About us
About the Icon Festival
The Icon Festival for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Role-Playing is an annual festival which takes place on 21-24 September 2013 for the 17th time. Icon is a red-letter day for fans of the science fiction and fantasy (both literature and cinema), and its 3-day diverse program attracts people of all ages.
This year’s festival will consist of more than 250 events, including lectures, panel discussions, contests, professional workshops, comical and musical shows, as well as comics and anime events, providing a huge celebration for the science fiction and fantasy lovers and even much broader audiences.
Icon is produced by non-for-profit organizations that work all year long to promote fandom and creators of science fiction, fantasy and role-playing, and strive to make these genres more accessible to their audience. We also take pride in providing the stage to independent filmmakers and young authors.
The Icon Festival is a seminal cultural event, made possible due to the passion and hard work of hundreds of volunteers, from the festival director to the last but not least staff member. Their only reward is the festival itself as all incomes are used to pay for the facilities and cover expenses.
Guests of honor at the Icon Festival
One of our most popular features at Icon is to meet world-class known authors, directors and actors. In previous years, we’ve had several guests during the festival or in surrounding events throughout the year, including Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, John de Lancie, Tim Powers, Guy Gavriel Kay and others.
The guest of Honor for 2013 is American author Daryl Gregory, and our special guest is Chase Masterson (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).
More on the attraction at the 2013 Festival
Among the main attractions this year: Gladiators Fighting Arena, Ari Pullman’s new movie “The Congress”, and premieres of the films “Knights of Badassdom” and “The Last Shepperd” (an original Israeli fantastic feature). The festival will also include premieres of two live shows – “Tea House Musical” inspired by the web comics under the same title, and “The End of the World for the Advanced”.
Within the wide complex of the festival, you will find mingling and recreation centers, board games centers, a huge fair for science fiction, anime, comics, fantasy, books, DVD’s and other related shops, including a second hand station.
The festival also holds an academic convention and hosts an impressive ensemble of lecturers. New books will be presented at the festival for the first time, an awards for best genre books and short stories will be given away. The festival will take place on two main facilities, located 10 minutes walk apart - ZOA and Eshcol Pais in Tel Aviv.