Vidukon, 5 June to 7 June 2026, (Birmingham & Online)

In-person registration closing soon & Update on Vidding Workshop assignments

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:18:03 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

In-person attendance deadline
For folks planning to join us in Birmingham, registration for in-person attendance closes 30 April, so you have two more days to sign up! The option for online-only attendees to add optional extras (conbook + coasters) closes 15 May. Virtual registration will be open until 4 June. Find out how to sign up HERE.

If you're attending in person, make sure to check out our Covid policy ahead of time. You can find it HERE.

Vidding Workshop assignments
If you're taking part in the Vidding Workshop and have yet to receive your assignment, don't panic! There's been a bit of a delay in acquiring and assigning sources, but assignments are slowly going out. We'll move the submission date back to give folks enough time to work on their fragments, and will share more once all assignments are out.

AO3 collections
If you're premiering a vid at this year's con, we have two unrevealed AO3 collections you can add your vids to:

Premieres collection – for vids premiering in the Premieres show

Themed premieres collection – for vids premiering outside of the Premieres show

Important dates
30 April – deadline to register for in-person attendance
15 May – deadline to register for online attendance + add-ons (conbook; coasters)
4 June – deadline to register for online attendance only
5-7 June – VidUKon \o/

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AO3 collections for VidUKon 2026

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 16:21:39 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

If you're premiering a vid at this year's con, we have two unrevealed AO3 collections you can add your vids to:

Premieres collection – for vids premiering in the Premieres show. Will be revealed once the Premiers show is live.

Themed premieres collection – for vids premiering outside of the Premieres show. Will be revealed after the con.

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VidUKon submissions deadline coming up! Plus, our AI policy & workshop signups

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:59:32 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Submissions for Vidder's Choice, Premieres and the Themed Vidshow (Unfinished Business) are closing on Sunday, 19 April (23:59 UK time). We'd love to see your vids! Find out more about how to submit yours HERE. If you think you may need an extension, let us know.

Also just a quick note to say our AI policy is now up! We aren't fans of how generative AI, LLMs, agentic AI and related tech is being developed and made available for popular use, and we have good reason to believe that a large part of our regular attendees share our discomfort, hence the policy.

Lastly, sign-ups for the Vidding Workshop close on 20 April. If you'd like to participate in bringing this year's Frankenvid to life, you can find out more about it and sign up HERE.

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Submissions for Premieres and Unfinished Business now open!

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 16:10:32 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Submissions for Premieres and the Themed Vidshow (Unfinished Business) are now open! You should see both options (plus Vidder's Choice) when logged in to your dashboard. Deadline is on Sunday, 19 April. We'd love to see your vids! Find out more about how to submit yours HERE. You need to be registered to submit.

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Two weeks left till premieres deadline, schedule now live, and more

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:13:48 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Registration open
Registration is open for VidUKon 2026, taking place 5-7 June both in Birmingham and online. You can sign up HERE or find out more about pricing, this year's extras and available sponsorships HERE. The deadline to register for in-person attendance is on 30 April. Registration for online attendance closes 4 June.

Submissions for Vidder's Choice open
Submissions for Vidder's Choice are now open (deadline is on 19 April). Find out more about how to submit your vids HERE. VJs and panelists, the deadline to submit programming is 30 April.

Upcoming submission deadlines
The submission deadline for Premieres and the Themed Vidshow (Unfinished Business) are about 2 weeks away on 19 April. For everyone planning to submit, good luck getting those vids over the line. And enjoy yourselves! We'll let everyone know as soon as submissions open – should be soon.

Register for the Group Vidding Workshop & Quiz
Signups for the pre-con Group Vidding Workshop are open and will close on 20 April. Assignments go out by 27 April and the submission deadline is 10 May. Find out more and sign up here. You can also register for Friday night's fiendishly difficult/fun Quiz by signing in at vidukon.org and going to your Dashboard. The questions and stream will be open to all attendees so if you want to follow along without officially signing up and joining a team, you can do that too!

Schedule now available
The schedule for this year's con is now available on the VidUKon platform HERE (you need to be logged in to view it). As always, we're really excited about this year's programming! Big breaks in the schedule (1pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm UK time) indicate lunch and dinner breaks.

Chaos Hour is back
The informal Chaos Hour chat is back to break up the long dinnertime slot on Saturday night BST. This year it follows the Then & Now vidshow and panel, so if people want to keep the discussion going, we'll have the time! Chaos Hour is a casual Zoom chat for online attendees to just hang out, so pop in to tell us about why all vidders should watch this one new (or old) show, talk about your favourite new effects trick, or anything else vid-related!

Thursday programming
There will again be some online-only programming on Thursday evening. An All-Virtual Vidder's Choice show will start at 20:00 UK time. The con will officially kick off on Friday afternoon around 15:00 UK time

Birmingham registration
If you're planning to join us in person, you need to register by Thursday 30 April if you haven't already. Find out more about the con hotel and find a roommate HERE.

Con Discord server
As in previous years, most of the weekend's online socialising will take place in the VidUKon Discord server, including chats during each vidshow and panel. You will receive an invitation to join the server on Thursday, 4 June. If you do not already have a Discord account, you will need to create one ahead of time to get the most out of the (virtual) con experience.

With more updates to come, make sure to keep an eye on our social media – you'll always find the latest info here on Dreamwidth, plus you can keep tabs on us via Tumblr and Bluesky.

Those important dates one more time:
19 April – deadline to submit to Vidder’s Choice, Premieres and the themed submissions show (Unfinished Business)
30 April – deadline to register for in-person attendance
15 May – deadline to register for online attendance + add-ons (conbook; coasters)
4 June – deadline to register for online attendance only
5-7 June – VidUKon \o/

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Submissions for Vidder's Choice, Premieres & Themed Premieres now open!

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:11:22 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Submissions for Vidder's Choice are now open (Premieres and Themed Premieres ~~coming soon~~ are open now too)! Before we get into how to submit a vid, just a quick note to say that while we still recommend Firefox as your go-to browser, at this point you should be okay using most other browsers. However, we recommend iPhone users not use Safari Mobile to submit vids.

tl;dr
The name you enter in the vid submission form must match your username.
We don't support 4K vids.
When adding new sources/audio, fine to just add the title. Clicking "Submit" will take you to a page where you will add more complete info.
Maximum of 25 sources/songs when submitting. You can add more later once the vid has been submitted successfully.

Eligibility
You must be registered for VidUKon to submit a vid. If you haven’t yet registered, you can do so at vidukon.org.

There are three submission-based vidshows: Vidder’s Choice, Premieres, and the Themed Premieres show. You will see the option to submit to all three on your Dashboard. As the names imply, Premieres and Themed Premieres must be new vids that have never been posted publicly or shown at a con or similar event. Conversely, Vidder’s Choice vids cannot be premieres. Additionally, Vidder’s Choice submissions must be no longer than four minutes and thirty seconds in length.

Technical specifications
Please follow these if possible, as it makes it easier for us to set up the virtual vidshows. However, we do not want these specs to be a barrier to submission for anyone – if you’re having trouble, please contact us.

File format: MP4
Video codec: H264
Max video bitrate: 7-8 Mbps
Max resolution: 1080p
Audio codec: AAC
Max audio bitrate: 256 kbps

If you don't know how to follow these guidelines: If your vid is roughly under 350 MB and definitely not 4K, go ahead and upload it. If it’s not 4K but well over 350 MB in size and you don’t know how to reduce the file size, please contact us.

Please do not upload 4K vids. We don't support 4K on the platform, so your vid will be converted to 1080p and will likely end up with bleached colors, since that tends to happen with automated conversions from 4K to 1080p.

How to submit your vid
Please note that the name you enter in the vid submission form must match your username. If you chose a different username when you registered than the name you vid under, you can change it by going to your Profile and clicking on "Manage".

To submit a vid, go to your Dashboard, which will display all vidshows you can upload to. This is also where you will manage existing submissions. Click on “Submit”. This takes you to the page where you will enter your vid's details. You will see options to either select a vid from the database (any vids shown at last year's con), or to add a new vid. If you're adding something new, fill in all fields and hit "Submit".

If any sources, audio or vidders don't appear in the drop down, you can add your own. It's fine to just add the title of the source/song, as once you click on "Submit" you will be taken to a new page where you can fill in more details, such as media type (eg Movie, TV/Streaming, Commercial), full title in its original language, media year, etc. If you added a new vidder, you'll get to check that the details are correct here too. You'll also have the option to remove any entry in case you added it in error.

If you're uploading a multifandom vid, you can add a maximum of 25 new things per field at this stage. If your vid contains more than 25 sources, don't worry! You can add the extra sources once the vid has been submitted by using the "Manage" functionality.

In the description field, please enter a brief description of your vid. This doesn’t have to be comprehensive; for example a common approach is to choose a lyric from the vidsong that is particularly evocative of the vid, but it is also fine to write something like, “A Dylan G. character study” or “All the f/f ships in Xena”. Be as creative or straightforward as you like, but please keep this brief as every vid description has to fit in our printed conbook!

Please tick any of the mandatory content notes that apply to your vid. For custom content notes, you may provide additional detail about any of the mandatory notes as well as add any non-mandatory notes, e.g. warnings for spiders or snakes.

At this point you can hit "Submit", which will take you to a page where you can check and add more details to any new sources or audio and remove entries if needed. Make sure to hit "Save Sources & Continue" as well as "Save Audio & Continue" before clicking on "Submit All", which will take you to the page where you'll upload your file.

Here you can upload your vid and you also now have the option to upload subtitles (VTT or SRT format). You will also need to enter your password, so keep that on hand if it's not saved to your browser.

Once you've selected your files, click on "Upload". This might take a few minutes so don't navigate away from the page. Once complete you'll be redirected to your Dashboard, with a message to say you've successfully submitted your vid. You will now have the option to update your submission, either uploading a new file or updating info, including adding/removing sources/audio or updating the description or warnings.

You can add new uploads, and edit all other details of the vid, up until the submission deadline

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Sign-ups For The VidUKon 2026 Vidding Workshop Are Open!

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 21:26:18 GMT

Posted by: brokenmnemonic

Sign-ups for the VidUKon vidding workshop are now open! In keeping with the last couple of years we've arranged for the vidding workshop to occur in the months prior to the con, to allow everyone a bit more time for creating their individual segments (and for the mods to deal with the new and surprising technical problems that are now a VidUKon tradition).

What Is The VidUKon Vidding Workshop?

VidUKon runs a yearly workshop where participants create a vid that is stitched together from many small segments. Each segment is taken on by an individual or a group of vidders, without knowledge of what the other segments look like or what sources they used. Then, after the mods have stitched together the resulting chaos, the so-called "Frankenvid" is premiered at the end of the con to be enjoyed by all. You can watch previous Frankenvids here: https://www.youtube.com/@vidukon/videos

Sign-Ups

Every VidUKon participant can sign up for the vidding workshop until April 20th. Yes, that's the day after Premieres submissions closes, so that everyone working towards that deadline has a chance to sleep afterwards! Assignments will go out later that week.

By signing up, you are committing to creating one segment of the Frankenvid using at least 2 different sources. The length of the segments depends on the number of sign-ups, but is typically between 10-20 seconds.

When signing up to the workshop, you'll be asked to make a decision on the following points:

* Group signup vs. individual signup

* Preference for song segment

* Source selection

* Pinch hitting

Please note that to participate in the Vidding Workshop, you must have a registration for VidUKon 2026 - so if you want to join in, purchase your Virtual or Birmingham Attendee membership here: https://vidukon.org/

On Signing Up As A Group

While it's perfectly fine to sign up to the workshop and create your segment as an individual, we would like to encourage people to form groups in the spirit of allowing less experienced vidders (or even participants with no previous vidding experience!) to dip their toes into the vidding process and join in on the fun in a low-stakes setting. To that end, there are two ways for people to participate as a group:

You can organize your own group ahead of time, then choose one representative to fill in the sign-up form for the whole group.

You can sign up individually, but indicate that you want to be assigned to a group. We will do our best to group people together who live in similar timezones, to make collaboration between the group members easier. The mods can also help establish contact between the group members in case there are any difficulties.

In both cases, please be aware that we will not organize spaces for the groups to communicate with each other. You will have to decide amongst yourselves how to work together to create your segment, whether that be a 3-hour screen-sharing session on Discord, or a project file being emailed back and forth over the course of several weeks, or something else completely. It's up to you!

Song Choice

The song for the Frankenvid is chosen by the mods, and will not be revealed before assignments are sent out. (Part of the reason for that is that the song choice depends on the number of participants, but of course it's also meant to add to the challenge and general chaos of the process...)

While you can't choose your segment, the sign-up form has an option to indicate whether you prefer a segment with or without lyrics. We will do our best to take everyone's preference into account when assigning the segments.

Source Selection

When signing up, you'll be asked to specify the sources you will use for your segment. This is to ensure that we won't have excessive overlap between the segments. If other individuals/groups have already picked the same source, you may be asked by the mods to pick something else, or to pick a specific season etc.

The number of sources you use is up to you, but it should be at least 2 different ones. Any visual source is fine to use, so please feel free to think outside the box! If you want to change your sources at any point during the process, please let the mods know right away, and we can figure something out.

Alternatively, for those who want a particular challenge or a particularly chaotic time you can select to be assigned sources by the mods. When doing so, you can indicate a "difficulty level" of sources you want to be assigned. The higher the difficulty, the more unusual the source you'll receive; past random assignments have included Lego stop-motion vids, adverts, and puppet shows.

Rendering Guidelines

The final render of the Frankenvid will use the following technical format: mp4, H264, widescreen (1920:1080 aspect ratio), 23.976 fps

We are aware that wrangling a bunch of different visual sources into this format can be a technical challenge. In order to avoid us mangling your vision, please do already submit your segment in widescreen aspect ratio. Whether you want to crop your vid or letterbox it to fit that aspect ratio is up to you.

For selecting the framerate, please follow these guidelines:

If all your sources have the same framerate, please render your segment at that native framerate (e.g. if you use two British tv shows at 25fps, please render at 25fps)
If your sources have different framerates, please render your segment at the highest framerate of those sources (e.g. if you have one movie source with 23.976fps, and one youtube video with 60fps, render at 60fps)

The technical reason for this, if you are interested, is that I will likely have to change the framerate of your segment anyways, and having the most possible frames available makes it easier for me to fix any mistakes (i.e. double frames) that might occur in the conversion.

For those of you who are very comfortable handling different framerates, you may also render your segment down to the final 23.976fps yourself, but in that case I would ask that you please check to make sure you did not create any repeated frames in the process.

Please check with the mods early if you are planning to use a source that has a lower framerate than 23.976 (i.e. stop motion).

If you have any trouble with rendering your segment, please contact us directly via vidukon@gmail.com so we can figure it out together.

On Content And Visual Effects

We want the Vidding Workshop to be a fun and rewarding experience for all participants. To that end, please use your best judgment on what kind of content and visual effects to use, and avoid any obviously triggering content (e.g. police brutality) or heavy visual effects like strobing, stutter cuts etc. which might cause adverse physical reactions. While the Frankenvid will have a list of content warnings like any other vid shown at VidUKon, we also want to do our best to make sure that all participants are able to watch the finished product without discomfort.

If you have any questions about this or additional accessibility concerns, please contact the mods as early as possible. We are happy to make accommodations.

Submission Deadline And Pinch Hits

When assignments go out, you will be provided with a link where you can upload your finished segment. The submission deadline is May 10th. Please be aware that any segments that haven't been uploaded by May 10th end of day will be considered a default and sent out as pinch hits immediately. If life gets in the way and you can't finish your segment in time, please get in contact with us as early as possible.

When submitting, you are also required to provide a text file containing the following information: Sources used, Vidders, Content warnings. For the content warnings, the same rules apply as when submitting a vid to any other VidUKon vidshow.

During sign-up, you can choose to be put on the pinch hitter list. Pinch hitters will not be required to use the same sources as the original assignment.

Timeline & Sign-up Form

Sign-ups close: April 20, 2026
Assignments go out: April 27, 2026 (or earlier)
Submission deadline: May 10, 2026

Before signing up, please make sure to read all the information in this post, thank you!

Signup form: https://forms.gle/XgLKDE3gaDgBC1rn7

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Planned maintenance 10 March

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 15:37:30 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Just a heads up that the VidUKon site will be offline from about 08:30am UTC (04:30am EDT) to 10:00am UTC (06:00am EDT) tomorrow morning (10 March). Our web host will be down for planned maintenance.

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Registration is open for VidUKon 2026

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 18:06:58 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Registration is now open for VidUKon 2026! Join us 5-7 June in both Birmingham and online for vidshows, panels and socialising. Friday programming will begin in the afternoon. As in previous years, Thursday evening will include some online-only pre-con programming to kick things off.

In-person attendance this year is £50 (same as last year!); virtual attendance also remains unchanged at £20. Optional add-ons this year are a collectable coaster (£2) featuring this year's VidUKon artwork and the physical conbook (£5).

One big change we're making this year is that we will no longer offer a DVD case with USB key as an add-on. This is due to the increasing difficulty in sourcing and assembling DVD cases each year. We know this was a nice-to-have collector's option so we will make artwork for the DVD cover available after the con should attendees wish to print out and assemble their own DVD case. Premieres will also be available as a download.

To register for this year's con, you'll need to log in or create an account at the VidUKon website. This year we're offering payment directly through the website via Paypal. There's also an option to pay using a credit/debit card (also processed by Paypal). Strangely, vendor fees for card transactions are considerably lower than for Paypal transactions, so if you prefer paying by card, please do!

We hope the registration process goes smoothly for everyone, but should you run into any issues while registering, please get in touch with concom. We keep an eye on the VidUKon channel in the Vidding Discord and you are also welcome to DM us. Alternatively, you can email us at vidukon@gmail.com or respond to this post.

The deadline to register for in-person attendance is 30 April. Online registration will remain open until 4 June, but if you'd like add-ons (conbook + coasters) you'll need to register by 15 May.

Sponsorship/donation
VidUKon has a small pot built up, so a couple of fee waivers are possible for those who would like to attend the con but who are unable to afford the membership cost. If you would like to give a bit extra to help sponsor attendance for someone else and/or support the con, you can do so during registration.

If you'd like to attend the con but are unable to afford the membership cost, please get in touch with us at vidukon@gmail.com to find out more about this. (You do not need to disclose anything about your personal circumstances in order to qualify).

Equally, if folks would like to pay registration for friends, they can do so using this option. Just flag it to the con email so that we can double-check details and register the extra attendees.

Important dates
19 April – deadline to submit to Vidder’s Choice, Premieres and the themed submissions show
30 April – deadline to register for in-person attendance
15 May – deadline to register for online attendance + add-ons (conbook; coasters)
4 June – deadline to register for online attendance only
5-7 June – VidUKon \o/

We hope to see you at this year’s con!

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VidUKon 2026 Themed Premieres Show!

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 18:08:45 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

The 2026 themed premieres vidshow theme is Unfinished Business!

Send us your vids* for sources that left you hanging in some way. Examples include:

Shows that were cancelled before their time
Movie endings that felt rushed
Books that didn’t get their anticipated sequel.

Vids do not have to be about the Unfinished aspect of the source, but we do encourage vidders to consider that in their vids where possible! We also enjoy unexpected interpretations of the prompt – if you’re unsure, please do get in touch with a member of concom or email us at vidukon@gmail.com.

*Please only send us at most one (1) vid for this show! The vid must be a premiere and will be shown in a dedicated vidshow at VidUKon. The submission deadline for this show is Sunday 19 April at 23:59 British Summer Time (UTC+1).

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VidUKon 2026: 5 to 7 June in Birmingham and Online!

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 18:04:19 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

VidUKon 2026 is just over three months away! Here are the essential things to know so far about this year's convention:

First of all, it takes place 5-7 June 2026 in both Birmingham and online. As usual, Friday programming will begin – online and in person – in the afternoon while Thursday evening will include some online-only pre-con programming to kick things off.

If you’d like to attend, we're aiming to open registration by 7 March (barring any unforeseen tech issues) and we'll post more about that right here, so keep an eye out. The deadline to register for in-person attendance is 30 April. Online registration will remain open until pretty close to the con, but if you'd like addons (the conbook + extras) you'll need to register by 15 May.

If you’re joining us in person, you will probably also want to know about hotel room bookings and finding a roommate. We don't have a block on rooms this year, so attendees need to book directly on the hotel website through a travel booking site. We've been told Agoda may have competitive rates, so it's worth checking there too.

The call for programming has closed and we'll be contacting folks who sent through suggestions soon with further steps. The theme for this year's themed show is Unfinished Business. More details here.

Vid submission deadlines
We will have our three usual vidshows that VidUKon attendees can submit a vid to. You can submit up to one vid to each of these shows. The shows are Vidder’s Choice (a vid from your back catalogue), Premieres (a never-before-shown vid), and a show of vids fitting a specific theme. This year's themed vidshow will again be premieres-only. The deadline for all vidshows is 19 April. Please note that vid submissions are not yet open, we will post when they are.

With more updates to come, make sure to keep an eye on our social media – you'll always find the latest updates here on Dreamwidth, plus you can keep tabs on us via Tumblr and Bluesky.

Those dates in chronological order:

7 March – registration opens
19 April – deadline to submit to Vidder’s Choice, Premieres and the themed submissions show
30 April – deadline to register for in-person attendance
15 May – deadline to register for online attendance + addons (conbook, etc)
5-7 June – VidUKon \o/

We hope to see you at this year’s con!

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VidUKon 2026 Programming Submissions extended another week

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 16:39:43 GMT

Posted by: frayadjacent

We've extended the deadline, so you have another week to submit your programming ideas for VidUKon 2026! Please submit your ideas for vidshows, panels, or other programming events by Sunday 25 January at the end of the day everywhere. Here is more information on submission. If you have any questions, drop a comment here or email us at vidukon@gmail.com.

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Submit programming for VidUKon 2026!

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:41:19 GMT

Posted by: frayadjacent

Programming suggestions for VidUKon 2026 are now open! We will be accepting submissions until ~~Monday January 19~~ Sunday, January 25, 2026 at the end of the day everywhere.

Please submit your content suggestions, whether for shows, panels, or something else, in this google form. Most fields are not mandatory, so if you only have a vid show idea but not a panel or vice versa, that’s fine. Multiple ideas, if you have them, are welcome, but please submit them separately, just to make our lives a bit easier.

If you have an idea for something new that’s not quite a vidshow or panel, we’d love to hear that too.

As ever, we welcome programming ideas from first-time VJs and panellists as well as from veterans - if you’d like to give it a try but you’re not sure where to start, please get in touch! We’re happy to chat it through with you. You’re also very welcome to VJ as a pair or a group.

As the con has grown, so has the number of programming submissions. In the likely event that we have too many programme items to choose from, we will emphasise items that form a coherent and complementary programme, as well as trying to give new VJs and panellists a chance to shine. Last year we had to turn down many excellent suggestions, so if you're still keen on your submission from last year please feel free to resubmit, or submit a new one if you prefer.

Part of the reason we have had to turn down so many great programming submissions is because our standing programming, e.g. Vidder's Choice, Premieres, etc, now run much longer and take up more of the con time than they used to. For this reason, we have decided not to run one of our usual standing vidshows, Festivids, this year. This will free up time for one more curated vidshow or panel than we were able to do last year.

We will endeavour to let submitters know whether their item has been selected as soon as possible after the deadline, to allow plenty of time to prepare.

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Hotel rooms for VidUKon 2026 | Find a roommate here!

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:38:18 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Next year's con is taking place Friday 5 June to Sunday 7 June 2026 in Birmingham. As in previous years, we'll likely schedule some virtual-only pre-con programming on the Thursday evening.

For folks attending in person, the VidUKon 2026 hotel is the Novotel Birmingham Centre, about 1km from Birmingham New Street Station and accessible via tram. We did not receive a special rate for congoers, so we recommend booking directly through their website.

Rooms can accommodate up to three guests (one queen-sized bed and a pull-out sleeper couch). Room rates are subject to change (so the earlier you're able to book, the better), but current approximate rates for two nights B&B on 5 & 6 June are:

Single occupancy – £213 (non-refundable) / £245 (cancel free of charge)
Double occupancy – £245 to £281 (non-refundable) / £277 to £319 (cancel free of charge)
Triple occupancy – £367.05 (non-refundable) / £399 (cancel free of charge)

If you’re interested in staying at the hotel but would like to find someone to share a room with, comment on this post or take a look to see who has already commented!

The Novotel Birmingham Centre is pretty central, close to lots of food options, and the city itself is easy to get to, with a direct train line from London (90 to 130 minutes). The train from Birmingham Airport to New Street Station takes about 40 minutes.

Birmingham is a great city, filled with lots of cultural landmarks. Not only did it give birth to legendary heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Tolkien grew up there too! Check out Visit Birmingham to learn more about the city. Or even better, Video Game Cultures hosted their 2024 conference there and put together a great guide to Birmingham. It really is an excellent resource, so do check it out.

Lastly, if you have ideas for con programming, watch this space! We plan to put a call out for suggestions soon.

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Dates and location for VidUKon 2026

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 07:08:06 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Just a quick update to share next year's con dates! VidUKon 2026 will be held Friday 5 June to Sunday 7 June 2026.

We're also excited to announce that the in-person con will be held in Birmingham – home to Tolkien and Black Sabbath! There's lots to do in the area, and we'll share more info about the city and the con hotel (Novotel Birmingham Centre) within the next week.

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Delayed shipping of supporter packs

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 09:53:42 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Just a heads up to everyone who ordered supporter packs, there's been a slight delay in shipping them due to printing issues. They should go out latest next weekend.

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It's (almost) con time! Discord invites & conbook should be in your inbox

Thu, 29 May 2025 08:50:32 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

If you're registered for this year's con, you should now have an email with your conbook and Discord invite!

If you can't see it, please check your spam and the inboxes of any alternate email accounts you might have used to register. If you still don't see it, drop us an email and we'll sort you out!

Joining us in Bristol? Please take a moment to refresh yourself on our Covid-19 policy, and test before you travel if you're able to.

Lastly, virtual registration will close 12:00 PM BST tomorrow (Friday). So you still have time to register if you'd like to attend.

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It's con week! AO3 collections, Thursday night programming, quiz & more

Mon, 26 May 2025 15:54:50 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

It's almost time for this year's con \o/ Keep an eye out on Thursday for an email containing your conbook and Discord invite. Also, our code of conduct is now available online (you'll find it in the conbook too).

Now is a good time to log into the platform to make sure you're all set for the con. Once logged in, you can check out the con schedule HERE.

If you've not registered yet, you still have time to sign up HERE.

AO3 collections

If you're premiering a vid at this year's con, we have two unrevealed AO3 collections you can add your vids to:

Premieres collection – for vids premiering in the Premieres show
Themed premieres collection – for vids premiering outside of the Premieres show

Thursday night programming

Just a reminder that while the con officially kicks off Friday afternoon BST, we do have a wonderful appetizer Thursday night BST in the form of the all-virtual Vidder's Choice show.

Quiz
If you've not signed up for Friday's quiz, you can still do so on your dashboard. Peeps who sign up will be sorted into teams prior to the con – a good icebreaker to start off the weekend!

Those who don't wish to join a team but still want to test their quiz skills can follow along on their own (no need to sign up). The questions and answers will be posted to Discord and all attendees will have access to the stream on the VidUKon platform.

Spontaneous vid-related activities

If you end up hosting a spontaneous vid-related activity during the con and would like concom to boost the signal, give us a shout on Discord and we'll make an announcement. This is by no means a must, but the option is there if you want to make use of it!

In-person Covid policy

If you're attending in person, make sure to check out our Covid policy ahead of time. You can find it HERE.

Chaos Hour

The informal Chaos Hour chat is back to break up the long dinnertime slot on Saturday night BST. Pop in to tell us about why all vidders should watch this one new (or old) show, talk about your favourite new effects trick, or anything else vid-related! You can contact concom ahead of time or just jump in during the chat

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VidUKon schedule change, vidding workshop, scholarship & more

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:34:52 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

VidUKon schedule & Chaos Hour

VidUKon is taking place in one (1) month's time! If you'd like to whet your appetite, this year's schedule is available HERE. There have been a few timing changes since it was initially published, so double-check if there's any programming you particularly want to attend. You can click into each schedule item to see a description of that item, if you'd like to know more about what's in store.

Also, Chaos Hour is back, this time to break up the long dinnertime slot on Saturday night BST. Chaos Hour is a Zoom chat where attendees can bring their own programming. Take 5-10 minutes to tell us why all vidders should watch this one new (or old) show, talk about your favourite new effects trick, or anything else vid-related! You can contact concom ahead of time or just jump in during the chat – this is a very casual thing.

Group Vidding Workshop

If you're taking part in the Group Vidding Workshop, just a reminder the submission date is 4 May BST. If you don’t submit a fragment by the deadline, we’ll automatically assign a pinch-hitter in your place. Last year, there were a number of requests for extensions, but the timing this year is tighter, so any extensions will be for a couple of days at best.

You can find guidelines on how to render your vid fragment HERE.

Scholarship

VidUKon has a small pot built up, so a couple of fee waivers are possible for those who would like to attend the con but who are unable to afford the membership cost. Please get in touch with us at vidukon@gmail.com to find out more about our scholarship. (You do not need to disclose anything about your personal circumstances in order to qualify).

In-person attendance deadline

For those planning to join us in Bristol, registration for in-person attendance closes 4 May. Virtual registration will be open till very close to the start of the con.

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Vidding Workshop Assignments Are Out!

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 20:07:39 GMT

Posted by: brokenmnemonic

If you signed up to take part in the VidUKon 2025 Group Vidding Workshop, you should now have an email with details of your assignment - and sources, if you requested some - as well as details on how to upload your finished segment and the deadlines.

The deadline for submitting vidded song fragment is end of day on the 4th of May BST. If you find that you're not going to be able to complete your fragment and need to default, there's no judgement or penalty for defaulting - life happens! - but if you do need to default, please try and let us know by the 27th of April, so that we can assign a pinch-hitter to cover the gap. If you don’t submit a fragment by the 4th of May deadline, we’ll automatically assign a pinch-hitter in your place. Last year, there were a number of requests for extensions, but the timing this year is somewhat tighter as the con is earlier than usual, so this year any extensions will be for a couple of days at best.

If you haven't seen your email, please check your spam folder; if there's still no sign of it, please email us via the con email account so that we can try again.

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VidUKon 2025 Submissions Deadline

Sun, 06 Apr 2025 10:51:07 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Submissions deadline
The deadline for submissions to Vidder's Choice, Premieres and the Themed Vidshow (GPOY) is today, 6 April. Vid submissions are possible for as long as you can see the "Submit" buttons on your dashboard. They will be removed manually at some point after midnight UK time (UTC +1).

We will be sending out one more account credentials batch for new registrations this evening UK time. If you want to submit a vid before submissions close but register after we send out the last batch, you will be able to, but likely not through the normal process. Please get in touch with us at vidukon@gmail.com should this be the case.

Similarly, if you run into any issues while uploading vids today but don't hear back after contacting us, don't stress! We will make sure everyone who wants to submit a vid will be able to do so. Depending on volume, it may just take a little while to get back to you. A message via the Vidding server on Discord will probably get the fastest response from us but an email works too.

For general bugs, issues, and questions that are less pressing: please use the VidUKon Bug Report Sheet.

Group Vidding Workshop
Just a reminder that if you indicated during registration that you'd like to take part in the Vidding Workshop, you will also need to fill in the signup form by 7 April to make it official. If you haven't done so yet, you can find out more about it HERE.

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VidUKon submissions deadline coming up! Plus, an update on subtitles

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 19:20:36 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Submissions for Vidder's Choice, Premieres, and the Themed Vidshow (GPOY) are closing on Sunday, 6 April. We'd love to see your vids! Find out more about how to submit yours HERE.

Also just a quick update regarding subtitles at this year's con: We likely won't have subtitle functionality ready in time, so if you want your vid to be subtitled we suggest uploading it with hard subs. Another option is to post subtitles to the Discord chat during the relevant show. Should we manage to get subtitles up and running before the con, vidders who uploaded hardsubbed vids will be able to replace them with clean files.

Lastly, the schedule for this year's con is available to view HERE (you need to be logged in). If you haven't registered yet, but would like to, you can do it HERE.

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Login details sent & Submissions now open!

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 17:36:56 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Platform credentials sent

If you've registered for this year's con, you should now have received an email containing details about how to log in to the new VidUKon platform, including your login credentials. If you did not see such an email, please check your spam folder or email us at vidukon@gmail.com.

Submissions now open

Submissions for Vidder's Choice, Premieres and the Themed Vidshow (GPOY) are now open (deadline is on 6 April). Find out more about how to submit your vids HERE. VJs and panelists, the deadline to submit programming is 10 April.

Register for the Group Vidding Workshop & Quiz

Signups for the pre-con Group Vidding Workshop are still open, and will close on 7 April. Find out more and take part HERE. Once logged in, you can also register for Friday night's fiendishly difficult fun Quiz by going to your Dashboard. The questions and stream will be open to all attendees so if you want to follow along without officially signing up and joining a team, you can do that too!

Schedule now available

The schedule for this year's con is now available on the VidUKon platform HERE (you need to be logged in to view it). We're really excited about this year's programming!

Thursday programming

There will again be some online-only programming on Thursday evening. An All-Virtual Vidder's Choice show will start at 20:00 UK time. The con will officially kick off on Friday afternoon around 15:30 UK time.

Bristol registration

If you're planning to join us in person, you need to register by Sunday 4 May if you haven't already. Find out more about the con hotel HERE.

Con Discord server

As in previous years, most of the weekend's online socialising will take place in the VidUKon Discord server, including chats during each vidshow and panel. You will receive an invitation to join the server on Thursday, 29 May. If you do not already have a Discord account, you will need to create one ahead of time.

With more updates to come, make sure to keep an eye on our social media – you'll always find the latest info on Dreamwidth, plus you can keep tabs on us via Tumblr and Bluesky.

And here are all those important dates one more time:

6 April – deadline to submit to Vidder’s Choice, Premieres and the Themed Vidshow (GPOY)
7 April – deadline to sign up for the Group Vidding Workshop
10 April – deadline for VJs and panelists to submit programming
4 May – deadline to register for in-person attendance
30 May to 1 June – VidUKon!!!

We hope to see you at this year’s con!
The VidUKon ConCom

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Submissions open 25 & 26 March | How to submit a vid

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 17:35:40 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Submissions for VidUKon 2025 will open early next week \o/ If you've registered for this year's con, you should receive an email either on Tuesday or Wednesday (25 or 26 March) containing details about how to log in to the new platform.

Before we get into how to submit a vid, just a quick note on which browsers to use to ensure you get the best out of your con experience. Our platform is new and we haven’t been able to thoroughly test it on a wide range of browsers, so we would recommend Firefox as your go-to.

Browsers that should also work: Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi
Browsers that may struggle (but may also be fine, try it out!): Safari, Opera, others not named here
Browsers that will struggle and that we don't recommend: Firefox mobile on Android

If stuff looks broken, before you let us know, please check if you have the latest browser version installed. Speaking from our own bug testing experience over the past few days, updating the browser will fix quite a lot of things!

Below are instructions on how to submit a vid (or three!) to VidUKon 2025.

Eligibility

You must be registered for VidUKon in order to submit a vid. If you haven’t yet registered, you can do so at vidukon.org. Once you’ve registered, you will be emailed a temporary password to log in to your vidukon.org Dashboard, which is how you will submit your vid. This process is not automated, so don’t be alarmed if it takes some time to receive the email, though we will do it as quickly as possible.

There are three submission-based vidshows: Vidder’s Choice, Premieres, and the Themed Premieres show. You can submit up to one vid to each of these shows. As implied, submissions to the Premieres and Themed Premieres shows must be new vids that have never been posted publicly or shown at a con or similar event. Conversely, Vidder’s Choice vids cannot be premieres. Additionally, Vidder’s Choice submissions must be no longer than four minutes and thirty seconds in length.

Technical specifications

Please follow these if possible, as it makes it easier for us to set up the virtual vidshows. However, we do not want these specs to be a barrier to submission for anyone – if you’re having trouble, please contact us.

File format: MP4
Video codec: H264
Max video bitrate: 7-8 Mbps
Max resolution: 1080p
Audio codec: AAC
Max audio bitrate: 256 kbps

If you don't know how to follow these guidelines: If your vid is roughly under 350 MB and definitely not 4K, go ahead and upload it. If it’s not 4K but well over 350 MB in size and you don’t know how to reduce the file size, please contact us.

Please do not upload 4K vids. Things would likely break, one of them being your vid upload! Even if things don't break, we don't support 4K on the platform, so your vid will be converted to 1080p and will likely end up with bleached colors, since that tends to happen with automated conversions from 4K to 1080p.

How to submit your vid

Once you get your password, you can log in to vidukon.org and change your password. Please note that for now, the name you enter in the vid submission form must match your username. If you chose a different username when you registered than the name you vid under, you can change it by clicking on “Profile”. We plan to change this in the future but don’t have the capacity to do so this year.

To submit, click on “Dashboard”. Your dashboard will display what vidshows you can upload to and also lets you manage existing submissions. Click on “Submit”. This takes you to the page to enter the vid details. If the source(s), both visual and audio, are not yet in our new database (which at this point is very likely), then you won’t be able to add them on this page, but you can do so later.

In the description field, please enter a brief description of your vid. This doesn’t have to be comprehensive; for example a common approach is to choose a lyric from the vidsong that is particularly evocative of the vid, but it is also fine to write something like, “A Dylan G. character study” or “All the f/f ships in Xena”. Be as creative or straightforward as you like, but please keep this brief as every vid description has to fit in our printed conbook!

Please tick any of the mandatory content notes that apply to your vid. For custom content notes, you may provide additional detail about any of the mandatory notes as well as add any non-mandatory notes, e.g. warnings for spiders or snakes.

At this point you can hit submit even if you didn’t enter any sources or audio due to them not being in the database. From here, you can click “Enter Sources” (add new visual sources that aren’t yet in the database), “Enter Audio” (add new songs or other audio not yet in the database), and finally upload the vid file. For the sources, you can click “search metadata” to get search results from IMDB and similar, this will help you find the year of release, full title, etc. Adding sources and audio in these pages automatically adds them to your vid.

Finally, don’t forget to upload your vid! You can add new uploads, and edit all other details of the vid, up until the submission deadline.

The vid upload takes a moment. Let it do its thing and don't close the tab or browser. If it takes longer than ten minutes, it's probably failed and you can contact us about it. You won't irreparably damage anything by closing the tab while the spinner is going, but we may have to remove all the vid data and make you resubmit. We don't know yet how the site will behave with multiple people uploading at the same time, so please be patient with the site, especially if you're uploading close to the deadline.

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Registration update: Platform to go live next week!

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 17:45:16 GMT

Posted by: condnsdmlk

Sharing an exciting update regarding the new VidUKon platform – we're planning to allow users access starting next week! So if you're burning to upload your vid(s)/vidshow, you don't have to wait much longer \o/

We're aiming to get emails out to registered VidUKon attendees on 25/26 March (next week Tuesday/Wednesday) with credentials/instructions, so keep an eye on your spam folders just in case. We'll also post an update on our various social media channels once done in case you miss the email.

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