EPF 2026 - Signups open!

[frecklebombfic]

Hello europodfriends,

Our date and location for the next meetup have been decided! EPF 2026 will be in Dresden from Friday 20th to Monday 23rd February.

Signups are open until Wednesday 26th March!

Date and location change

We’ve held all our meetups in mid-October, and have been realising it’s not an ideal time for a couple of the EPF mods and a bunch of long-time attendees, and people who haven’t been able to attend yet. We’ve also been less and less satisfied with the accommodation options available in Berlin. So we’re going to try out this new, much more affordable, place in Dresden and see how the new dates in February work out! We’ve also decided to do three nights again as it gave people more travel options, and made checking out on Sun/Mon more chilled last year.

As we’ll be staying in a new location and apartment, we won’t know as much about it as the place in Berlin. One thing we do know is that there are more beds, so we have a larger capacity before needing to have people sleep on sofa-beds. It does have two kitchens and 4 bathrooms, so we would be able to keep a fragrance-free bathroom or allergen-free kitchen if necessary.

Fees & funding

As in previous years, the meetup won’t have a flat attendance fee. We calculate the contributions based on your means, so don’t worry about not being able to afford it! And if you need extra funds to be able to attend (for travel expenses, for instance), don’t hesitate to let us know, as we budget in such a way that it’s possible for europodfriends to fund your journeyl. It’s important to us to facilitate everyone’s attendance to the best of our ability.

Food & drink

In previous years, we included 2 evening meals plus groceries for breakfasts and snacks in the EPF budget. We would like to be able to do that again, but it depends on the total contributions we get from everyone, and how much costs go up between now and next February. If we can, then we’ll email to ask everyone for their grocery requests.

EPF schedule and activities

For those who’ve never been to an in-person EPF meetup, or who would like a little refresher, here’s roughly what we did the last times and what we’ll likely be doing next year as well

Friday:

Everyone arriving, greeting each other, hanging out, and making name badges. Very ambitious people might already be podficcing that evening, but since not everyone may have arrived yet, we don’t schedule anything specific.

Saturday:

Saturday morning there’s our one scheduled meeting where everyone introduces themselves. This is also when we do pitch ‘n’ pod - people have a few minutes to talk about a fic they want to podfic at the meetup, and afterwards everyone can sign up to the podfics they want to be a part of and the recording gets going. Saturday evening might be another scheduled event organised by attendees - in past years we’ve had a video call with Podfication, a game of “Guess That Voice” or Podficcers Against Humanity, and watch parties, for example - but that part is up to y’all: if you want to organise something, get in touch so we can figure out the scheduling and planning!

Sunday:

In the past we’ve done a big, fun multivoice with most people participating, like Earth Is Space Australia in 2018, I Has a Sweet Potato in 2019, and What’s in the Dark in 2023. After that, people start leaving as their travel plans call for.

Throughout the three days there’s a lot of podficcing happening at all hours - the EPF collections on AO3 should give you some idea!

Communication

Like in the past few years, we will mostly be updating you via email, but we’ll also try to crosspost to the various social medias. Look out for our posts on the various other social medias, and boost if you can!

Tumblr / Bluesky / Mastodon / Twitter

Contact us via DMs or email europodfriends at gmail to be added to our mailing list.

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We can’t wait to see you all again, and hope that you’re excited as well!

Your mods,

Dell, Robin & Sylvie