A BANQUET FIT FOR A KING
Since the first Science Fiction convention took place, there would have always been the traditional convention banquet, a formal dinner for the con attendeess to dress up appropriately and enjoy the atmosphere associated with these special nights. Some conventions choose to hold these occasions at a local Pancake Parlour or Spaghetti Tree restaurant, making bookings sometimes for up to 60 people or more to save the inconvenience of actually having to organise one themselves. Other conventions use their hotels catering facility to look after these events. Yet no matter how it is done though, it is a commonly accepted practice that the banquet is as much a part of convention tradition as the masquerade, opening ceremony and panels in the programme.
In 1987 one person changed the whole concept of convention banquets forever. Shane Morrissey single handedly organised a convention style formal banquet, without the convention. The event was the infamous Star Wars 10th Anniversary Celebration, and it was the first non-convention banquet held in Victoria and possibly even Australia. This one successful event showed people that a very popular and successful dinner dance could be held without the need of staging a con. Since then, a number of these dinners have sprung up: The St Valentine's Day Feasts and the Annual Sci-Fi dinner dances are just two examples of formal banquets that are not directly related with any convention.
Following from the Star Wars 10th, the next non-convention banquet to come along was the Winter Palace Masked Ball in 1989. This was a combined Star Walking and Trekcon IV event held at the Royal Parade Motor Inn Parkville. Over 70 people turned up for the night and it truly marked the start of the banquet surge which took off after that. Like the Star Wars 10th, the Winter Palace Masked Ball had great atmosphere, a number of wonderful and varied costumes and proved that these banquets were becoming very popular within fandom. They were also very good fundraisers for the organisers (which was a good incentive to hold them). Actual convention banquets were starting to look rather dull in comparison to these special events. The main problem with the official con banquets was that the organisers often took little interest in how they were held as their immediate attention was focused on the running of the con. It was soon discovered that a way around this was to have someone else run the banquet for them, the obvious advantage being that the pressure of organising the event was lifted from them and yet the convention would still be looked upon as being very successful with a full on banquet as part of the programming. Trekcon IV had Star Walking run the Empire Strikes Back 10th Anniversary Celebration banquet at their convention in 1990. The result was a great success for all concerned, with the banquet exceeding all expectations by having an attendance of 140 people, which ironically was more than the convention's entire membership.
By now, these banquets were receiving more attention from potential convention organisers who could see the financial benefit of staging a special dinner dance as a means of raising revenue, thus more and more started to appear. Aside from the Empire 10th, 1990 saw the first of two Ambassador's Banquets take the stand, being held at the Richmond Town Hall, this event featured live music played by Greg Franklin and his band. The night had about 40-50 attendees, but what made the event memorable (for the wrong reasons) was the catering. The organisers attempted to be a little different in the type of food they served, so they enlisted the assistance of the SCA (the medieval society) and they decided to give the feast a very special touch. The problem was, Sci-Fi fans were not accustomed to the kind of food they were offering, such as two types of soup which both were served cold and various other spicy and unusual dishes, which people found hard to get into. This put a sour note on the event and subsequently the attendance for the second banquet was considerably lower (even though the catering was done by the hotel: The New Melbourne Inn). Later in 1990, the most poorly attended and unsuccessful banquet ever held took place at the Royal Parade Motor Inn, being called a Special Dinner Ball of sorts, the event which was badly promoted attracted no more than 18 people (including the committee). Needless to say, it went to show that although special non-convention banquets were becoming all the rage, they could still fail if not advertised properly.
In 1991 the first of the St Valentines Day Feasts was held, a joint venture between Star Walking and Suncon (inspired by some fandom ladies who were seeking a more romantic form of dinner dance). This was a reasonably good night, with a about 50-60 attendees (a number which has now become an average for this event). 1991 also saw the first banquet where a fandom personality was "roasted" (based on the idea used for celebrities in the US) The Shane Morrissey Roast was unique in its idea as tales of Shane's exploits in fandom were told for all to hear, it attracted about 40-45 people and is still the only banquet to have used the "roasting" concept. This year also saw the Raiders of the Lost Ark 10th Anniversary Celebrations, another Star Walking event, this time it was held as the banquet of Victoricon, this event attracted around 70-80 people and featured two live acts (The Android Sisters and Pam Rendell) as a main attraction. As far as official convention banquets went, Concave II had their own desert only banquet. this was a top night with many of us gutses pigging out on the large variety of desert courses offered.
1992 saw the only banquet ever devoted to Star Trek. The First Annual Sci-Fi Ball had the celebration of the Star Trek 25th Anniversary as its sub-title. This was a very well attended night with around 80 people going, the costumes were many and varied and the atmosphere very positive, it was the first (and so far only) Star Trek banquet held in Victoria. The second St Valentine's Day Ball's was held by Red Squadron, which proved to be a very good night, it was the first time specific ideas were used in the music, which intended to get couples together to dance, and it also saw the first and last premiere of The Elvis Brothers live performance. A week prior to that event was the Roman Feast held by Radicon, which was aimed at both the Sci-Fi and SCA market, reports on the event were varied, although the SCA side seemed to have been quite successful, however both this event and the St Valentines Ball suffered attendance losses due to the one week span between them. Later that year, Star Walking held The Addams Family Gathering, this was the first banquet ever to be entirely catered for by the organisers, they cooked and prepared all their own food with no outside help. This event attracted around 80-90 people of which around 98% came dressed for the occasion, the event was very successful with attendances from all walks of fandom, the only down point being the poor sound volume of the dance music which fought to be heard amongst the chatter. The Second Annual Sci-Fi Ball was held this time by Radicon as part of the Conjunction 3 programme, with the theme of Cartoons and Comics, this event attracted around 70-80 people and featured a live magician act and the last performance by two of the acclaimed Android Sisters. The night was successful although a lack of actual animated inspired costumes was evident.
Fandom’s largest attended banquet took place in 1993, the Return of the Jedi 10th Anniversary Celebration attracted 142 people beating the previous record of 140 held by The Empire Strikes Back 10th. Being the official banquet of Star Walking Inc. The Second Convention, this was classed as a very special night, so little expense was spared in its presentation. This event featured the highly praised Jedi mock wedding ceremony as well as a memorable lighting display and has since been hailed as Star Walking's, and fandoms, most spectacular banquet ever. The third St Valentines Day Ball was also hosted by Star Walking as part of the Starfest programme, being held in the cavernous World Congress Centre, this event attracted around 50 people, and was a successful night although the seemingly miles of open space did give the banquet a less cosy feel. Convention organisers had now long since discovered that a banquet held sometime before a convention made a good fundraiser, this prompted Constantinople to host the 3rd Annual Sci-Fi Ball with the theme of Cats in Science Fiction. The event was attended by around 45-50 people and by most reports was about average in quality. By now just about every large club or convention had held at least one independent convention style banquet. The last organisation to have one was the Doctor Who Club, they held their Who's 30 at the Melbourne Town Hall late last year, the night was well attended but it was very evident from the outset that the lack of experience by the organisers was going to let the night slip somewhat. Fans who were regular banquet attendees noted that it was poorly organised with many of the details that need to be addressed in a banquet simply being overlooked, this was a shame as the expectations were high.
The 1994 Fourth Annual St Valentines Dinner Dance was held recently by Threads, this was yet another successful Valentines Day banquet with many new faces joining in on the festivities for the first time, the only major snag the event had was the programming not being strictly aheared to, subsequently the night finished half an hour early and many hours of recorded dance music never got aired. The night did have three live performing acts though, Pam Rendell, Darren Reid and Katharine Shade, with the Shade Quartet plus Brett Jones playing some wonderful ambient background music throughout the evening.
As you can see, fandom has a rather full history of these events, with future banquets already in the works, Gallifrey is planning to host the 5th Annual St Valentines Day Ball next year and Star Walking is conducting the 4th Annual Sci-Fi Ball with a theme of "They Came From Outer Space" later this year.
Admittedly there are those who believe all the uniqueness of non convention banquets have now lost their attraction, Once there was only one or two making them a very "special" night out, now they seem to be everywhere. People are being very selective in their choices, and with a going price of around $35 to $40 each, they can become very expensive night's to attend. However one thing is for sure, the non convention banquet has come a long way since Shane Morrissey's inspirational Star Wars 10th and is definitely here to stay. It has been through events like these that Victorian fandom has been able to soar far ahead of the other states in being the most active of Science Fiction fandom communities in the country, and for that reason alone, should be continued and looked forward upon as being something special we can all enjoy.