... THE con for all music-loving Science Fiction-, Fantasy- and medieval re-enactment fans. A very special weekend at the castle with music, dance and lots of fun to take part in or partake of.
The history of FilkCONtinental:
In 1994, the German mini-filk-con AUDMFC (organized by Carola, Heike, Thomas and me) took place for the last time. Thereafter, nothing new was in sight, but I absolutely wanted to get another filk event started, again. A first try in 1996, the "Bordertone Filk", failed and had to be cancelled due to the lack of attendants. But at least, Kai's "garden filk / food (*g*)" con came out of this and happened every spring for several years after, in Berlin; and also the first LFA-Songbook got done for this occasion. But I didn't want to give up on my idea - Germany *had* to have a filk con again that was bigger and not only limited to a small group or geographic area. I talked to Katy to convince her that we should work together on this. And she was immediately in favour of the idea. So, we took the second garden filk con as an opportunity to plan a filk con for the year 1997 (this was the garden filk con at which - if you choose to believe the eye witnesses - Katy and Kirstin planned a con with the help of 10 litres Tequila Sunrise ;-)). A name was quickly found - FilkCONtinental (which I thought was very fitting as it was supposed to be the first filk con on the "continent" in Europe). I thought it a good idea to ask people from different fandom groups to join the committee, so I suggested Franklin (his roots being the medieval reenactment, and FunACon), whereas Katy asked Rika (LARP) to join. Both have been on the committee in later years, as well. And I think our evil plan worked out Of course, there's been highs and lows during the past years. The low points prompted Katy and me to decide that there should be no FilkCONtinental without both of us on the committee, as we do work very well together. So, without us, it would not be a "FilkCONtinental". One of the personal highlights is certainly the fact that Katy and I have forged a really close friendship during those years of joint con organisation; in spite of very difficult circumstances in our private lives. One of the con highlights so far has been the 2001 convention with our participation in the WorlDream project. Followed by many others...
After one year of forced hiatus due to necessary change of location we started anew in 2014 in a new place: the Music Youth Hostel of Werningerode - where we 2017 celebrated our 20th aniversary.
After two years of pandemics and lockdown (which Volker and Kirstin bridged with online substitute conventions) Katy withdrew from FilkCONtinental committee due to health issues and thus was ceremonially retired in 2022 after 25 shared years.
The remaining core-orga with Kirstin, Volker and Franklin as MoC is continuing and will celebrate the 25th FilkCONtinental in 2024 - and 10 years in Werningerode! 🙂
My heartfelt thanks to all participants - I hope we meet again soon!
The history of FilkCONtinental:
In 1994, the German mini-filk-con AUDMFC (organized by Carola, Heike, Thomas and me) took place for the last time. Thereafter, nothing new was in sight, but I absolutely wanted to get another filk event started, again. A first try in 1996, the "Bordertone Filk", failed and had to be cancelled due to the lack of attendants. But at least, Kai's "garden filk / food (*g*)" con came out of this and happened every spring for several years after, in Berlin; and also the first LFA-Songbook got done for this occasion. But I didn't want to give up on my idea - Germany *had* to have a filk con again that was bigger and not only limited to a small group or geographic area. I talked to Katy to convince her that we should work together on this. And she was immediately in favour of the idea. So, we took the second garden filk con as an opportunity to plan a filk con for the year 1997 (this was the garden filk con at which - if you choose to believe the eye witnesses - Katy and Kirstin planned a con with the help of 10 litres Tequila Sunrise ;-)). A name was quickly found - FilkCONtinental (which I thought was very fitting as it was supposed to be the first filk con on the "continent" in Europe). I thought it a good idea to ask people from different fandom groups to join the committee, so I suggested Franklin (his roots being the medieval reenactment, and FunACon), whereas Katy asked Rika (LARP) to join. Both have been on the committee in later years, as well. And I think our evil plan worked out Of course, there's been highs and lows during the past years. The low points prompted Katy and me to decide that there should be no FilkCONtinental without both of us on the committee, as we do work very well together. So, without us, it would not be a "FilkCONtinental". One of the personal highlights is certainly the fact that Katy and I have forged a really close friendship during those years of joint con organisation; in spite of very difficult circumstances in our private lives. One of the con highlights so far has been the 2001 convention with our participation in the WorlDream project. Followed by many others...
After one year of forced hiatus due to necessary change of location we started anew in 2014 in a new place: the Music Youth Hostel of Werningerode - where we 2017 celebrated our 20th aniversary.
After two years of pandemics and lockdown (which Volker and Kirstin bridged with online substitute conventions) Katy withdrew from FilkCONtinental committee due to health issues and thus was ceremonially retired in 2022 after 25 shared years.
The remaining core-orga with Kirstin, Volker and Franklin as MoC is continuing and will celebrate the 25th FilkCONtinental in 2024 - and 10 years in Werningerode! 🙂
My heartfelt thanks to all participants - I hope we meet again soon!
Yours,
Kirstin Tanger
Oktober 2001/Januar 2014/Februar 2018/Februar 2024
