Cymera — 2021 edition

Spooky Scotia panel at Cymera 2020 featuring Caroline Logan, Melinda Salisbury, Danny Weston and chair Eleanor Pender. Image credit: Ann Landmann

After moving our 2020 programme fully online, we were desperate to reconnect with our audiences in a real venue, and at the beginning of 2021, we were still cautiously optimistic that we could have some sort of physical event in June. But as January crept into February and the UK remained in Lockdown, it became clear that online would once again be our only option. So we rolled up our virtual sleeves and started planning our most international festival yet!

Image credit: Cymera

Thanks to the funding from the Creative Scotland Open Fund, #Cymera21 is a jam-packed weekend with speakers based in the USA, Australia, India, Taiwan, Sweden, Belgium, France, Canada and of course the UK. From internationally bestselling authors to Scottish debuts, our programme is a smorgasbord of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror writers to suit all tastes, and we have the ticket bookings from across the globe to prove it. Following last year’s success, we are once again hosting a range of digital writing workshops as well as our quiz, the open mics and our digital Creators Hall, which showcases artists, writers and publishers from Scotland. The funding also allows us to make our digital events as accessible as possible, with BSL interpretation, captions and free tickets.

We’re looking forward to taking many of the digital lessons learned in 2020 and 2021 and apply them to our 2022 festival — hopefully with added meatspace.

Check out Cymera’s 2021 programme on their website and follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram