ireland in order to found World SF, the world SF professional association, which now awards prizes for translations in many languages and promotes the cross-fertilization of SF literatures, inviting international responses to English-language SF.
In sum, science fiction has always welcomed, and should always welcome, writers and fans from all over the world.
Unfortunately, due to the current political situation, we can no longer welcome them to come to the United States.
Every day, there is some new horror story about a foreign visitor to America who, usually for no clear reason, has been detained at the border, thrown into prison, and subjected to brutal behavior until they thankfully are finally released and deported back to their home country. This is precisely the sort of treatment that we can anticipate some foreign fans may experience if they come to Seattle this year.
And this simply cannot be tolerated.
There are alternatives that should be considered. Even though there will be awkward and expensive cancellations, it should not be too much trouble to move this year’s Worldcon to the nearby city of Vancouver, in Canada, to ensure that none of our friends from other countries are mistreated. If this is impossible, the conference organizers should contact every foreign member, advise them not to come to Seattle, and set up numerous options from them to participate in the conference remotely. And if foreign fans insist on coming, the convention should establish a Legal Defense Fund to assist any of them if they are detained during their stay. As for the 2026 Worldcon, there will be ample time to find an alternate venue. Canceling or moving these conventions will also enable the science fiction community to make its own statement of protest against the government’s unrelenting hostility to all foreigners, including those that come to our country legally.
Today, given recent developments, a resident of a foreign country will have to exercise great care in coming to the United States. Tourists should go someplace else; students should seek advanced degrees in other countries; and science fiction fans should reconsider venturing into our country.
Until our nation returns to treating foreign visitors in a lawful and humane manner, the science fiction community should think long and hard before offering another Worldcon in the United States.
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Co-signed from Canada.
When I attended the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal as its TAFF delegate, I still had to fly from Birmingham UK to Newark, endure intimidating security checks by Obama-era TSA goons and then hop over the border into Canada. Pretty certain European members would have difficulty reaching Vancouver without landing on US soil.
There are also fans and authors resident in the US who may not wish to cross into Canada for fear they might not be allowed back in. I worked on the committee of a UK convention during Clinton’s tenure of the White House which lost Algis Budrys as a potential guest because of such concerns.
I feel sorry for the Seattle and LA teams. They couldn’t have planned got your and all seem good people.
But their country is no longer safe.
I agree. I wouldn’t travel to the USA, and I’m American.
It’s true. But the committees (especially Seattle) would be hard-pressed to come up with the many thousands of dollars in penalties to hotels and the convention center if they arbitrarily cancelled the event and refunded the memberships…or moved the event to another location and had to pay those penalties in addition to the new meeting space fees.
I hate what is happening to the U.S. this year, but I think Mike is completely underestimating the effort, cost, and negative consequences of trying to move a WorldCon with only a few months notice.
This is the headline of an opinion piece in today’s San Francisco Chronicle.
Have things reached the point where it’s time to leave the U.S.?
I think there isn’t enough time or money to move Seattle. LA should move, though.
I appreciate the sentiment but no one is moving anywhere it’s “unconstitutional” and people are constantly complaining how our US leaders don’t know the constitution. Our SF community should take the time to read our own.
Moving from Seattle may not be possible this late in the game, but how much of the con could pivot to virtual, so members could attend from home without crossing borders?
Bob Hranek: Gary Westfahl is the author of the piece. Not Mike.
Mike is well aware of the catastrophic expense and legal exposure the Seattle and LA Worldcons would face if they broke their facility contracts. We saw a few years ago what Arisia went through when it cancelled an agreement with its hotel in order not to cross a union strike line.
The Worldcon is only a few months away. This would be more feasible for the Los Angeles con. I remember that awful Westercon in BC. It was at a university and we stayed in dorms where they allowed smoking. I am certain the smoking thing has been taken care of but it was not large enough for a Worldcon. I think this quick of a move is impossible.
And who would be the decision maker to move it? Joyce Lloyd the chair? Let’s get more realistic. You also should read the WSFS constitution before making those kind of statements.
Lis Riba, I believe that Seattle is planning on there being a lot of virtual programming this year. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the program to confirm that.
Worldcon was warm and welcoming to writers and readers from the entire Anglosphere, with the exception of Heidelberg, until the 2010s.
Canceling Seattle and moving it to Vancouver would, at this point, be impossible. Not possible to get hotel space at this late date. The hotels and convention space in Vancouver will already be committed. Unless you’re going to wave a magic wand and produce a whole new concom, you’ve got a whole bunch of US committee members and staff who are already committed, who will not be cheerily confident about risking going to across to Canada lest they get seized by CBP trying to come home.
As for legal defense fund for foreign fans who choose to come to Seattle despite their governments telling them not to, and not being able to get travel insurance because their governments have issued the travel warning–no. Just no. There isn’t a big enough organization behind Worldcon to do that. Just isn’t. We had to run bake sales to bail out Constellation, for God’s sake.
Seattle is apparently going heavy on the virtual side of the con. Foreign fans should make use of that if it’s done well. Coming here would be madness.
And you can’t move a relatively large event, which is really heavy on its convention center space needs, as well as a lot of hotel rooms on short notice. And yes, this is short notice.
No part of your proposal is remotely practical.
Alexia Hebel: What could you point to in the WSFS constitution that would keep a Worldcon from changing venues? The 2023 and 2021 Worldcons weren’t held in the venues they bid for. The 1977 Worldcon wasn’t held in the city it bid for.
I don’t think Seattle or LA could cancel at this point. And TBH, when people voted for LA as the host, we already knew that the current situation was a real possibility.
Only someone who has never been involved in the running of a Worldcon would think that it wouldn’t be too much trouble to move this year’s event from Seattle to Vancouver at this late date…I take Mr Westphal’s point, but I think that it’s up to people to make their own decisions about travel to the US for the next four years. And, as someone said above, virtual programming will make it easier for those who want to participate to do so w/o risk.
There is nothing in the WSFS constitution that allows for a seated convention to have it moved for them. Therefore it is only at the discretion of the seated convention to move itself.
The problem is twofold. A substantial part of Worldcon fandom is in the USA. The descent of the USA into a fundamentally unsafe country makes travel to the country inherently dangerous. However, travel OUT of the country is also inherently dangerous. ICE is effectively an agency that can and will act outside of judicial and constitutional limits and they are at their most powerful when a person crosses a border. The powers being claimed by the Trump regime that allow them to circumvent legal due process means that nobody, including citizens, is safe from being incarcerated without reason or potentially deported to a prison camp in another country.
However, even prior to Trump’s re-election, many fans across the world have faced challenges crossing borders to visit conventions. Nor have these problems been solely with travelling into the USA.
The issue is different in kind to the circumstances we faced in 2020 but practically there are similarities. In 2020 we all faced severe restrictions on our capacity to travel, the motives for the restrictions were laudable but nonetheless meant that the model of an in-person Worldcon hosted at a single venue in a single city was not viable that year.
I don’t think relocating the Worldcon from Seattle is viable but I also don’t think it is much of a solution. Hosting a Worldcon in the US is problematic in the way that hosting one in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Uganda or China was problematic but a strong counterargument in favour of those nations was that we should be finding ways of engaging with the fandoms in those countries in ways that don’t lend support (either material or moral) to the regimes governing them or repressive laws.
I can’t claim to know what is a practical alternative but virtual cons, dual hosting, satellite conventions and other ideas have been suggested in the past.
Moving Seattle is impractical, unconstitutional (per Worldcon bylaws), prohibitively costly to hard-working Seattle Worldcon organizers and harmful in other ways.
But the solution, as several previous commenters noted, is right there, already happening, because of good Seattle Worldcon planning: Making available a substantial amount of programs via online access, which they are already going to do (and a good thing, which allowed me, among many, to participate as a registered guest of the New Zealand Worldcon. (We are, after all, living in the 21st century, and we should take advantage of the technology that SF fans in the 1940s-1950s could barely even imagine!
Alexia Hebel: “There is nothing in the WSFS constitution that allows for a seated convention to have it moved for them. Therefore it is only at the discretion of the seated convention to move itself.”
If what you’re saying is that the WSFS has no mechanism to impose a move — well, nobody said it did. I agree that only the seated convention can decide whether to move.
Agree with many: Seattle would be bankrupt, and this would affect any future Worldcon bids. Really. LA is… I dunno. The problem, as several folks noted, is that you MUST get your facilities years in advance, for a con this big. One year’s not enough to get all the hotel rooms, if nothing else.
I would advise anyone from any other country to come virtually – think of it as another COVID lockdown con.
As I type, it strike me that anyone could form a committee and have a satellite con, in another country…
Michael Grossberg: “Moving Seattle is… unconstitutional (per Worldcon bylaws)…”
No, I don’t agree with that at all. What rule do you think you are relying on?
Moving the WorldCon is patently impossible. I am sorry for all the people who gave up travelling to Seattle, and for the smaller, draber, sadder convention that will take place instead of our beautiful zany moveable feast of international crosspollination.
But frankly, if I think of the gay hairdresser who called for his mom while being brutalised in a Salvadorean gulag, or the wholesale vandalism that is hitting the US scientific and cultural environment, not to mention the real possibility of the USA going hot war on Europe and Canada…I think fandom’s problem pale into insignificance.
We are going through a time such as Europe had not seen since the 1930. Let’s just hope that those of us who will get to the other side – because there will be another side – will be able to rebuild, including rebuilding WorldCon.
If anything, I think it should be suspended, like the Olympics in times of war.
Anna, you can’t suspend without incurring the penalties for the hotel rooms and conference space reserved. When Arisa, a much small con, did this because of not crossing the Union picket line, their financial loss IIRC ran into six figures. I’ve signed such contracts for much smaller events — they don’t leave a lot of wriggle in them.
I understand the thought. I know people who have decided that coming to the US is too dangerous. Even before all of this unconstitutional “maximum getting”, I knew that Immigration could make anyone’s day so bad, so easily. It’s too late to cancel and I am pleased Seattle is working hard on virtual.
For those not familiar with the financial issues when Arisia cancelled …. https://file770.com/arisia-succeeds-in-raising-funds-to-pay-hotel-cancellation-penalty-settlement/
I endorse this. But no more WorldCons in China, either.
Steve Green wrote: “When I attended the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal as its TAFF delegate, I still had to fly from Birmingham UK to Newark, endure intimidating security checks by Obama-era TSA goons and then hop over the border into Canada. Pretty certain European members would have difficulty reaching Vancouver without landing on US soil.”
While it seems wildly impractical to relocate a seated Worldcon, getting from Europe to large cities in Canada does not require traveling via the US. There are lots of flights to e.g. Toronto where one can connect to other Canadian cities. Same for Asia, there are lots of flights to Vancouver. There are even flights from Australia and New Zealand to Vancouver. There is always some risk of an emergency landing in the US, though with flights from Europe it’s minimal, they don’t go near US airspace.
Edmonton (which is bidding for the 2030 Worldcon) has direct flights from the Netherlands, Mexico, and Cuba. We used to have flights direct from London and Paris, but those got put on hold during the pandemic (my contact at the airport says those are likely to be back in operation by 2027.)
Are china’s fans not valid then? Every country has its flaws. I’m not condoning the issues I am merely pointing out that your attitude is such that every country would have problems that could make them fail as a favorable locale. And the bottom line is they who win the votes get the convention.
Sure, Worldcon can move. Got half a million dollars? Never mind the nonrefundable plane fares the fans have incurred. Or finding new facilities and working with them, or volunteers. Because you will also need to come up with the 400 or so volunteers that will cancel as well.
Moving the 2025 Worldcon to another country is obviously impossible. Cancelling it would cheat a lot of registered attendees out of the convention. And then there’s the question of what countries have a sufficient level of freedom and safety to provide a better experience.
At the same time, visiting the USA has undoubtedly become dangerous for foreign visitors, especially if they’ve been free about expressing their opinions. Fans tend to express their opinions.
We need to talk about realistic options. Moving an established Worldcon is about as realistic as holding it on the Moon (and less fun to think about). The best solution is to do everything possible to facilitate online attendance, so people from outside the US can participate as fully as possible without getting within ICE’s reach.
My apologies Mike, you are correct, I did not spot Gary as the author of this ill-considered short-term action.
@Steve Green
“Pretty certain European members would have difficulty reaching Vancouver without landing on US soil.”
There’s many direct flights from various Canadian airports to Europe, and those almost all go over the pole, and don’t even interact with American airspace.
However, that obviously rules out American carriers who obviously are going to do connecting flights through their US hubs, and will often be the easiest choice for many people for either scheduling or financial reasons.
Also many options for direct flights from Asia that wouldn’t involve the USA. Somewhat less from Africa and the Middle East, and most of which you’d need to deliberately connect though Europe (and basically be back to the fly-from-Europe options) as many of the defaults would be USA connections.
Vancouver has direct flights from Amsterdam, Munich, London, Istanbul, and more. But for most European travellers the best route will be via Keflavik in Iceland. The Icelandair flight is really good and probably the cheapest option. I’ll fly Icelandair any time I can.
Is this even legally and financially viable?
Oh, and given the recent unpleasantness, what a pity this site only allows sharing via the hellsites.
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Onto Starship: To tell the truth I haven’t given any thought to the share buttons for a long time. I’ve now added several additional options which are under “More” next to FB and X.
@Olav Rokne even more options if you connect through Toronto or Calgary.
It is impossible to move either the 2025 or 26 worldcons for the reasons stated — commitment to hotels, convention space, etc. However, until the present regime is removed and some level of civilized decency is restored, there should be no more US bids. The 2025 and ’26 cons will just have to go ahead without most of the foreigners. This is regrettable but there is no real alternative.
My thanks to Catherine, Olav and Ryan for their input. I never thought avoiding US carriers would be impossible, just more difficult — a direct flight into Canada from Birmingham UK (my local international airport, much more convenient than London for most Brits) was certainly not among the options put forward by my travel agent when planning my TAFF trip.
I wrote: “Birmingham UK (my local international airport, much more convenient than London for most Brits”
By which I meant most Brits would prefer to use their local international airport. Traveling down to Heathrow or Gatwick would be more of a logistical nightmare than the actual flight.
Ran out of edit time, darn it.
I concur with Darrell Schweitzer. I also suggest that all future Worldcons make all programming available via the Internet, as has been partially done in the past (and was done completely in New Zealand in 2020). There are those of us US citizens who are nervous about leaving the country lest we get busted by the Gestapo on our return.
I dont think moving 2025 WorldCon is a viable option. I think for 2026 it should be at least checked if moving is possible and what it would entail. That should be done soon.
Attendance will be lower, thats for sure, so less hotel space is needed anyway.
I don’t agree with moving the Worldcons especially at this late stage for Seattle. But it is allowed as we technically do not vote for a location, but a committee and they can choose to host the Worldcon where they see most appropriate.
As for the majority of Worldcon fans being from the USA, ,while it true there are probably still more US Worldcon fans in the US than any other single country, it is no longer true that they form the majority of Worldcon fans.
Take a look at the list of future bids. There are NO U.S. bids until 2031. Unless there is a new bid, that means no U.S. Worldcons for four straight years. Since the 2025 and 2026 Worldcons can’t be moved, the arguments that others have made boil down to opposition to any future U.S. bid for those four years.
This might be a good time to consider what should be considered in choosing a Worldcon site. The “It’s a faraway place, and they’ve never had a Worldcon there” has proven to NOT be a good standard, at least, not as a stand-alone. Instead, the questions should be, for example and not exclusively:
* Do they have the facilities and local infrastructure for a 5,000+
convention? How hard is it to get to that locale, the number of beds
and meeting rooms, but the distance between these places and the
ease of transport between these rooms, and what else is there to do
while we’re there. This last includes number and types of food venues.
* Do they have the experience of running a 5,000+ convention?
* Do they have the experience of running a 5,000+ convention the way
we would want it to be run; that is, in accord with the values and
traditions of some 80 years of previous Worldcons?
* How many members of their bid have worked at previous Worldcons
and/or large mega-regional science fiction conventions, especially
during the bidding process, and in what capacities?
2025 is sort of unstoppable at this point, it is too late to reasonably end.
Los Angeles…they COULD do the 2020 New Zealand route and go entirely virtual. (I think trying to scramble for a new non US physical site at this stage might be prohibitively expensive).
I applaud Gary Westfahl’s statement, as impractical as it is, as a statement reminding us all of what we should be doing, even if it is impossible.
Maybe it will help focus us all on the fact that the World has been and is changing in ways that are not necessarily conducive to Fandom and its activities. It is well past the time that Fandom can ignore the rest of the world and maintain its insularity.
It was easy to ignore the rest of the world when the rest of the world ignored Fandom.
Fandom has grown, has become a pop-cultural phenomena, but its institutions still do not have enough influence and power on the world stage to be anything other than a tool in the hands of any regime that it attempts to engage with. That holds for China, for the US, for Saudi Arabia, and for anywhere that governmental interests independently decide that there is advantage to be had.
Hosting a Worldcon in a dictatorial regime doesn’t “let fans in those countries experience fandom” (doesn’t show them a more appealing way). It only allows those of its citizens that it approves of to attend (and the foreign dupes whose presence it now uses as cover).
Worldcon’s “foreign policy” needs to be defensive in nature because it does not have the tools to be offensive.
We need to incorporate what is happening now into future planning and rule changes. And we need to stop treating every country as if they were all equally valid possibe hosts for Worldcon.
Paul says Los Angeles…they COULD do the 2020 New Zealand route and go entirely virtual. (I think trying to scramble for a new non US physical site at this stage might be prohibitively expensive).
No, they can’t as they’ve already committed to both the hotel and conferences spaces which means they’d take a bloodbath orders worse that what happened to Arisa.
We’re fine beyond that as we’ve got Montreal and Brisbane. No, Trump isn’t suspending the Constitution to stay in power. Nor will most of what he attempting actually be happening as the Courts, including SCOTUS, aren’t at all pleased with him.