SizeCon 2023 is happening this weekend, 2-4 June, in-person for the first time since COVID-19 emerged. It’s in Piscataway-Somerset (northeast New Jersey, about 40 miles from New York), the same venue as previous SizeCons. I don’t know if tickets are still available, but I’m confident the hotel rooms reserved for the convention have long been filled. If you can’t attend in person, they’re holding a couple of “hybrid” events where you can socially interact online with attendees. Details here.

I am once again unable to attend for the same financial reasons as before. When the first SizeCon was held in 2017, I didn’t think it was the event for me. When they held it again in 2018, I was at the height of my involvement with Size Tumblr, and I had to admit there were a few people I would love to have met in person. I live on the other side of the continent, however, and it just wasn’t practical. SizeCon 2019 didn’t happen due to difficulty securing a venue. SizeCon 2020 was held in February, mere weeks before COVID-19 gripped the world.

I think a lot of us were feeling a little apocalyptic in 2020, and reading the SizeCon after-action reports as the pandemic shut down one element of public life after another induced pangs of real regret that I had missed out on a wonderful opportunity, quite possibly for good. Nothing like a global pandemic and the rise of fascism to remind one of one’s mortality.

Jitensha was the prime mover behind the first SizeCon and she has remained deeply involved in subsequent events. She even moved to Japan last year and is still flying back for this SizeCon. Scores of people have volunteered their time, effort, and skills to make each of the SizeCon events happen, including the online “Micro” SizeCon get-togethers since 2020. I haven’t seen the actual attendance numbers, but it really seems to me that the anticipation for 2023 doesn’t seem to be any less enthusiastic than it was for 2020, and that is a true testament to the spirit of fellowship generated by these people.

By my people.

Benjithedreamer has another meaty interview, this time with Jitensha. She goes into her many years of experience in size fantasy, as well as the origins and future of SizeCon and Daddy’s Dollhouse. I highly recommend listening to these reflections by a true tiny heroine of the size community.