Festival fantazie is the largest festival of speculative fiction in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and one of the largest in Central and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

. As for number of particular programs it surpasses the longest running

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expre ...

Worldcon Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, durin ...

. In this sense Festival fantazie belongs among the biggest festivals of its kind in the world. In 2007 the festival was visited by 2135 individuals, who stayed for 5 days on average, Festival fantazie Speciál in autumn entertained 640 participants. Festival is devoted to fantasy and wide spectrum of related subjects. The program includes films literature, games, it is focused on science fiction and future,

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

, modern technologies, fantasy, horror,

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

, mysteries, military and history. Visitors are offered the opportunity to see films and TV shows, take part in large number of games and contests of all kinds. Furthermore, meetings with famous personalities, both vocational and humorous lectures, theatre and fencing performances are organized and much more. Festival has been held in

Chotěboř Chotěboř (; german: Chotieborsch) is a town in Havlíčkův Brod District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone ...

every year since 1996 in June and July. Shorter ''Festival Fantazie Speciál'' takes place in October. The organizer is independent non-profit civic organization SFK Avalon. Václav Pravda is the festival director.

Program

Program runs in several parallel program lines. Lines come under program sections which may also be parallel: * Festival fantazie – the main program, special programs * Festival Járy Cimrmana –

Jára Cimrman Jára Cimrman or Jára da Cimrman (officially Jaroslav Cimrman) (), also known as "the Master", is a fictional Czech polymath, created by Ladislav Smoljak, Jiří Šebánek and Zdeněk Svěrák. The fictional personality is presented as a univer ...

and other art and science geniuses * Avalcon – literary branch * GameFest – free gaming The core of the festival consists of meetings with well-known writers, actors and artists and both vocational and humorous speeches, presentations (by specialists or fans), panel discussions. Visitors have opportunity to see both the newest films and films which are not commonly available, TV shows or

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

s. Fan activities include fanfilms and dramatic performances among others. A computer hall (with network games, Wii consoles) is prepared within the GameFest block.

Board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

s, table role-playing games are available.

Live action role-playing game A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

s (LARP) are run. Competitions and tournaments are organized in many games. In 2007 the program included over 1200 activities and events. That is more than Worldcon 2006 had (1057 events). The festival organizers allow groups of fans to realize their own programs. This very good cooperation with participants provides basis for richer program than other similar events have. Small conventions often give up after few years while Festival fantazie offers its services and organizational support for further sequels of convention under patronage of the festival.

Program lines

This is a list of program lines at Festival fantazie. Note that links to the lines' webpages are mostly in

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

Additional program

Many other activities are held out of main program lines.

Table football Table football, also known as foosball, table soccer, futbolito in Mexico, Taca Taca in Chile and Metegol in Argentina is a table-top game that is loosely based on association football. The aim of the game is to move the ball into the opponen ...

Dance Dance Revolution (''DDR'') is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance ...

are available, films are projected in cinema. Events such as expositions, concerts, dramatic performances, fencing shows, ceremonial party with masquerade competition and raffle, beauty contest, literary workshop or book (and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

, CD, VHS) exchange are held in terms of the festival. Many contests and tournaments belong to the additional program among others. These contests are often organized by festival visitors themselves (e.g. table football or staring tournament).

Speciál

Festival fantazie Speciál is a happening tied to Festival fantazie which is organized by SFK Avalon too. Speciál is linked with the summer festival, chosen programs appear again, but it offers variety of original program. Speciál is aimed to satisfy fans who prefer a smaller event to bustle of a large one or who missed desired program of Festival fantazie and also to enable further socializing across various interest groups.

Guests

These guests confirmed attendance for Festival fantazie 2007: * Harry Harrison – American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

writer * Magdalena Kozak – Polish doctor and writer * Andrzej Pilipiuk – Polish archaeologist and writer * Nikolaj Reďka – Ukrainian painter *

David Nykl David Nykl (born 7 February 1967) is a Czech-Canadian actor of film, television, commercials and theater. He is best known for portraying Dr. Radek Zelenka in the SyFy television series ''Stargate Atlantis'' and Anatoly Knyazev in the DC Com ...

– Canadian actor of Czech origin (character of Dr. Zelenka in

Stargate Atlantis ''Stargate Atlantis'' (usually stylized in all caps and often abbreviated ''SGA'') is an adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's ''Stargate'' franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Coop ...

* Ondrej Herec – Slovak literary theorist, translator, organizer * Jan Kantůrek – Czech translator (e.g.

Discworld ''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat ...

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...

) * Jiří Kocman – Czech dubber * Pavol Martinický – Slovak architect, artist, publicist * Miloslav Mejzlík – Czech dubber (e.g. Jack O'Neill in

Stargate SG-1 ''Stargate SG-1'' (often stylized in all caps, or abbreviated ''SG-1'') is a military science fiction adventure television series within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's ''Stargate'' franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, ...

) *

Jaroslav Mostecký Jaroslav Mostecký (29 September 1963 in Zábřeh – 13 December 2020) was a Czech science fiction writer. Biography He won the science fiction fandom related Karel Čapek prize in 1997. Mostecký died from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic ...

– Czech writer, collector, moderator *

Ondřej Neff Ondřej Neff (born June 26, 1945, Prague) is a Czech science fiction writer and journalist. He is the founder o''Neviditelný pes''(''The Invisible Dog''), one of the earliest and most popular Czech daily news/comments websites, an''Digineff'' a ...

– Czech spisovatel, script-writer, publicist, founder of Ikarie magazine and internet journal Neviditelný pes * Anežka Pohorská – Czech dubber * Jiří W. Procházka – Czech writer (e.g. John Francis Kovář series) * Jiří Samek – Czech actor, dubber (e.g. George Hammond in

) * Františka Vrbenská – Czech writer * Miroslav Žamboch – Czech writer (e.g. John Francis Kovář series)

New events

List of recent festival innovations: * More program lines: SeriesCon, LOSTcon, MysteryCon, DozorCon, SpyCon, The Witsher, ChinaCon, Klasikon, SithCon, ANImera, InfantilCon, CultCon, FireFly marathon. * Program runs 24 hours a day – NightCon offers computer games, board and card games, film projections * Fantasy LARPs The Witcher: Baptism of fire and Battle of the Hornburg, OrcBall, Orc olympiad * Eight days'

paintball Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called paintballs that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using low-energy a ...

program, bicycles and sport equipment rental * Festival journal, daily FanTV interviews with notable persons * First official festival wedding (Star Trek style)

Background

Festival provides organizers and attendees with reliable background. The centre is located in House of Culture Junior with halls and lecture rooms for circa 400 attendees. A snack bar, tearoom and workshop are situated here too. In proximate neighbourhood there are Druzba Cinema (capacity for 200–300 visitors), Sport Hall (for 190 visitors) and Sokolovna (for 200–400 visitors,

snack bar A snack bar usually refers to an inexpensive food counter that is part of a permanent structure where snack foods and light meals are sold. Description A beach snack bar is often a small building situated high on the sand. Besides soft dri ...

wine bar A wine bar is a tavern-like business focusing on selling wine, rather than liquor or beer. A typical feature of many wine bars is a wide selection of wines available by the glass. Some wine bars are profiled on wines of a certain type of origin, ...

). Accommodation is prepared in several categories from hotel to sleeping-bag places. The maximum capacity includes 13 buildings (Guest-house Bene, Filippi hotel, U Zámku hotel, Vyočina hotel, Business Academy hostel, Special boarding school, Sport hall, Smetanova and Buttulova elementary schools etc.). Visitors have access to the Internet through festival computers or they can browse festival

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...

network.

History

SFK Avalon Club, predecessor of organization in charge of the festival, was founded 12 February 1994.SFK Avalon history
(Czech) Among its first activities it issued ''Zbraně Avalonu'' magazine or organized ''Corwinovy spisy'' contest or brutal short stories competition. In 1996 it failed in candidacy for Parcon organization and decided to make Avalcon, convention of its own which was realized twice. In 1998 SFK Avalon led Parcon with 470 visitors, Avalon's co-founder Václav Pravda was elected a member of Czech Fandom Council. Three years of Festival fantazie Avalcon and two Avalcon Speciáls (1999, 2002) followed with increasing visit rate and extending program. At Eurocon 2000 in

Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...

Avalon succeeded in candidacy for Eurocon 2002 in Chotěboř. In 2001 the independent civic organization SFK Avalon was founded by the festival organizers. Their Eurocon 2002 was visited by 1300 attendees for whom 250 programs, 125 projections and GameCon was prepared. Despite accommodation difficulties Film Festival Fantazie connected with FF Parcon-Avalcon, FF GameStar and Literary Festival Vysočina started on 28 June 2003. Festival fantazie together with Festival fantazie Speciál in autumn (formerly Avalcon Speciál) is held annually ever since. Festival budget got from debt in 2006. Visit rate is increasing every year, program extent is growing and the festival is planned for at least 2 following years.

References

External links

* {{official, http://festivalfantazie.cz/en/
Chotěboř today
at Chotěboř official website Science fiction organizations Science fiction conventions in Europe Recurring events established in 1996 Film festivals in the Czech Republic Literary festivals in the Czech Republic Comics conventions Summer events in the Czech Republic