DucKon


DucKon was an annual science fiction convention held every May or June in the Chicago area between 1991 and 2014. The name is a shortening of DUpage County KONvention.
DucKon served as a fundraiser for Super-Con-Duck-Tivity, a non-profit organization known for creating and administering the Golden Duck Awards for excellence in children's science fiction literature.

History

The first DucKon was held in 1992. The first three DucKons were chaired by Candis King. DucKon is known for heavily fannish programming and a strong science track of programming.
DucKon 3 was the first year that the convention had a furry track of programming; that furry track grew over the years and by DucKon 8 was believed to be responsible for up to 1/3 of the attendance. In 2000, most of the furry programming was spun off to become its own convention: Midwest FurFest, although DucKon continued to maintain a furry track of its own.

Music at DucKon

Musical performances were also a feature of DucKon. Songwriter Tom Smith released an album entitled Live at DucKon 2010. Many performances from past DucKons may be seen on YouTube; one, for example, featuring Vixy and Tony with S. J. Tucker and Seanan McGuire. Among many other musicians who have played at DucKon are Maya Bohnhoff, Ookla the Mok, and Michael Longcor.
After the invention of zeusaphones, the convention for several years hosted performances of large musical Tesla coils in the parking lot of its hotel. Video clips of these DucKon concerts garnered over a million hits on YouTube.

List of DucKons

On February 13, 2015, it was announced that the planned 2015 convention would be cancelled due to 'ongoing financial issues.' Later, the DucKon site announced that the convention would not be held in 2016. No further DucKons have been held.