It’s been a week since the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon which means it’s about time to give my impressions of it. This was the first con I actually physically attended since Dublin in 2019. I had hoped to go to New Zealand the following year but as we all know Covid happened and physical cons were off the table for a while. There have been other (World)cons in between of course but none of which had tempted me. If not for Covid I might’ve gone to an Eastercon, but the risk never seemed worth it until now. The added hassle of going to the post-Brexit UK also doesn’t help. Nor do the expenses of going to a foreign con: hotel, even with the con’s discount was seven hundred quid or so for a week, the plane journey was another five hundred euros and various bits and bobs that needed replacement like suitcases etc also added to the cost.
I’m aware that this is a bit of a moan to open with, but that was my mood going into the convention: not actually looking forward to it all that much because of all the hassle it would involve. Especially worrying was the rise in the number of Covid infections you saw happening in the months and weeks before the con. Having stayed Covid free these past four years and whileI have been vaccinated and was going to wear masks, it still seemed a risk. And I was right to worry, considering the number of people who did get infected at Worldcon; fortunately I seemed to have gotten away with it myself even though I wasn’t always as strict to mask as I should. Mask wearers in general were in the minority at the con, though there were vastly more people doing so than in the general public; I only saw half dozen people masking coming through Schiphol e.g.
Speaking of which, despite being four hours early for my flight and therefore having handed in my luggage way in advance of the actual boarding, the KLM still managed to not send it to Glasgow on the same flight as I was on. I flew out on Wednesday, watched everybody else get their luggage and then was told by a very nice chap that they hadn’t bothered to put my stuff on board but it would arrive with the next flight. Ultimately I would only see it again on Thursday night. Never was I so glad as to have put an extra set of clothes in my hand luggage. The return journey went smoother, fortunately, save for the little matter of having bought so many books that my suitcase was over the weight limit: literally too heavy for the baggage handlers to be allowed to handle. So the nice woman at the counter just gave me a second suitcase — one of these small ones Easyjet passengers apparently abandon at the counter when it turns out they have to pay extra to bring it on as hand luggage — to put the overflow in.
A bad start to the convention trip, but at least I managed to get registered at the con on Wednesday so I could avoid the crowd on Thursday, when the queue almost reached the station next to the convention centre… Thursday was a bit of a loss because of the luggage worries, so I spent most of it volunteering at con ops, mainly herding people in queues and answering questions. This is always a fun thing to do at any con and usually gets you a ‘free’ t-shirt.
Also a good way to meet new people, though I found it more difficult this year to actually meet people, new or old. To be fair, I hadn’t made any plans to meet up in the first place, but the sort of spontaneous encounters I’d had at the 2014 London Worldcon or in 2019 in Dublin were rare to non-existent this time. Whether it was due to the way the convention was set up or just me not having the skills anymore after five years of not going to cons, it just didn’t work out for me this time. The one exception being that a few of my friends attending had remembered my birthday on Saturday and had spent most of the day trying to chase me down to celebrate. Which was appreciated even if it was somewhat embarassing to be serenated in the middle of the Dealers Room…. Thanks Jos!
The con as a whole was good, I managed to get to some excellent panels and buy some excellent books, or rather comics, as there was one dealer with a lot of interesting UK and US comics. The weather was nice too, hovering around 16 degrees centigrade, mostly cloudy with occassional spots of rain. I had prepared for Dublin style weather, so brought proper trousers and a sweater and raincoat just in case, but none of them were needed. Shorts and t-shirts were sufficient and the few times it did properly rain I had a brolly. The hotel I used in any case was less than fifty metres from Glasgow Central so no real need to get covered up anyway. On Sunday and Monday, as the con was winding down somewhat, I took full advantage of being in the centre of Glasgow and went for a bit of a shop and also in search of a proper dinner rather than depending on the overpriced con grub for a change.
The food on the whole at the con was better than in Dublin, but the prices were even steeper than they were then and six pound fifty for a pint of beer is not cheap; as with Dublin having a pint at the airport was markably cheaper…
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