Masquerade: the Worldcon's Longest Running Event!

Noreascon Four's Masquerade

The list of award winners for Noreascon Four's Masquerade has been posted. Please let us know of any corrections or additions. We're hoping to be able to add photos of the entries and some of the worksmanship details that won prizes so please check back again!

This year's Worldcon Masquerade had lots of people involved: it was the largest Masquerade in the last eight years.

• 47 entrants (50 registered, three scratch and no shows)
• 12 Young Fan entries
• 20 Novices

  "The next wave is coming, The next wave is coming!" says the Masquerade Director…

• 9 Journeymen
• 9 Master

Masquerade's Heritage

From Forry Ackerman 's "futuristic" costume at the First Worldcon in 1939, through Brian Healy's marvelous mechanical Dragon at the Millennium Philcon in 2001 (shown in Mil Phil's Exhibit Hall the day after the Masquerade), to Torcon 3's Best in Show "Trumps of Amber" in 2003,

costumes and costumers have always been part of Worldcon culture.

The Masquerade at Noreascon 4 was one of the big events, taking place in our largest hall, the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in the Hynes Convention Center on Sunday, September 5, 2004.

If you've never been to a Masquerade, we give a brief introduction in The Masquerade Explained.

Noreascon 4's Masquerade will be run based on the guidelines of the International Costumers' Guild, which are designed to encourage new and inexperienced costumers to enter Masquerades.

We hope some of the information (and pictures!) we expect to be posting here will encourage those of you who've always wondered about being part of a Masquerade to try this year!

Discworld-Themed Costumes

We said, a year or so ago, "Ever had a yen to strut your stuff as Mrs. Cake? as Dibbler? Rincewind? the Senior Staff of Unseen University? Now's the time …"

And many of the fans do have such a yen and came out in force — for the Masquerade, for Hall Costumes, for Noreascon's First Night celebration … .

Harper-Collins, Terry Pratchett's publisher,offered a $500 cash prize for the best Discworld-themed costume in the Masquerade (and Terry announced a supplement to that cash prize during the Awards part of the Masquerade). Terry himself also presented the Golden Luggage (his personal award for the best costume).

Terry's wrote a few words for us on what it's like to have his characters brought to life on the Masquerade stage.

Masquerade Specifics

If you want to use a facsimile of a weapon in a costume, please contact the Masquerade Director. Otherwise, please review the general Noreascon weapons policy.

The major details of the guidelines we'll be using are in Competition, and the rules for Noreascon's Masquerade are specified here. You could register online or download a pdf registration file.

For costumers looking for information about our physical layout, presentation specifics and rehearsals, check out Staging Information.

For sound information, see Masquerade Sound.

We've also got a few things to say about Photography.

Additional Information

If you're new to costuming, check out some of our favorite Costuming Resources.

Whether you are competing for the first time or have a long history in the masquerade, if you have any questions on what you read or see here or don't read or see, please don't hesitate to ask.

It's always possible we're doing something different from what you might expect — or we might have forgotten to include useful information. In either case, when in doubt, please do ask!

Richard Hill was the Masquerade Director; he can be contacted at masquerade@noreascon.org, or at:

Masquerade Director

Noreascon Four

P.O. Box 1010

Framingham, MA 01701

USA