The situation of SF & F Fandom in Luxembourg (Lëtzebuerg/Luxembourg/Luxemburg) is kind of odd. While there are a lot of people that call themselves fans. The vast majority of them do practice their fandom within the confines of their own four walls, or in a very small group of likeminded friends. It is particularly with this the Luxembourg’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Society is wrestling at the moment. The society strives to get in touch with fans from all over the small European nation and unite them in a fan movement. Prior attempts to unite fans in Luxembourg, under the banner of Perry Rhodan, met with initial enthusiasm, but faded, with only one of the members remaining active.
The current society emerged from a smaller club dedicated to gaming, formed by youngsters who needed a more official structure in order to rent public space for tournament purposes. As the tastes of the members of that club grew, so did the activities of the organisation. Magic the Gathering, turned people onto other card games, in turn referring back to their original material in literature, film and television. The local shop, the now demised „Fantasy Bazaar” helped in drawing attention to the plethora of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror and was at the heart of the activities that formed a new wave of fans.
Currently there is a group of around 30 people maximum that, in one way or another, participate actively in the society’s activities. The latter range from the monthly meetings, where all matters SF & F are being discussed over a smorgasbord of home-baked goods, snacks, magazines and games, to one-offs such as the recent SF & F boardgaming session, and the upcoming Artemis afternoon. In addition to this we are doing some public work, as with our continued engagement in a local medieval festival – useful for attracting Fantasy fans, and our recently begun affiliation with the regional Steampunk Convention, held in a local industrial museum overflowing with machinery and clockwork that entrance that particular community.
Sci-Fan, the radio show dedicated to all things Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror has recently broadcast its 100th episode, and keeps going strong on one of the nation’s main stations (Radio ARA). The show covers news of the genres, reviews the broad spectrum of media that the fantastic appears in, and sometimes focusses on a particular topic through interviews or a look back in time. The show is rounded off by a vast collection of fantastic music sourced in fan-created work as well as readily available soundtracks, prog-rock albums and other music inspired by the broad spectrum of the fantastic.
The website of the society, www.sffs.lu, is currently undergoing restructuring, but should be up by the new year. It will feature news of a regional nature, a calendar listing regional events, as well as, big events in Europe and the World. In addition to this, the site will include the usual staple of forums and galleries. Finally it will serve as a written repository for reviews originally broadcast on the radio show.
The overarching goal of the society is, off course, a national convention which would highlight the national scene as well as linking to the close neighbours of the Rhenania-Palatinate and Saarland in Germany, the Lorraine in France and the Province du Luxembourg in Belgium. In the meantime, the current group is constantly thinking of how to reach out to more people interested in the fantastic in this small nation. I hope this will provide some insight, and, who knows, some more Luxembourg fans will get in touch.
