FilKONtario is a fan-run convention in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario area dedicated to filk, the music of science fiction and fantasy fandom. Established in 1991, it is the only filk convention in Canada.Robert Sawyer comments on his appearance at Filkontario In its fifth year (1995), the convention initiated the Filk Hall of Fame, which continues to recognize those who have made significant contributions to filk music and the filk community, worldwide. This international awards program is administered through FilKONtario, with an international jury. From Ties and Tails to Dead Penguins: FilKONtario 8 Revisited By Lloyd Landa, The Voyageur June 1998.
History At the time FilKONtario was founded, there were only five filk conventions worldwide: Consonance (San Francisco area), ConChord (Los Angeles area, started 1983), the Northeast Filk Con, and Ohio Valley Filk Fest (Columbus area, started in 1984OVFF History), and the British Filk Con (started in 1989Past British Cons). Heather Borean, the first conchair, wanted something a little closer to home and proposed the idea of founding a new con. The name is a concatenation of "Filk", "KON" (for "convention") and "Ontario." The early days of FilKONtario were a bit challenging. Attendance was low the first few years, but a feeling of relaxed inclusiveness, following the lead of the con's first year guests, Bill and Brenda Sutton, became the norm. In 1994, the convention drew a large crowd, with guest Kathy Mar, and has been quietly growing since that time.D. Hayman, FKO Treasurer
In the first year the convention mascot was established, which is a penguin with a guitar.FilKONtario 20blog entry by a former FilKONtario convention organizer
Like most filk conventions, other than the Ohio Valley Filk Fest, FilKONtario is a small event, usually with about 130-150 attendees. Gradually the convention has grown from modest beginnings to offer programming Friday evening through Sunday afternoon, with requisite filk circles until the early morning, workshops in the mornings and a "Dead Penguin" (a play on "dead dog") sing Sunday evening. In addition, the guest roster has grown from a single guest of honour, to having a GoH, a Filk Waif, an Interfilk Guest and an occasional Special Guest, an author or artist from Southern Ontario. "Filk Waif" is an idiosyncratic term honoring the first waif, Mary Ellen Wessels, whom two of the concom members brought to the con at their expense because she couldn't afford it. (Hence, "waif".) The role is identical to Toastmaster.
In 2007, in cooperation with Interfilk and after two years of fundraising, FilKONtario's only guest was the n'Early Music Consort, a choir of sixteen performers from England. This is thought to be one of the largest guest slates offered at a small convention.
FilKONtario has been the honoured recipient of guests funded by Interfilk since 1994. Interfilk is an international arts charity registered as a 501(c)(3) in California. FilKONtario is one of the recognized cons on that charity site.
Typical convention activities Programming typically includes: Concerts, song-writing contests, workshops on guitar, voice, performance, etc., one-shots, dealers' room, a fund-raising auction for Interfilk, theme circles, and, especially, open song circles where everyone who chooses can sing and play, and listeners are especially welcome. The circles start in the late evening and go into the early hours of the morning, or later. There is an opening reception, and sometimes a CD release. Some children's programming is usually available.
Recording of the concerts and filks has been done since the first year of FilKONtario, resulting in the following releases, the first two on tape, the remainder on CD: Make Believe (FilKONtario 1), Wail Songs Wail Songs Catalogue Let's Have a Filksing (FilKONtario 2), Wail SongsWail Songs Catalogue Songs From FilKONtario 7: Why Can't Penguins Filk?, Love Song Productions, A Dozen Cats Studios (Savedsounds and USB Studios) Where the Magic is Real (FilKONtario 8), a joint production of FilKONtario and USB Studios Filk Dreams — music from FilKONtario 9, USB Studios USB Studios Filk Memories — music from FilKONtario 10, USB Studios USB Studios FilkNotes — the music from FilKONtario 11, USB Studios Filk Together — music from FilKONtario 12, USB Studios Triskaidekafilkia — music from FilKONtario 13, USB Studios
Filk Hall of Fame Inductions into the Filk Hall of Fame take place at the Saturday evening banquet. The Hall was created to honour "contributions to filk music and the filk community". Each year a jury reviews the nominations and votes anonymously for their selections. Once the votes are tallied, the Administrator contacts the inductees for the current year. The citations noting the inductees' contributions are read at the banquet, and those inductees present are given a copy of the citation and a plaque. These items are mailed to those not present.
The next day there is a concert in honour of the new Hall of Fame inductees. Each new inductee selects five pieces of music significant to him, her or them. These are performed at the concert.
There is additional extensive material about how to nominate and what constitutes contributions to the filk community on the Filk Hall of Fame web site. In addition there is a complete list of inductees and their citations.
Citation: Songs noted in citations for inductees to the Filk Hall of Fame were used as part of the empirical database for this academic articleTatum, Spoo & Pope, Does Gender Influence Attitudes Toward Copyright in the Filk Community, 18 American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & Law (2010)
Outreach The FilKONtario Concom (convention organizing committee) has twice produced the filk track at a Worldcon: At Torcon 3, 2003, Toronto, ONTorcon 3 Program Book and at Anticipation, 2009, Montreal PQ.Anticipation Program Book
In preparation for Anticipation, two of the concom developed a multi-media presentation called "From the Earth to the Moon: a celebration of manned space flight". This presentation included PowerPoint, live narration and live music, with many members of the concom and filkers who were present at the con. It was the keynote filk track item for Anticipation.
Since then the concom has staged "From the Earth to the Moon", four more times: FilKONtario 2010, a meeting of the USS Hudson Bay (a local science fiction fan club) June, 2010; SFContario, November, 2010; and ConFusion, January, 2011. The latter three were by specific invitation of the organizing group.
In addition a similar performance focusing on both manned and unmanned space exploration was performed at the invitation of the University of Toronto's Astronomy and Space Exploration Society presentation on 26 September 2009 as an opening act for keynote speaker Dr. David Charbonneau.
Upcoming convention The next FilkONtario convention will take place at Monte Carlo Inn & Suites Downtown Markham, Ontario April 17-19, 2026.
Previous conventions # Dates Location Guest ofHonour Official Filk Waif Interfilk Guest Special Guest SongwritingContest Hall of Fame Committee 1 Apr 12–14, 1991 Holiday Inn Mississauga Bill and Brenda Sutton -- -- -- A theme song for FilKONtario -- Heather Borean (chair), Howard Scrimgeour, Wayne Borean, Joan MacDougall, Terri Neal, Lidia Tremblay 2 Apr 10–12, 1992 Holiday Inn Mississauga Tom Smith -- -- -- Buttons and T-shirts -- Heather Borean (chair), Howard Scrimgeour, Lidia Tremblay, Wayne Borean, Lloyd Penney, Yvonne Penney 3 May 7–9, 1993 Holiday Inn Mississauga Michael Longcor Mary Ellen Wessels (unofficial) -- -- Aliens -- Heather Borean (chair), Howard Scrimgeour, Judith Hayman, Dave Hayman, Wayne Borean, Lloyd Penney, Yvonne Penney 4 Apr 15–17, 1994 Regal Constellation Etobicoke Kathy Mar Mary Ellen Wessels Heather Rose Jones -- Technology -- Heather Borean, Wayne Borean, Dave Hayman, Judith Hayman (chair), Howard Scrimgeour, Lynda Hurdis, Linda Baker 5 Mar 31-Apr 2, 1995 Holiday Inn Yorkdale Toronto Decadent Dave Clement Steve Macdonald -- -- To the Stars and Fools that Go Filk in the Night Bob AsprinLeslie FishOff Centaur Publications Heather Borean, Wayne Borean, Dave Hayman, Judith Hayman (chair), Howard Scrimgeour, Rob Sutherland, Lloyd Penney, Yvonne Penney 6 Apr 19–21, 1996 Venture Inn AirportEtobicoke Mary Ellen Wessels Barry and Sally Childs-Helton Steve Dixon -- Magic and Magicians Juanita Coulson Julia Ecklar Bob Laurent Kathy Mar Bill Maraschiello Heather Borean, Carolyn Brown, Dave Hayman, Judith Hayman (chair), Howard Scrimgeour, Peggi Warner-Lalonde, Lloyd Penney, Yvonne Penney 7 Apr 11–13, 1997 Venture Inn Airport Etobicoke Talis Kimberley Clif and Carol Flynt Doug Wu -- Songs based on written SF or Fantasy Lee and Barry Gold J. Spencer LoveMargaret Middleton Heather Borean (co-chair), Carolyn Brown, Dave Hayman, Judith Hayman (co-chair), Ken Lalonde, Howard Scrimgeour, Peggi Warner-Lalonde, Lloyd Penney, Yvonne Penney 8 Apr 17-19 1998 Travelodge Hotel Toronto East Heather Alexander John Hall Juliane Honisch and Katy Dröge -- A place you'd like to go to Rafe Culpin Cynthia McQuillinErwin "Filthy Pierre" Strauss Carolyn Brown (co-chair), Dave Hayman, Judith Hayman, Sally Headford, Ken Lalonde, Howard Scrimgeour, Glenn Simser, Peggi Warner-Lalonde (co-chair), Lloyd Penney, Yvonne Penney 9 Mar 26–28, 1999 Quality Hotel Toronto Airport, Mississauga Urban Tapestry Don Neill Harold Groot -- To Space Gary Anderson"Decadent" Dave ClementMary Ellen Wessels Heather Borean, Carolyn Brown, Dave Hayman, Judith Hayman (chair), Sally Headford, Ken Lalonde, Howard Scrimgeour, Glenn Simser, Peggi Warner-Lalonde (co-chair) 10 Mar 31- Apr 2, 2000 Quality Hotel Toronto Airport, Mississauga Larry Warner Diana Huey Scott Snyder -- Tricksters Zander NyrondDr. Jane RobinsonBill Roper Heather Borean (co-chair), Dave Hayman, Judith Hayman (co-chair), Sally Headford, Ken Lalonde, Howard Scrimgeour, Peggi Warner-Lalonde 11 Mar 30-Apr 1, 2001 Quality Hotel Toronto Airport, Mississauga Bill and Brenda Sutton Steve Simmons Erica Neely -- Mars and Beyond Gordon R. DicksonGytha NorthBill and Brenda Sutton Heather Borean, Dave Hayman, Judith Hayman (chair), Sally Headford, Ken Lalonde, Howard Scrimgeour, Peggi Warner-Lalonde, Lloyd Penney, Yvonne Penney 12 Apr 5–7, 2002 Four Points Toronto Airport Mississauga Joey Shoji Dave Weingart Anke Teschke Tanya Huff 1. A song based on Tanya's writing