Pyrkon Fantastika and Popular Culture Festival (Pyrkon Festiwal Fantastyki i Kultury Popularnej) is a Polish multigenre pop culture festival, held annually in Poznań the first weekend after the vernal equinox. Pyrkon aims to integrate the fans and the creators and to promote genre in literature, films, TV series and games.
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Pyrkon is organized yearly by the association Klub Fantastyki “Druga Era” (“Second Era” Science Fiction Club) since 2000.
©http://www.literatura.gildia.pl/news/2014/12/ruszyla-przedsprzedaz-biletow-na-pyrkon-2015
Pyrkon it’s a significant event in Poland and one of Europe’s largest “comic-con” type events, commercial gatherings of consumers of visual fantasy & horror, visual SF, comics, animation, anime, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, etc. Bucharest’s East European Comic Con (launched in 2013) has reached too, 25.000 paying participants in 2014 (Cosplay contests, LOL Contests, Quiz Contests, Illustration contests, video screenings, special sessions with movie and comics celebrities, purchasing specific products for this type of event, etc.).
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Pyrkon takes place every year in March, at the Poznan International Fair. The festival has come a long way since the days of Fantasy, a convention organized in a friendly school in Poznan Dębiec. Today, Pyrkon expanded its subject, combining the features known from past conventions and contemporary cultural events.
Pyrkon is an event organized by the fans for the fans, attracting each year an increasing number of people interested in the wider range of pop culture (visual fantasy, visual horror, visual SF, comics, animation, anime, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, etc.).
From left : Joe Haldeman, Ted Chiang, Jasper Fforde, Dmitry Glukhovsky
Guests of Honor (Literature section) : Joe Haldeman, Ted Chiang, Jasper Fforde, Kevin Hearne, Dawid Kain, Robert M. Wegner, Dmitry Glukhovsky and local polish writers as Jakub Ćwiek, Michał Cetnarowski, Jarosław Grzędowicz, Anna Kańtoch, Darek Kocurek, Jacek Komuda, Maja Lidia Kossakowska, Kazimierz Kyrcz, Paweł Majka, Maciej Parowski, Andrzej Pilipiuk, Krzysztof Piskorski, Antoni Smuszkiewicz, Michał “Puszon” Stachyra, Marcin Zwierzchowski.
The polish SF writer Marek Huberath (pen name of Hubert Harańczyk) was the Science section’s GoH, as he is a professor of physics in the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
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In view of the increasing number of participants in the 2010 edition, it was decided to move the Festival to the Poznan International Fair. Then to the festival came 3,000 people, in 2012 there were already 6,000, 12,300 in 2013, and in 2014 the number reached 24.000 participants.
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English Section
Pyrkon’s English Section focuses on all issues related to science fiction and fantasy: literature, films and video games. Next to meetings with foreign authors, this Section’s events are held entirely in English.
Literature Section
Literature Section covers almost 150 programme events ? meetings with authors, discussion panels and lectures. A place where fans might meet writers, editors and publishers. The list of guests and speakers will include both world-famous writers as well as promising débutantes. Literature Section at Pyrkon 2015 also hosts new fantastic releases.
Science Section
If you ever wondered how much truth is there in science-fiction stories, the Science Section is the place for you. We will unravel the secrets of fictional space technologies, discuss ethnology of foreign planets and the recent achievements of modern science.
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Pyrkon was held in ten pavilions/halls. The organizers have provided participants with round the clock fun, several blocks of programming, including english speaking programs, movies, literary panels and a literary festival (meetings with authors, lectures and panel discussions on a variety of topics – from the theory of literature, religion, science, philosophy, history, esoterism, to the exploration of space), electronic games, science, concerts, LARPs, comics, manga and anime, knight fights shows and dance workshops.
What makes Pyrkon an interesting event ?
– More than 800 hours of an attractive and varied program
– Professional exhibition space and interesting exhibitors
– Many guests from abroad and Polish artists
– Huge gamesroom
– Fantastic LARPs
– Thrilling RPG sessions
– Exhibitions, shows and concerts
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http://www.pyrkon.com/2015/index.php
http://www.pyrkon.com/2015/index.php?go2=guests
http://www.pyrkon.com/2015/index.php?go=programme
