Imladris – Krakow Weekend with Fantasy is a convention that has been haunting the capital of Lesser Poland since 1998. The 20th edition is primarily a return to stationary mode of operation after two years (an online convention took place last year). This time the event took place in a double location – most of the convention’s attractions were located in the space provided by the XLII Secondary School at Studencka Street in Krakow. However, Imladris also had his free part in the buildings of the Provincial Public Library in Krakow, located only a few minutes’ walk from the convent school. On the one hand, I understand that not everyone might like the need to change the location between successive interesting points of the program, but separating the free section definitely had its advantages. By locating the convention during a long weekend, even people without purchased tickets, but being in the area, could attend an interesting lecture or play digital and analog games (there is always a good time to play).
It is not surprising that a sufficiently large space was needed, since Imladris was full of various attractions. It can be said that Imladris “suffered” from a typical affliction of a good convention – it was impossible to check all the points of the program that I would like with human strength, because several potential events to check overlapped many times. The available lectures, discussion panels and workshops referred to various currents of broadly understood fantasy, also, although I will use a truism – it is a type of event where probably all visitors can find something for themselves. Especially when we add RPG sessions, competitions, rich exhibitors’ stands (what a challenge it was to take care of the well-being of the wallet) and the presence of fantasy authors.
As we mentioned at the beginning, this year’s Imladris was exceptional and there are other reasons for that. The Krakow Weekend with Fantastyka also served as this year’s Polcon – the oldest still active Polish convention, characterized by an itinerant character. This also means that the event was accompanied by this year’s awards ceremony. Janusz A. Zajdel. The best short story of 2021 was Escape by Michał Cholewa ( available online ), and the best novel was Płomień by Magdalena Salik (published by Powergraph).
So it’s definitely safe to say that Imladris has returned to offline form in style and we’ll be looking forward to next year’s edition.
