ICON Tel Aviv 2017

So, for the second year in a row I had the opportunity to attend the ICON festival for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Role Play in Tel Aviv. It's a yearly 3 day convention held during the Sukkot holiday next to the beautiful Sarona neighborhood(full of parks and restaurants) with fun for all ages. So, what does ICON have to offer?

Sarona

The festival is held next to the Sarona neighborhood of Tel Aviv. This was great for when we wanted to get lunch, and give the kids a break in the playground.

Cosplay

My boysencounter Pikachu!

There's a good deal of Cosplay going on during the festival. It's fun to check out the costumes and take photos with 'celebs'.

Booths

Admission to the booths area is free. The booths are hugely entertaining, with topics including board games, role playing, war games, posters, original art, occult art, 3D printing, toys, comics, and books. There is also a large 2nd hand section. I was especially impressed by the large number of Warhammer 40k hobbyists.

Sword Fighting

The sword-fighting area is also a blast. My boys had a lot of fun there. There are also staged fights between 'serious' cosplayers.

Kids Zone

The kids zone in the Tel Aviv Cinematech campus included:

• Cardboard castles/mazes
• Stop-Motion photography area
• Arts and crafts area

It kept my brood busy for about a couple hours.

Board Game Area

The board games tent costs 10NIS admission. It's a place to try out all the latest board games. I was amazed at all the games being run that I've never heard of. I'm looking forward to trying out this tent one of these years, but I didn't leave myself a couple hours free for this, so it didn't happen...

Convention Schedule

Let's not forget the convention schedule. The first thing I'll point out it that you should sign-up early. This is the second year that I tried signing-up too late and everything was full. What does surprise me is that I don't see any role playing games being run. Are those in the board game section? It seems to be all lectures, films, or fantasy art/writing workshops. Strange...

Well, that's ICON 2017, or at least my take on it. We were there a good 6 hours and had a blast!