THE MANCON THAT NEVER HAPPENED

I do remember Mancon 6 being announced and then cancelled. I found a reference to the cancellation in a BSFG newsletter from May 1991, putting it in the Ansible Interregnum and reminding me how much we'd miss Ansible if it wasn't there. As I have our CRITICAL WAVE file to hand I've just checked there. Mancon 6 was first listed in September 1990 (12-15 July 1991, Sachas Hotel, Manchester; GOHs: Ellison and Banks) with a contact address of Chapter One bookshop in Liverpool. It was shown as cancelled in April 1991. CW#21 says the cancellation was down to 'a combination factors such as the considerable increase in the cost of trans-Atlantic air fares, and the large number of cons now scheduled for the same time of year'. Unfortunately, having decided to cancel, 'air fares dropped dramatically and the committee received almost 100 enquiries or memberships' but it was too late to backtrack. Full refunds were to be offered. Dave Holmes seems to have had something to do with it.

On the too-many-other-conventions point, in the period May-September 1991, and ignoring media events, there was Mexicon 4 (Harrogate), Protoplasm (Manchester), Congregate (Peterborough), Twentycon (Birmingham), Wincon II (Winchester), and Albacon (Glasgow). In the end, Congregate also cancelled and Protoplasm postponed while Twentycon went ahead but lost money. As the BSFG newsletter said, 'These disappearing cons, although advantageous to the Brum Group (leaving June and July clear for our 20th anniversary celebration at Twentycon), would appear to indicate that the increasingly crowded convention calender has finally reached saturation point.'