With Ireland’s rich tradition in storytelling, it is amazing that in The World Science Fiction Convention’s 73 year history it has never been held on the Emerald Isle. This may explain why there is such enthusiasm for the bid to hold Worldcon in Dublin in 2019. Ireland is a land famous for its ancient myths and legends, great playwrights, award-winning novelists, innovative comics artists, and groundbreaking illustrators. It has a well-established science fiction and fantasy community.
Before Dublin can host Worldcon, it must win the Bid process. This process allows the Bid Team and Volunteers around the world to showcase all that Dublin has to offer and to build a community who share the Committee’s enthusiasm. In order to showcase Dublin as a host city, Committee members, Bid Team and Volunteers will host hospitality events and tables at cons, providing information about the Bid, free drinks and snacks, and promotional material. The Committee and Volunteers will also be busy mailing flyers and other promotional material to spread the word.
Clearly, all of this activity also requires some financial support, any Bid is expensive, so pre-support goes towards funding the campaign and making the Bid stronger. There are a number of levels of involvement for those interested in becoming a part of the community. The Dublin Bid Committee has already been hard at work and the community of supporters is growing daily. At Boskone in February, we reached 500 supporters, an amazing feat for any Worldcon team. One unforeseen challenge to the process has been the instability in the financial markets, and this has resulted in the Committee’s decision to adjust some of the supporter prices to adjust for changes in
exchange rates.
The Committee has also added a new level of Young Adult (YA) supporter. A YA backer is anyone under 26 on day one of the convention, should we win the Bid. The “Pre-Opposing” category has been changed to “Backer” for clarity. The “Friend” rate will rise marginally in all denominations while “Super Friend” will rise in Euros and Pounds. We’ve also consulted with our Irish language representative in order to give all of these names a little Irish spirit.
All rate changes will take effect on March 31, 2015., and we are announcing this early in order to give people a chance to take advantage of the former prices before the changes take place.
Categories and Rates will be as follows:
Pre Supporting / Réamh tacadóir $20 €15 £12
Backer/ Ard tacadóir $45 €35 £28
YA Friend / Cara Óg $65 €55 £45
Friend / Cara $130 €105 £85
Super Friend / Cara Iontach $270 €220 £175
More information on the Dublin Bid can be found at the official website: https://dublin2019.com/. Those interested in joining the growing community for Dublin 2019 will find links to offer their support.
