Erich details the genesis of Nine Worlds and its ambitions, “For years our core organising team have been going to huge US events like Gen Con, Dragon*Con and SDCC, and we got to wondering why nothing like that exists in the UK. France can drum up 20,000+ sci-fi fans for Utopiales, heck, even Finland can find 15,000 fans for FinnCon. But when it comes to epic, fan-driven multi-genre sci-fi cons in the UK, pickings are pretty slim. We just really wanted a big and fabulous sci-fi convention to exist in London, and eventually we decided we’d have to build it ourselves. And once we decided to build it, we knew we wanted an event that would be inclusive on many levels, and we came up with lots of awesome ways in which we’d try to improve on the existing sci-fi con model.”
There are various genre fests within the UK all catering for different niches, Erich explains what sets Nine Worlds apart from the competition, “The sci-fi events scene in the UK is divided between smaller specialised cons (focusing on a particular show, or specifically on literature), and the giant corporate expos which are primarily about selling stuff and celebrity signings. Our ambition with Nine Worlds Geekfest is to bring together thousands of fans from many different areas to create a critical mass of fun and geekery. Nothing like that exists in the UK.”
As we specialise in horror we thought we’d ask Erich to pinpoint our fans towards some of the more horrific offerings at Nine Worlds, “We’ve got a number of horror writers, including Kim Newman, who’s big on the horror film side of things. We’ve got a full content track on vampires. We’ve got classes on Special Effects gore. And lots of talks that overlap with horror interests. We’ve got a lot on dystopian futures going on as well.”
A huge thank you to Erich for taking the time to answer our questions.
For more information on Nine Worlds please visit the Nine Worlds Geekfest 2013 website.
MICHAEL WILSON