Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. The genre has a niche but faithful popularity in the underground.
Tom Smith is an American singer-songwriter from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who got his start in the filk music community. He is a fourteen-time winner of the Pegasus Award for excellence in filking, including awards for his "A Boy and His Frog", "307 Ale", and "The Return of the King (Uh-huh)", and was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2005.
BayCon is the San Francisco Bay Area's longest-running fan-run science fiction and fantasy convention. It was held over Memorial Day weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area, California but moved to July 4th, Independence Day. BayCon draws many attendees from throughout California and also as far away as Oregon, Washington, and Arizona. The most recent BayCon was held from Saturday, July 1, through Tuesday, July 4, 2023, in Santa Clara, California. The next BayCon is scheduled for July 4-7, 2024.
Ookla the Mok is a filk band fronted by Rand Bellavia and Adam English (b.1970). The two met as undergraduates while attending Houghton College in 1988, and the majority of their performances have been at science-fiction conventions or in their hometown of Buffalo, New York. The band is named after a character from the Ruby-Spears Productions cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian, created by Steve Gerber.
InConJunction is a fan-run, not-for-profit science fiction convention held during the first weekend in July in Indianapolis, Indiana. Past guests include Philip José Farmer, Frederik Pohl, Catherine Asaro, George R.R. Martin, Jerry Pournelle, Glen Cook, Mike Resnick, Timothy Zahn, and David Drake. The convention focuses on literature and literacy, but not to the exclusion of other areas of interest. Unique or unusual features include a dedicated Doctor Who room sponsored by The Whoosier Network, an anime room sponsored by The Indiana Animation Club, and a charity auction supporting Indy Reads and other charities as chosen by the convention chairperson.
Steve Macdonald is an American filk singer/songwriter, who also appears at Renaissance Faires as "Gallamor the Bard". He served for several years as the Pegasus Award Evangelista, and was responsible for many changes in the award process that led to much greater participation among the voting base. He was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2006.
Cynthia McQuillin was a filk singer and writer as well as an author and artist. She lived in the San Francisco Bay area. Her songs touched the usual filk topics of science fiction, fantasy, and cats, but also feminism, love, Paganism, and Sizeism.
Norwescon is one of the largest regional science fiction and fantasy conventions in the United States. Located in SeaTac in Washington state, Norwescon has been running continuously since 1978.
Marcon is a full-spectrum fantasy and science fiction convention based in Columbus, Ohio, and was on Easter weekend in 2013 but moved to Mother's Day weekend starting in 2014. It is now operated by the Columbus-based Science Oriented Literature, Art, and Education Foundation, a non-profit educational corporation. The name was originally short for "March Convention," with the convention mascot the "March Hare," affectionately named "Marconi". After the date of the convention moved away from March, the name was re-designated as "Multiple Alternative Realities Convention".
Lee Gold is a member of California science fiction fandom and a writer and editor in the role-playing game and filk music communities.
Anne Passovoy is active in science fiction fandom and filk music, and has won two Pegasus Awards. She is married to Bob Passovoy. She has written many filk songs, including "Marcon Ballroom" and writing perhaps the most widely sung tune for Poul Anderson's poem, "Mary O'Meara."
Jordin T. Kare was a physicist and aerospace engineer who researched laser propulsion. He was responsible for Mockingbird, a conceptual design for an extremely small reusable launch vehicle, and was involved in the Clementine lunar mapping mission. Kare also conceived the SailBeam interstellar propulsion technique. In the science fiction fan community, he was a composer, performer and recording artist of filk music.
Michael Longcor is a folk and filk singer. His songs span a range of topics including military history, Indiana history, and humor. He has won six Pegasus Awards and has been nominated for six others. His music has appeared on Dr. Demento and on NPR's Folksong Festival, and has provided the background for a BBC documentary on Rudyard Kipling.
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff is an American sci-fi and fantasy author and filk musician. As an author, she collaborated on several novels in the Batman and Star Wars franchise with Michael Reaves, and as a filk musician, she is a three-time Pegasus Award winner.
Tadao Tomomatsu is an actor, instructor, and science fiction personality living in the Los Angeles, California area.
Conestoga was a literary science fiction and fantasy convention held annually in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from 1997 through 2010, after which it was suspended for financial and logistical reasons. The convention at first was designated by the year in which it was held. With its sixth incarnation, Conestoga converted to a whole number count, rolling the first five into the number tally, and running through #14 before stopping. Celebrating science fiction and fantasy literature and art were staples of the convention, but many who were also interested in horror, anime, and comics attended. Popular activities at the convention included filking and gaming. Featured programming included a writers track, an art show, a dealer room, a masquerade, and a play put on by the Penguin Playhouse Troupe.
ConQuesT is the annual science fiction and fantasy convention held in the Kansas City, Missouri area over the U. S. Memorial Day weekend. It is sponsored by the long-running Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society. ConQuesT is the oldest such fan convention of its type in Missouri and in the U. S. central states region, first established using the name Mid-America Con in June 1972. After that, the next nine KaCSFFS-sponsored conventions were named BYOB-Cons In 1980 KaCSFFS adopted the permanent name ConQuesT for the convention.
Robert T. Balder is a professional cartoonist and singer-songwriter. He graduated from Roanoke College with a major in English in 1993 and, after a variety of jobs, entered a seven-year career in IT, starting as a manager of database development, which he left for his current career.
FilKONtario is a fan-run convention in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario area dedicated to filk, the music of science fiction and fantasy fandom. Established in 1991, it is the only filk convention in Canada. In its fifth year (1995), the convention initiated the Filk Hall of Fame, which continues to recognize those who have made significant contributions to filk music and the filk community, worldwide. This international awards program is administered through FilKONtario, with an international jury.
DucKon was an annual science fiction convention held every May or June in the Chicago area between 1992 and 2014. The name is a shortening of DUpage CountyKONvention.
