Do you love WisCon’s nightlife? Do you have a fun idea for a party, or a book to launch, or a group to celebration, or some combination of that and more? Don’t forget to get your requests in for your WisCon 42 party! Requests close March 15th! Find out more and fill out the form HERE. Kesha* demands it!
*Actual Kesha does not know anything about this, we just think she’s pretty great and that she probably would support your cool party.
Gretchen & Sooshe
Parties
A good part of the fun at WisCon is the numerous member-hosted parties. Here is the lineup for WisCon40. Check your pocket program or the WisCon app to get the correct time, location, and additional details of each event. See you at WisCon40, and party on, people!
Carl Brandon Society Party Up!
Colo(u)r your world(s) with the Carl Brandon Society in celebration of POC representation in the fantastic genres. Make crowns, win award-earning books, give donations, hear about progress in our many programs, hang out. And remember: If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.
SCI-FI SAVED MY LIFE! (A Think Galactic Party)
At SCI-FI SAVED MY LIFE! we want to collect passages and quotes from spec fic stories that have been meaningful or transformative to us personally. Please consider the story that made you realize you loved sci-fi or something you read that shifted your viewpoint, something that resonates with where you are at or want to be, or just a beautiful bit of writing that feeds you. We encourage you to bring short pieces of fiction to share. Also, come dressed as people in need of saving and/or saviors and/or wearing implements of saving. We’d love to see folks in armor, doctors, survivalist gear, life preservers – for example. SCI-FI SAVED MY LIFE! is brought to you by Chicago’s premier leftist sci-fi book group THINK GALACTIC. The current reading list is on thinkgalactic.org.
Haiku Earring Party
The Haiku Earring Party is back after last year’s hiatus! Come be part of a WisCon tradition. There are many many pairs of earrings waiting for you to choose yours, get a title from Elise, and write a haiku. (Well, senryu, usually, but we’re flexible. We’ve even gotten the occasional sonnet.) Come and write, or just come by to visit and read the poetry.
Vid Party
Vids are fan-created remix videos with something to say. They are also super fun. Come join us at WisCon’s 7th annual Vid Party! As usual there will be a sing-along portion with subtitled vids, as well as short shows on various themes (to be announced). #VidParty
Will Do Magic For Small Change Book and CD release Party
This is a release party for Andrea’s new novel, Will Do Magic For Small Change and Pan’s CD–which is songs from Andrea’s novels Redwood and Wildfire and Will Do Magic For Small Change, and from Andrea’s novelette Saltwater Railroad. We’ll do singing and theatre and eat yummy food and get everybody to tell tall tales.
Saturday Night DDP Yoga Party (and Dance Off)
We know that yoga can be appropriated but can it also be gendered? Join us as we plumb the mysteries of DDP (Diamond Dallas Page) Yoga, as well as other sources. There may also be dancing at the end. This is a very casual activity. Come ready to laugh and sweat.
Floomp VI: Time Travel
Continuing a six-year-old WisCon tradition, The Floomp is a gleeful dance party that seeks to create a queer space for everyone. Beyond the obvious fun of dressing up and dancing our brains out, we aim to foster an inclusive and responsible space for the queer-identified and all their friends. Like its inspiration, The Tiptree Awards, The Floomp remains a safer space to explore and expand ideas of gender with no judgements. DJ Buckminster Fuller and other special guests, including Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz, will keep the party going all night—or at least until the hotel kicks us out. This year’s theme is Time Travel. Adherence to theme is by no means required, but it’s a fine time to break out your best historic or futuristic duds if you have them.
Strange Horizons Tea Party
The Strange Horizons Tea Party offers a variety of tea and treats for you to enjoy as you chat about stunning poetry, insightful articles, critical reviews, inspiring short fiction, eye-opening art, and anything else that comes to mind.
The Robot’s Guide To Love Roboriffic Release Party
Come join us to color the night away and celebrate the release of The Robot’s Guide To Love Coloring Book by Theo Lorenz. If you are now or ever plan to become a robot, you might just need this book to help you find your perfect dreambot.
By the bi
A Venn diagram of non-monosexuals and fandom would put this party right in the fabulous middle. Come celebrate bisexual, pansexual, queer, unlabeled, and other non-monosexual identies in fandom. Food, drinks, games, what else makes a great party? Will we have live fanfic readings? Will we have a raffle for bi and pan colored swag? You’ll just have to come by to find out. (It WILL be amazing, though. That’s not in dispute.) While this is a celebration of non-monosexual identities, all are welcome.
Fond Farewell Party
If you’re still here on Monday night, come join others who are still here for a Fond Farewell party. We’ll have munchies, beverages, and good conversation. It’s the last party for Wiscon 2016! It’ll begin at 9 PM and run until the last fan falls over.
Gretchen & Sooshe
Parties
Hey Partygoers!
Welcome back to WisCon! We are looking forward to another year of learning, growing, and partying together. Speaking of parties, one of our grand traditions, Parties, is getting an update. Here’s the scoop:
First, as many of you know, WisCon has party suites on the sixth floor and in the Conference rooms on the second floor. These suites are available for the free use of any convention members who request the space. We love giving our attendees the space to throw these parties, especially when they are long-running annual parties, book/author promotional parties, WisCon promotional parties, and ones that promote other cons and/or SF groups.
Second, if you are thinking about hosting a party, sign up RIGHT NOW. Space is limited, and we need your requests no later than March 15 so that we can send confirmations by the end of March. We will try our best to accommodate all party requests (so really, the sooner, the better). Just log into our parties page and make your request!
Third, we have updated the alcohol policy for all of our parties. This is a non-negotiable update and it will be enforced. If you wish to have alcohol at your party, you may not serve it yourselves in the party rooms. Rather, it will need to be legally purchased by party hosts, then turned over to and dispensed by the Concourse’s bartending station. Please read the new policy before considering including alcohol as part of your party plan.
If you are signing up to host a Party, please read up on these changes so you can be a responsible host of a fun party. We appreciate your help in making WisCon a stronger, faster, better convention for everybody, and we are so excited to see you all, soon!
Aileen
WisCon 40 Chair
After examining our insurance policy and our contract with the hotel, WisCon is making some changes to the way alcohol is served at parties in convention spaces. Here are the main points:
Party hosts can no longer directly serve alcoholic beverages to their guests. Instead, they will be able to provide (sealed, legally purchased) bottles to a hotel bartender on the sixth floor who will serve them. The bartender will be on duty during some of the party hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights during the convention. The Parties Coordinator will be working with party hosts to determine exactly which hours those will be.
As always, alcohol will be available for purchase from the hotel at the bar on the first floor, in the Governor’s Club, and at the bar on the second floor during special events (such as the Dessert Salon and the Karaoke Party).
This is the best way to satisfy the constraints of our insurance policy, our contract with the hotel, and the hotel’s liquor license. This ensures that alcohol is served at the convention in a way that is aboveboard and, most importantly, safe.
Unfortunately, the hotel’s liquor license does not allow it to serve homebrew. The same goes for premixed cocktails (although the bartender will be able to mix drinks).
Parties held in private hotel rooms are unaffected. Parties held in rooms that receive the sixth floor discount may have some additional, minor restrictions.
As fun as room parties at conventions can be, what’s even more fun is an open party available to everyone. Starting at 9pm Friday-Sunday, WisCon offers parties hosted by WisCon members and open to every member of the convention. In past years, parties have included karaoke, a haiku-and-earring party, and piñata-smashing.
We’re staying Covid cautious and staying masked while reveling! This year, you can choose between two kinds of hotel parties:
You can also throw an online party or an outdoor party.
We’re counting on your creativity to host awesome parties even without the appeal of food. Here are some ideas on making parties fun while still following the rules.
Party spaces must be requested in advance. Unfortunately, we are unable to entertain late party requests due to scheduling requirements.
Party reservations are prioritized due to a number of factors. We are particularly enthusiastic about parties with a history at WisCon as well as parties that are promoting other cons, SF groups, book & author promotional parties, and other events. Please note that there are a limited number of party room reservation slots available.
Maybe your party have will awesome music, fun games, or cool craft activities! How about a mocktail bar?
Here’s a message from our parties coordinator:
Hey folks! There are only two weeks left before we close the request page for parties. We still have space for more parties, so if you’ve been thinking about proposing a fun party idea now’s the time! Head on over to the party page: http://wiscon.net/programming/parties/
This entry is cross-posted at the request of the Genderfloomp organizers, and comment streams are available on Dreamwidth and Livejournal.
Hi there. As the organizers of the annual Genderfloomp party at WisCon, we learned of a recent wave of concern that Genderfloomp is uncomfortable/appropriative for gender non-conforming or non-binary people. We’d like to open a discussion about this issue.
To start off, we want to determine if the problems primarily reside in the party’s messaging online, its actual setup/conduct at the con, or simply its existence. We’ve spoken to some GNC/GQ people who really enjoy the party and find it to be an important space, and we would find it helpful to hear what aspects of the party do work as well. Ideally, we can find a way to rework Genderfloomp so that it can serve the entire community, but we also are open to much bigger changes.
We are both queer people who are gender non-conforming in some ways that are important to our identity, but do not pretend that this gives us access to the wide spectrum of GNC, GQ, and trans experiences. Our intentions with Genderfloomp are to embrace the liberatory aspects of “party,” rather than the trivializing connotations, in order to foster a space of gender play and binary destabilization, much in the same way that the Tiptree award celebrates work that “explores and expands” ideas of gender. If our party is hurting GNC/GQ folks, it is failing at its mission, and we apologize for any hurt we have caused.
We know a wide spectrum of Wiscon has insight to share on Genderfloomp, but we ask that this thread be restricted to folks who identify as GNC/GQ/Trans in order to give people room and safety to speak. If commenting here feels uncomfortable or unsafe, we
can also be reached at genderfloomp@gmail.com.
We are here primarily to listen with humility and openness, though we are also happy to answer any questions.
Sincerely,
Meghan McCarron and Liz Gorinsky