Finncon

Finncon is the largest science fiction convention in Finland and, with up to 15,000 participants, one of the largest SF conventions in Europe. Finncon is unique among SF conventions because it has no ticket/membership fee,^[1] and is funded primarily on various cultural grants as well as income from traders. The event is organised annually in different cities in Finland.

Finncon
The Guests of Honour of Finncon 2007.
Genre	Speculative fiction
Location(s)	varies between Helsinki, Turku, Jyväskylä and Tampere
Country	Finland
Inaugurated	1986
Attendance	3000–15000
Organized by	Finncon-yhdistys ry
Website	http://www.finncon.org/

From 2003 to 2009 and in 2011 the convention included the anime convention Animecon, which boosted the convention's attendance and public visibility significantly. Since then the conventions have separated, and the future of the Finnish Animecon is currently uncertain beyond the 2011 combined Finncon-Animecon.

Finncon 2021 was cancelled due to logistical difficulties of conducting a large scale event during the COVID-19 pandemic while adhering to the event's ethos and criteria of being open to international communities.^[2]

Finncon alternates between different cities in Finland without a formal rota. Recently the event has been held almost every year, but occasionally a year is skipped if no city is found to host the event that year.

Finncons

ordinal number	year	dates	city	guests of honour	notes
1	1986		Helsinki	Brian Aldiss
2	1989		Helsinki	John Brunner, Tom Ölander
3	1991		Helsinki	Iain Banks
4	1993		Helsinki	Terry Pratchett, Bryan Talbot
5	1995	17-18 June	Jyväskylä	Bruce Sterling, Vonda McIntyre, Storm Constantine[3]
6	1997	16-17 August	Helsinki	Norman Spinrad, Ian McDonald[4]
7	1999	14-15 August[5]	Turku	Connie Willis, Philip Pullman, Ahrvid Engholm[6]
8	2000	18-20 August[7]	Helsinki	Neil Gaiman, Stephen Baxter, Ken MacLeod
9	2001	14-15 July	Jyväskylä	Jonathan Carroll, David Langford, Stelarc, Richard Stallman, Johanna Sinisalo[8]	also the year's Baltcon
10	2003	1-3 August[9]	Turku	Michael Swanwick, Jonathan Clements, Steve Sansweet, Karolina Bjällerstedt Mickos, Bjørn Tore Sund, Boris Hurtta[10]	also the year's Eurocon, Baltcon, and Animecon
11	2004	10-11 July	Jyväskylä	Robin Hobb, Gwyneth Jones, John Clute, Cheryl Morgan, Toni Jerrman[11]	also the year's Animecon
12	2006	18–20 August	Helsinki	Jeff VanderMeer, Risto Isomäki, Justina Robson, Rickard Berghorn[12]	also the year's Animecon
13	2007	14–15 July	Jyväskylä	Ellen Datlow, Joe Haldeman, Gay Haldeman, Elizabeth Hand, Cheryl Morgan, Ben Roimola. Jonathan Clements, John Clute, Judith Clute[13]	also the year's Animecon, 7000 visitors[14]
14	2008	26–27 July	Tampere	Petri Hiltunen, Charles Vess, Farah Mendlesohn, M. John Harrison, Johanna Koljonen and Nina von Rudiger as the duo Ms.Mandu[15]	also the year's Animecon
15	2009	10–12 July	Helsinki	George R. R. Martin, Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, Jari Lehtinen[16]	also the year's Animecon, Irmelin Sandman Lilius was originally slated to be a guest of honour, however she cancelled for family reasons.[17]
16	2010	16–18 July	Jyväskylä	Ellen Kushner, Pat Cadigan, Sari Peltoniemi, Liisa Rantalaiho[18]
17	2011	15–17 July[19]	Turku	Nalo Hopkinson,[20] Richard Morgan,[21] Himeka,[22] Yukihiro Notsu[citation needed]	also the year's Animecon[23]
18	2012	20–22 July	Tampere	Lois McMaster Bujold, Liz Williams, Irma Hirsjärvi[24]
19	2013	5–7 July	Helsinki	Aliette de Bodard, J. Pekka Mäkelä, Peter Watts, Stefan Ekman[25]
20	2014	11–13 July[26]	Jyväskylä	Elizabeth Bear, Hannu Rajaniemi, Jukka Halme
21	2016	1–3 July	Tampere	Jasper Fforde, Anne Leinonen, Catherynne M. Valente, Eeva-Liisa Tenhunen[27]
22	2018	14–15 July	Turku	Lauren Beukes, Maria Turtschaninoff, Merja Polvinen[28]
23	2019	5–7 July	Jyväskylä	Charles Stross, Kersti Juva, Raine Koskimaa, Cheryl Morgan[29]
24	2020	10–12 July[30]	Tampere (virtual)	Mike Carey, Helena Waris, Diane Duane, Vesa Sisättö, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay[31]
25	2022	8–10 July	Espoo	Marianna Leikomaa, Malka Older, Magdalena Hai, Marko Hautala[32]
26	2023	7–9 July	Tampere	Diane Duane, Helena Waris, Vesa Sisättö, Marek Oziewicz[33]
27	2024	5–7 July	Jyväskylä	Ursula Vernon, Tiina Raevaara, Tero Ykspetäjä, Jyrki Korpua[34]