Being page 5 of the SwanCon 21, Festival of the Imagination souvenir book.
Welcome to the Festival of the Imagination 1996, the joint Australian Science Fiction Convention and Australian Science Fiction Media Convention.
This convention is worth making a fuss over for a number of reasons. This year we celebrate the 21st consecutive Swancon, the Western Australian State Science Fiction Convention. I hope that each of you will join with us in partying extra hard across the four days of the Convention to commemorate this special event.
The Festival of the Imagination 1996 combines the Australian Science Fiction Convention and the Australian Science Fiction Media Convention. As science fiction has grown and developed throughout the 20th century so has fandom. And as SF has expanded as a genre to cover everything from the more traditional novel and stories, to films, television, animation, games, toys, comics and music, so has fandom. We see this joint National Convention as a wonderful opportunity to celebrate science fiction in all its forms, and to welcome all its fans.
I’d like to take this opportunity to greet our guests: Neil Gaiman; Storm Constantine; Jack Dann; Janeen Webb and Robin Pen. I would also like to extend our welcome to all those invited guests who are giving freely of their time and abilities to make The Festival a successful event. I hope all of you have a wonderful time, and that you take this opportunity to enjoy yourselves in the relaxed surroundings of the Convention.
This Festival is the end of a long road for the Committee, a brave bunch of people who decided to run a convention two years ago, and I know we’re all looking forward to celebrating the success of the Festival with you over this Easter.
Richard Scriven
Chair
Festival of the Imagination 1996