The ConventionsFanderson Conventions
The ConventionsThe first Fanderson convention, in 1981, was before the formation of the Fanderson fan club later that year. Fanderson conventions have always been well-organised, with a good mix of guests, screenings, a Saturday night quiz and disco, and a reliably excellent model and art exhibition. There is normally a good quality booklet, with photos and often guest biographies. Over time, production quality has increased greatly, and the content has become more ambitious, including film location guides and episode scripts.
Here are the covers of some of the convention booklets. Follow the links for sample pages and convention schedules where available.
The first convention, Fanderson 81, was in Leeds; this was followed by Fanderson 82, 84 and 86.
Fanderson 87 was cancelled due to lack of support, and the club turned to smaller one-day events, often focusing on a single series- the first was the Space: 1999 Mini-con on 13 September 1987. In 1988 there were two events, Uforia in June and the Secret Service in October. In 1989, Uforia 2 in Manchester was a 2-day event.
1990 marked the return of multi-series conventions, as well as a further single-series convention. Both were two 2-day events, Fanderson 90 in May and Alphacon in November in Leeds. There were two conventions again in 1991, the 1-day London event, Plan B in May, followed in October by Fanderson 91 ("Supercelebration", a name also used for the 2019 convention).
In 1992, Fanderson mounted three conventions, each themed to specific shows. Project Straker (UFO) was in May, FAB One (Thunderbirds) was in August, and PsyCon (Space: 1999) was in October.
Fanderson returned to multi-series conventions, now with individual names, with 1-2 year intervals. The Space City convention was 1993, Danger Zone in 1995, Fanderson Gold in 1996.
A convention, Expo 2098, was planned for 10-12 April 1998 at the Moat House Hotel, Watford, but was cancelled due to low booking (just 107 people), insurance costs and the hotel rooms being fully booked for Easter.
UFO: 1999 was a one-day event on Sunday 12th September 1999, at the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television in Bradford.
There was a 4 year gap until Century 21 in 2000. The convention booklet was a 48-page yearbook of interviews- several of the convention books after this featured the the branding of the 1960s Gerry Anderson comic TV21. In 2002 there was Stand By For Action (with the Countdown comic branding!), and then a 3-year gap until 2 events in 2005, Destination Moonbase Alpha, at Pinewood Studios, and the main convention, Countdown to Disaster, a few weeks later. There was a regular convention, Sector 25, in 2006 (the convention book, titled FAB Anniversary Extra, was in format a regular edition of the FAB magazine, with no mention of the convention). In 2007 the club returned to Pinewood for another one-day event, HD21.
There was a large interval until TV21 in 2010, and then The Future Is Fantastic! in 2015. Fanderson then returned to a 2 year interval, all held in Maidenhead. Special Assignment was in 2017, and SuperCelebration in 2019. The 2019 was announced as the last 2 day convention- leaving things open for one day events in the future.
