Our News

Want an online version of the Souvenir Book – click on the link!

The Eastercon Belfast – Reconnect Programme is live!!

Join us April 18-21 for an unforgettable weekend of panels, workshops, dances, music, cosplay, and more! With 260+ programme items and 200+ fantastic participants, there’s something for everyone.

Our Guests of Honour include Lauren Beukes, Derek Landy, Ian McDonald, Jeannette Ng, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Will Simpson, plus incredible speakers from science, literature, and beyond.

Can’t attend in person? We’ve got you covered with 100+ streamed events!

With 800+ members already signed up (including over 100 first-time attendees!), this year’s Eastercon is shaping up to be truly special. Fans from 24+ countries are joining the fun—why not you?

Check out the full programme now: https://guide.easterconbelfast.org

The BSFA have just released the booklet featuring all the short stories and non-fiction. You can read it here:

Don’t forget to vote for all the BSFA award categories by 19th April.

Read here!

Reconnect Virtual Membership launched, 

We’re now ready to confirm our Virtual and Online offering and corresponding membership rates. This is in no part due to the willingness of our members to step up and offer their help. Many thanks for that, especially John Coxon: legend!

Whilst not a true hybrid convention – there will be no virtual guests or the ability to ‘dial in’ to the con – we are planning to offer online and streaming options as follows:

Streaming 

A minimum of three programme streams: ICC main programme hall and the two main programme rooms in the Hilton Lagan A & B. We’ve confirmed we have the budget for these and, depending on a range of other factors, may also stream the rest of the programme rooms.

Playback

These items will all be available for playback: during and after the convention for those of you who can’t decide which programme item to go to, or indeed those virtual members who won’t be able to physically attend the convention.

Online platform – Discord

We are now offering full interaction via Discord to complement our streaming. This will be a set-up that will be familiar to previous Eastercons attendees; allowing for connections, discussion, promotion and in-programme chat. If possible, via volunteers in the audience / panellists we would also like to use this platform to enable questions to be asked of panellists for those not physically in the room.

Online platform – ConClár

We plan to use this for our programme and live updates to the programme. We are conscious that not everyone is comfortable with this technology, so printed programme grids will also be available.

Membership Cost

A virtual membership will cost £20 and is available on the registration page for those who would like to join in. This price will offset the costs of these offerings somewhat but we want to emphasise this option is primarily around promoting an inclusive convention, as we noted in Progress Report 3:

“Eastercon has proudly been a very inclusive place and we want to reflect that in our guests, our committee and in the membership.”

Join here: 

We’ve received a number of requests and now will be taking some time to review them in order to spread the benefits the best we can using the remaining funds.

To assist with that, we will be closing the application process we will close applications for bursaries to cover travel and accommodation on Sunday 16 February at 12 noon – and will then aim to notify successful applicants by 28 February.

A number of our members, who are no longer able to attend, have graciously donated their memberships to the bursary fund. So, if you would like to attend Reconnect but even the no-questions-asked discounted price of £40 is too much, please get in contact and we can make something happen.

In addition, if you would like to make a donation to the bursary fund – any amount, no matter how small, will be welcome – please click on the PayPal link below or email us for bank details. 

Emails to finance@easterconbelfast.org 

Thanks to the generosity of our community, we have been able to disburse bursaries to a number of people who are now able to attend Reconnect.

We still have some funds available and are now taking further requests for bursaries to cover travel and accommodation. If you are not already a member – and our discounted rate is a challenge – please ask.

Please do let us know at finance@easterconbelfast.org – where our select bursary panel will allocate the remaining funds. No form is required, and feel to share as much or as little information about your request as you feel comfortable.

As the convention draws near – are you excited yet? – we are busy putting the final touches to our programme. We have lot of exciting items lined up, as well as exhibits and guest speakers from all over the world– as well as some specially selected speakers from Northern Ireland.

Thank you for all your programme item suggestions.

We aim to finalise our programme in mid-February for release by the end of February to start asking people to express interest on speaking, being on panels or participating in some other way.

Next steps are for anyone who is keen to be part of the programme, and why wouldn’t you, to register on our planning system – so that when we release our list of items you will be able to put yourself forward as a participant.

To do that – create a user by logging visiting the link below, enter the email address you registered with. You’ll then get an email containing a link that will log you in to PlanZ, our programme planning system. Please tick the box to indicate you’d like to be on our programme, and fill in your bio and other details. 

We’d therefore be grateful for everyone to sign up over the next few weeks.

Progress report three – out now!

We have uploaded our Accessibility Audit, and you can read it by clicking the link below.

Update on Reconnect membership rates!

Just a reminder that our next price rise to £90 happens on 1st November, followed by £100 on 1 January and £120 on the door. (Day rates will also be available)

Our first Eastercon discount and the all Ireland rate will also rise to £70 on 14 November.

We are all excited to welcome you to Reconnect in Belfast and want to share some important updates about Accessibility and Hotels.

Firstly, the timeline for Hotel Booking is as follows:

From 29 ^th September, bookings for people with access needs will open. This includes the 10 rooms in the hotel with wheelchair accessible bathrooms as well as other rooms in the hotel for people who need them for access reasons…

Welcome to the second Progress Report on how we are preparing for you all to come to Belfast next Easter — enthusiasm is building! This Progress Report is about a time when the work for the con is mostly preparatory, behind-the-scenes activity …

At the end of June, Reconnect the Belfast Eastercon 2025 conducted an accessibility assessment and site visit to the Belfast International Conference Centre and Hilton Lanyon Place, our venues. 

We spent the full day on site …

Whilst we refresh our website and content, here’s an update on what has been happening.

James Bacon (Co-Chair), Jo Zebedee (Deputy Chair & Programme) and Tommy Ferguson (Co-Chair and Treasurer)