Transcribed and summarised by Elaine Walker. Sections of it may be blogged in more detail later.
The newsletter is A4 pages folded into A5 size. The colour is mostly buff except for some inserts in the middle. The front page has a drawing of what looks like a spaceship or aircraft modelled on a butterfly (indeed there are butterflies fluttering around as well). While the page itself does not indicate who did the drawing I recognise it as one of Shaun Tan’s that indeed ended up on the convention T-shirt, and indeed I believe I still have that t-shirt, black t-shirt with the design in red.
In small caps it has the title
Festival of the Imagination 1996
Neil Gaiman
Jack Dann and Janeen Webb
Additional Guests
The Programme
The Quiz Night
AND MUCH MORE
Page 2 (inside cover) was FACTS
This contained the name of the con, the postal address GPO Box G429, Perth WA 6948. (The PO Box number I’m told is the same but the Postcode could be different now)
April 4-8, 1996
Membership rates:
Full – $75; Supporting $20; Voting $10 ($5 discount at some businesses with a purchase)
Venue: The Kings Perth Hotel with alternate accommodation at The Inntown Hotel with room rates still at the $80 for single and $85 for double/twin per night at the con hotel. (No idea if this applied to the alternate accommodation too)
Contact details: Richard Scriven and Julian Ackermann (No I’m not going to put their numbers and email here now)
Page 3 contained The Chair Speaks and List of Guests (at least at this point)
Principal Guests – Storm Constantine and Neil Gaiman
Fan Guest – Robin Pen
Special Guests – Jack Dann and Janeen Webb
Invited Guests – Pat Cadigan; Sean McMullen; Stephen Dedman; Nick Stathopoulos; Sara Douglass; Grant Stone; Terry Dowling; Sean Williams; Shannah Jay; Ashley Wood
Page 4 had a bio of Storm Constantine.
Page 5 had bios of Neil Gaiman and Robin Pen
| “Godzilla is the sensei in the dojo of Cinema Ephemera.” Robin Pen |
Page 6 had bios of the Special Guests Jack Dann and Dr. Janeen Webb.
Page 7-8 had slightly sorter bios of the Invited Guests. Page 7 had Pat Cadigan, Sara Douglass, Nick Stathopoulos and Grant Stone. Page 8 had Stephen Dedman, Terry Dowling, Shannah Jay, Sean McMullen and Sean Williams.
Page 9 was an advertisement for the Quiz Night
Over $1500 in Prizes!!
It was to be held at 1pm Sunday 25 February 1996 at the Hyde Park Hotel. Prizes included Dinner for 6; Wine; Chocolate; Books; Gift vouchers; and much much more! Door prize: Weekend for two at the Lord Forrest, Bunbury.
Pages 10-11 were the middle pages apart from the inserts and contained various programming items currently being considered.
The inserts contained the first ASFMA’s (Australasian Science Fiction Media Awards) A5 on blue paper. Information on eligibility, nominating, voting and returning nominations. Then there was the green foldalope with the membership and volunteering for stuff form for Festival of the Imagination 1996 taking up the very inner pages, and then on the other section of blue paper was the Ditmar Reporter from December 1995 announcing the opening of the nominations and including a nomination form.
Page 12 had some more programming stuff, this being the section on Social Programming (masquerade, debates, etc.)
Pages 13-15 had an actual programme structure, giving the bare bones of a program with a lot of ‘put a light panel in here’ type things to fill in the gaps around the important things like the WASFF Business meeting, Great Debate, etc. and finishes with the usual plea for people interested in doing panels to contact them.
Page 16 had information on what they had planned for the Video Programme in general terms.
Page 17 had information on the Competitions. The short story competition which was as mentioned a few newsletters ago based on the Shaun Tan artwork of the fish with bony plating. 5000 words or less. Two categories, Open and 16 and under. Prizes were First: $130; Second: $70 for open and $70 for the first and $30 for the second for the 16 and under. Plus memberships to the convention so they can come get their prizes in person. Deadline was the 30th March 1996 (so that was 5 days before the con).
Then there was also the Art Competition and the details for that were also given. With of course art being able to be shown without entering if wished. Nick Stathopoulos would be the judge.
Page 18 had the Ticket Outlets, where people could get a discounted membership if they also bought something else there and could prove it with a receipt. A whole $5 off! There were a mix of WA and Eastern States stores, presumably because it was a Natcon.
Page 19 was the Membership list! No, I’m not counting how many there were at this point.
The back page had the Accreditations
Newsletter January 1996 is a publication of The Festival of the Imagination. © 1996
Editor: Martin Livings
Contributors: Julian Ackermann, Stefen Brazil, Pat Cadigan, Stephen Dedman, Chris Fowler, Martin Livings, Robin Pen, Richard Scriven, Steve & Vicki from Inception, Jonathan Strahan, Shaun Tan, David Yeates
There was an apology for not mentioning Laurie Goodridge, cover artist for the last newsletter. Oops!
Committee: Julian Ackermann (Secretary), Stefen Brazil, Nick Evans (Treasurer), Richard Scriven (Chair), Brian Trump, Elizabeth Trump.
Friends of the Committee
Sue Ann Barber, Robin Clarke, Tom Edge, Russell Farr, Martin Livings, Jonathan Strahan, David Yeates.
The Festival of the Imagination is an official project of the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation Inc and runs under its directives. WASFF is a non-profit incorporated organization.
| “It is not I who am crazy… it is I who am MAD!”
Commander Hoek |