The Masquerade Explained

The Masquerade at most science fiction conventions is like no other event of that name. It is not a party—and certainly not a dance—where people go in costume. (We said most science fiction conventions, not all!) And at all those conventions with Masquerades, there are costumes!

At a Worldcon, the Masquerade is a competition with a series of presentations—miniature dramatic pieces with one or more participants, each lasting one or two minutes. Before the convention, the costumers, in addition to creating their costumes, must also work on other aspects of presentation. They select the music to accompany their presentation, decide how they want to enter the stage, what business they'll do and how they'll move once on stage (blocking). They may develop a script for the Masquerade MC to read. At con, they work with the tech crew to determine the type of stage lighting that will best highlight their costume to the judges and the audience.

Behind the scenes, there's also workmanship judging going on. Workmanship focuses on how the costume is put together, not on how it's presented.

Once all of the presentations are finished, the judges go off to determine what awards they'll give to which costumes. Once they've made their decisions, they return to the auditorium to announce the awards, with all the costumes receiving awards being seen on the stage again.

People have always worn costumes at SF cons, dressing up as various characters from mythology, books, comic strips, cartoons, TV, movies and their own imaginations. In addition to the Masquerade competition, people still wear "hall costumes" at most conventions.

Eventually, conventions started having people in costume walk across a stage. Then they added an announcer, now a Master of Ceremonies. Fans really love colorful, imaginative stuff and have huge amounts of energy, ingenuity, and attention to detail. So, of course, as the years passed things became more and more elaborate.

Currently, a modest costume typically has a CD or cassette of music, a plan for entering, walking about (the audience wants to see all of your costume, including the back), a brief bit of business and exit (a villain might sneer and raise an eyebrow then turn abruptly and stalk off). It's the interpretation and presentation of a character in a brief snapshot.

The fan audience willingly suspends disbelief and is very encouraging to even minimal acting—fans want to be in your fantasy with you! You will be applauded for your idea, you will be applauded for whatever succeeds, heck, you will be applauded for having the bravery to make your idea visible and walk out on stage with it!

By the 1970s, Masquerade costumes had gotten so elaborate and demanding of time and talent that new people got discouraged about attempting to participate. A "division system" was set-up, to encourage new people to participate in Masquerades and to ensure that people competed against others with similar skills. Based on the number of awards they've won in the past, costumers are divided into Novices, Journeymen, and Masters. There is also a separate category for children, Young Fan, whose costumes may be made by the child him/herself or may be adult-made.

Costumes are also categorized as either Re-creation or Original. There are different problems in building a costume which is completely described and depicted than there are in designing and building an original, and the costumers want to be able to honor both sets of skills.

Whether you are in the audience and want to understand what is going on, or you want to try your hand at creating one of your favorite characters there are plenty of people to give you advice and explain things to you. Fans love to explain things; ask any of us!