Welcome to the first newsletter of the bid to hold the 2027 Eastercon in the city of Glasgow!

Why are you proposing this?

It started, as it so often does, as a number of conversations in the pub. In the case of this bid, there were two of these in particular.

Firstly, earlier this year, in the run up to Worldcon 2024, there were a number of fan meetups. At one of these, close to the convention, a number of us thought whether we collectively had the will to put on a convention ourselves. What sort of convention, and when, weren’t entirely thought through. It was late in the evening, and we had a Worldcon to help run first after all.

The second conversation in the pub pointed something out to me. This was, there has been a Eastercon in Glasgow every decade since the 1980s. In the ‘80s there were three: Albacon 80, Albacon II and Albacon III (incidentally your writer’s third-ever convention). In the ‘90s there was Speculation in 1991. The 2000s — 2Kon in 2000 and Concussion in 2006. The 2010s featured Satellite 4 in 2014.

The 2020s? None so far. And it’s getting late to host one. Hence this bid for the 2027 Eastercon to be held in Glasgow.

So what’s happened since?

We’ve formed a bid committee, for starters. We are:

• Alan Fleming and David Bamford — co-chairs
• Steve Cooper — treasurer
• Kate Wood — secretary & timeline
• Ila Khan — communications
• Kirsty Wood — liaison

And we're being assisted by Mark Meenan and Meg MacDonald in liaising with the Glasgow Convention Bureau in the search for a location.

We will be filling in a few other key roles in the next few weeks.

A location, you say?

We're being assisted by the Glasgow Convention Bureau in the search for a suitable venue for a convention. We have a shortlist of four venues, and are visiting them this week. Inevitably there are pros and cons for each venue, but we'll obviously be looking at the one that best suits the needs of a modern Eastercon.

And what is happening next?

Finalising the venues. Selecting Guests of Honour. Getting everything ready, step by step, to present a bid at Reclamation in Belfast next Easter.

And that's where we are right now. We aim to send out a newsletter approximately every six weeks. In the next one — a bit more about us, and a bit more about how our bid is progressing.

Please do forward this to your friends. We're looking forward to bidding and to hosting you in Glasgow in 2027!

Best wishes,

The Glasgow in 2027 Bid Team.