The official start of Finncon is on the Saturday. I missed opening ceremonies because I was busy getting the Wizard’s Tower press release out, but I got to the convention by noon and was busy for pretty much all the rest of the day.

First up was a session about Iron Sky. It was mainly in Finnish, but Jarmo did do a lot with the web site from which I learned much. The most interesting thing about the movie is that it has a budget of €6.5 million. That’s a heck of a lot of money, but with usual Finn-fan efficiency Jarmo & crew have raised €5.6 million. They are looking to get the rest of the cash from crowdsourcing, and are already 31% of the way towards their target. If you want to help, go here.

Next up I moderated a discussion on cyberpunk. Pat Cadigan did most of the work, but I did add a moment of pure 21st Century by calling up Jonathan Dotse’s blog on my iPad and reading from it. I also did a plug for Lauren Beukes’s Moxyland, which is a fabulous book.

I was down to interview Ellen Kushner in her GoH slot, but she had a whole presentation prepared, including several songs, so I was only needed right at the end. Ellen was fabulous and charmed everyone.

From there I went to a presentation on forthcoming conventions where I did some PR for the London in 2014 Worldcon bid. As Eemeli Aro was in Canada on a business trip I also ended up fronting the Moon in 2012 Finncon bid. I noted that the bids for Helsinki and Tampere had not yet got facilities contracts, whereas our bid had a splendid Moon Nazi base available for use as all the Moon Nazis would be leaving in 2011.

Finncon will be in Turku in 2011. The Guests of Honour will be Nalo Hopkinson and Richard Morgan. Provided that the Moon Nazis do not conquer Earth before then.

My schedule had a gap between 16:00 and 17:00 but I spent some of it interviewing Jarmo and his colleague, Antti Hukkanen. The video from that may end up elsewhere in a day or two. I’ll keep you informed.

At 17:00 I did a reprise of my “How to run a masquerade” presentation, complete with some new video from Montreal. That was followed by the actual masquerade. The quality of costumes at Finncon has been going up each year. There was some fabulous make-up work this year, but by far the most impressive entry was this one: a Lorien warrior in full armor. The young man who wore it told me he made everything himself except the bow, sword and trousers. Pat was taking a lot of photos and I’ll point you at them when she gets them online.

After the masquerade we headed off for dinner at Harald, the viking-themed restaurant. Here’s Ellen tucking in to some red deer. iPhones in low light don’t take the best photos, but I think you’ll get the idea.

At 21:00 we had to be back at the con for the evening party at which I got to present the masquerade prizes and the Finnish filikers serenaded the Guests of Honour. I don’t have the lyrics available yet, but hopefully that will be sorted soon.

It was, as you might have noticed, a long day.