Worldcon Returns to Los Angeles

On August 27, the doors of the Anaheim Convention Center open on the 84th World Science Fiction Convention. LAcon V runs through August 31 across the Convention Center’s Arena and North building, with the Hilton Anaheim and the Anaheim Marriott carrying programming, parties and hotel operations across Convention Way.

It is the seventh Worldcon held in the greater Los Angeles area, and the fifth to carry the LAcon name. For a convention that has circled the globe for more than eight decades, Southern California is something close to a second home.

What Worldcon is

Worldcon began in New York City over the July 4 weekend of 1939, at Caravan Hall, timed to coincide with the New York World’s Fair. Roughly 200 people attended. The Guest of Honor was Frank R. Paul, the pulp illustrator whose covers had defined the visual language of the genre. Sam Moskowitz chaired.

The room that weekend held Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, John W. Campbell, L. Sprague de Camp, Jack Williamson and Harry Harrison. It also held Forrest J Ackerman and Myrtle R. Douglas, who turned up in futuristic costume and effectively invented convention cosplay on the spot. Douglas was formally recognized as the “Mother of Convention Costuming” in 2016.

The convention has run annually ever since, apart from a wartime pause from 1942 to 1945. It is administered by the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society whose membership is simply whoever holds a membership in that year’s convention. There is no permanent office and no paid staff. Each Worldcon is built from scratch by a volunteer committee, usually incorporated as a local nonprofit, on budgets that now routinely exceed a million dollars.

Members do two things that give the institution its shape. They vote the Hugo Awards, presented since 1953 and the field’s oldest major honor. And they vote site selection, choosing the host city two years out under a constitutional rule that a bid must be at least 500 miles from the convention where the ballot is cast - a mechanism that has kept the event genuinely itinerant.

Members of the 82nd Worldcon voted in August 2024 to bring 2026 to Anaheim. The Los Angeles bid ran unopposed and took 452 of 531 ballots.

Pacificon I and Solacon

Los Angeles first hosted in 1946. Pacificon I ran July 4–7 at Park View Manor, chaired by Walter J. Daugherty, and drew about 130 people. It was the first Worldcon held since 1941, and the fact that it happened at all was the news. The Hugos did not yet exist; the 1945 works honored at that gathering’s eligibility window would eventually receive Retro Hugos, awarded fifty years later at another Los Angeles Worldcon.

Los Angeles returned in 1958 with Solacon, August 29 to September 1 at the Alexandria Hotel, with 322 attending. The convention was declared to be taking place in South Gate, California - a piece of civic geography performed entirely to honor the bid slogan “South Gate in ’58,” which local fans had been chanting since 1948. Anthony Boucher served as toastmaster. Richard Matheson was among the guests. Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time took Best Novel and Frank Kelly Freas took the artist award, presented that year as engraved plaques rather than the familiar rocket.

The LAcon line

L.A. Con I, 1972. September 1–4 at the International Hotel, co-chaired by Charles Crayne and Bruce Pelz, with about 2,007 members - a substantial convention by the standards of the day. Frederik Pohl was Guest of Honor, Buck and Juanita Coulson were Fan Guests of Honor, and Robert Bloch was toastmaster. Philip José Farmer’s To Your Scattered Bodies Go won Best Novel; Larry Niven’s “Inconstant Moon” took Best Short Story; A Clockwork Orange took Best Dramatic Presentation.

Two smaller things from 1972 have outlived the Hugo list. The convention hosted what is generally cited as the first video game competition at a science fiction convention, a Spacewar! tournament won by Kevan Pritchard. And artist Scott Shaw! wore a peanut butter costume to the masquerade, with consequences for the stage floor that produced a rule still quoted at costume events half a century later. Members that weekend also voted the 1975 Worldcon to Melbourne, sending the convention outside North America and Europe for the first time.

L.A. Con II, 1984. The first Anaheim edition, August 30 to September 3 at the Anaheim Hilton and the Anaheim Convention Center, co-chaired by Craig Miller and Milt Stevens. Attendance hit 8,365 - a record at the time and still one of the largest Worldcons ever staged. Gordon R. Dickson was Guest of Honor and Dick Eney was Fan Guest of Honor, with Robert Bloch again at the podium. Robert Heinlein worked the floor promoting blood donation. A. E. van Vogt was there. David Brin’s Startide Rising won Best Novel, Greg Bear’s “Blood Music” took Best Novelette, and Octavia Butler won Best Short Story for “Speech Sounds.” Michael Whelan won Best Professional Artist; Return of the Jedi won Best Dramatic Presentation.

L.A. Con III, 1996. August 29 to September 2, spread across the Hilton Anaheim, the Anaheim Marriott and the Convention Center - the same three-building footprint LAcon V will use. Mike Glyer chaired; 6,703 attended. James White and Roger Corman were Guests of Honor, Takumi and Sachiko Shibano were Fan Guests of Honor, and Connie Willis was toastmaster. Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age won Best Novel. The Hugo base drew on imagery from the 1950 film Destination Moon, a nod to astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell. The convention also presented the first Retro Hugos, honoring work from 1945, including Isaac Asimov’s “The Mule” and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

L.A. Con IV, 2006. August 23–27 at the Anaheim Convention Center, chaired by Christian B. McGuire. It drew 5,913 attendees from 6,832 paid memberships across 23 countries. Connie Willis returned as author Guest of Honor alongside artist James Gurney, with Howard DeVore as Fan Guest of Honor and Frankie Thomas as special guest. Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin won Best Novel, Willis took Best Novella for “Inside Job,” and Serenity won Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. Betty Ballantine, Harlan Ellison and Fred Patten received Special Committee Awards; John Scalzi won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

The through-line

The 1984, 1996 and 2006 conventions shared a sponsor, and so does 2026: the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, Inc., a California 501(c)(3) that has also produced regional science fiction events since 1989. That continuity is unusual in a field where each convention is nominally built new. It means the 2026 committee is working in halls its own organization has loaded in and out of before.

LAcon V is chaired by Joyce Lloyd. The theme is “Dare to Discover, Dare to Explore, Dare be Uncharted!” The Guest of Honor slate runs Barbara Hambly, Ronald D. Moore, Colleen Doran, Dr. Anita Sengupta, Tim Kirk, Geri Sullivan and Stan Sakai, with Ursula Vernon - T. Kingfisher - as toastmaster.

The Hugo Awards and the Masquerade go into the Anaheim Arena, a room seating up to 7,500. Programming occupies the upper level of ACC North; the exhibit floor, dealers and fan tables sit below. The Disneyland Resort is directly across Katella Avenue.

Members at LAcon V will also vote the 2028 site, with bids on the table from Brisbane and Nuremberg. The 2027 convention goes to Montréal. Eighty-seven years after Caravan Hall, the machinery still works exactly the way it was designed to.

Sources

• LAcon V official site
• About LAcon V
• Our Facilities: An Overview – LAcon V

Research verified August 8, 2026. Schedules, exhibitors, speakers, prices and access details may change; confirm current information with the organizer before attending.