When I listened to the VOK podcast about the Ice and Fire con, I decided that it is rather unfair that Europe doesn't have a something similar. We need to have a European convention primarily for book readers. And of course, it is much easier to find a castle or the like for the convention.

So this is a call to arms for people in Europe who are interested in helping to organize a convention by book readers for book readers!

Things I would need help with:

1) Location: It would be awesome if we could have the con in a castle, so we need someone to find the perfect(Nicest vs. cheapest) place.

2) Catering: It should preferably be on site, but if not, we need to find a company that would do medieval-esk food.

3) Scheduling: I have a good idea of what we should do, but this topic should also be for ideas.

Maybe we could even record a podcast about this.

In true greedy capitalist style I am a parasite on this one - i.e. I have no time to help organize but would definitely attend!

Would there be enough interest??

We'd better do it soon before the EU disintegrates

P.S We can have a mini meet-up when I'm in Denmark for Roskilde...

sure, I thought that already had agreed on that.

I found a photo of Patrick and Imogen meeting!

Mein Gott!!! The likeness is uncanny. You've captured my dress style perfectly too.

No I mean other people too...

If it's just peeps we know through the podcast and not randoms we could have it at Anif. Not massively near a major airport but drivable from Munich.

You guys should talk to the Ice and Fire Con people - they might have connections over Europe-way, and could help spread the word.

Also jealous of real castles...

i dont mean to interrupt but the castles in ohio ARE real. okay. a long long time ago during the mediveal ages there were ancient kingdoms in exotic lands called cleve-land and cinn-cinn-a-ti. they feuded with rival realms known to locals as mich-ee-gan and fought huge wars over valuable farming land called tol-ee-do.

just cuz u lot were too busy herding sheep to notice us americans, doesnt mean we didnt exist. ohio has just as much cultural value as anywhere in western or eastern or nothern europe.

Thats what I learned MURICA class anyway

100% truth. Can confirm.

Totally up for this!

Neil and I stayed at Thornbury Castle and it was amazing!

Not sure about the menu tho but we stayed in an actual tower room.
My vote would be for either spring or fall to avoid the busiest times (sept would be ideal)

I might not have the time to really involve myself in the organization for this, but I have connexions in the Champagne business if necessary

That could also be cool. Is Anif a town?



Do you think they would do a package deal if we were enough people?

It's near Salzburg which I now realise has flights to and from most places. It's more of a village but the castle is lovely, with a moat and everything. Apparently it's also where bits of Sound of Music were filmed, which may be an added attraction to some people, but we should definitely NOT invite them!

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anif_Palace

I did ask and they were open to the idea.


Too late! :P

Both places sound good too me.

So what it comes down to is:

1) Should it be a Vassals of Europe con, with only active forum posters(possibly spouses)?

2) Or is this something that should be open for everyone?

whoops only just saw this? did people give up on this idea or are we still thinking about it?

Germany is fullll of castles, most of which are hostels now and it's easy-ish to rend them for bigger events.
The annual German Tolkien Society event is at Burg Breuberg this year, which is reasonably easy to reach from Frankfurt (and you can get direct flights there from pretty much anywhere). In past years we've been to Burg Rieneck and Jugendburg Hessenstein. All of those are somewhat central in Germany and it's obviously possible to have that type of event there.
Rieneck is the smallest one of those I think. Don't know how many people we'd expect. I can look into this a bit more next week when I'm back home.

If we decide to make it a public event I'd get in touch with the German Tolkien Society (either way, whether it's in Europe or not) cause I'm sure some people would be keen to come, and I might even get some advice about organising it if we're doing it in Germany.

I personally would most likely attend pretty much no matter where in Europe it is = ) UK would be best for me, though I'd be less useful with organising stuff ^^

Definitely a good idea to get the Tolkien dudes advice and maybe some extra peeps to come along. I'm up for travelling to Germany and it definitely makes sense to have it near a major airport.

Germany sounds fab, Neil and I loved driving there and even if direwolves had to be left behind it would def be far more doable.

Our car holds 4 (5 at a squeeze) adults with rucksacks/overnight bags so we could conceivably take a few from the island over (as long as they could make the initial trek to 'amazingstoke')

I smell ROADTRIP!

I know it is no more than a line of rubble these days but are there any structures or forts along Hardrian's Wall worth considering?

German Tolkien Society annual event is 7 days from now whoop whoop I'll ask around and talk to people and see what I can find out

Sounds great! If you want to take on a task such as contacting them you are more than welcome. If not then I can also try next week.

this all sound very exciting

I'm not promising or committing to anything just yet = ) but I'll be at the event next week anyway so I'll definitely ask around to see how much interest there would be, and I'll talk to the people who organise it to see if they can give me some advice. I can't say just yet how much I'll be able to help with all of this, but if we end up doing it in Germany I'm happy to contact people cause that might be easier in German = ]

Tara on the forums might be another person to ask as well for some advice on organising (she does after all organise the Ohio I&FCon!)