Noir Dame

Are you in the greater Boston area, or within driving distance in New England? Do you enjoy science fiction, fantasy and fun TV? Well, this weekend’s the day to hit the Back Bay Hilton, to have fun and make new friends – and support a number of fans who are trying to “make lemonade from lemons”. Best of all, it’s entirely free, though you can donate funds towards the nice people who are putting on this last-minute show.

Many science fiction fans have already been following the tawdry story of an ambitious convention called Jumpcon — the real reason behind this neat and completely FREE get-together by the good folks at United Fan Con. It’s THIS Friday, July 18th, through Sunday at the Back Bay Hilton, 40 Dalton Street, Boston.

Jumpcon garnered special attention after an ugly cancellation of the FedConUSA convention in Dallas last month, which shut down before noon on their second day. Like the Dallas convention, Jumpcon was chaired and planned by leaders with no prior experience running conventions, and was unusually ambitious – planning about an event a week, in cities around the nation.

This weekend WAS to be a major convention for Jumpcon LLC, their premiere event held in Boston. Many fans were excited about the actors booked for this weekend: for example, this con was to be the sole appearance of Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell from Battlestar Galactica – two award-winning lead actors who don’t exactly travel the con circuit on a regular basis. You can imagine how many Battlestar Galactica fans alone have booked to go see them.

Jumpcon Boston was canceled on Tuesday, and in fact, the entire Jumpcon calendar has now been canceled. Yet many fans traveling to the convention have bought non-refundable tickets and are still booked into area hotels.

Today, a small fan run group called the New England Fan Experience, who have successfully run media cons for almost twenty years, announced something for affected fans – a NonJumpCon, if you will.

“This Fan Con will be free to all attendees and include; games,
videos, fan panels, auctions, vendors and more. The event will take
place at the Hilton Back Bay, located at 40 Dalton Street, Boston MA
(directly across the street from the Boston Sheraton). The event will
run from 3pm – 10pm on Friday, 10am – 6pm on Saturday and 12pm – 6pm
on Sunday.”

If you know people in the New England area who might want to volunteer to help out, or to attend (and especially to befriend the folks who are travelling from far distances), please spread the word. It is free to attend for everyone, regardless of whether you have a ticket or not.

You can also join:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jconcons/ to help plan and find out more about the event
and follow the developing Jumpcon story here:

http://community.livejournal.com/jumpconcons/