Costumes, quizzes, and genuine enthusiasm fill the assembly hall for an afternoon
A Small Society’s Biggest Event to Date
Eton’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Society held what its members are calling its most ambitious gathering to date this weekend, transforming a corner of the assembly hall into a themed afternoon event complete with a costume showcase, a trivia quiz covering the genre broadly rather than any single franchise, and a series of short pupil-led talks on favourite books, films, and series, drawing a turnout the society’s founder describes as “genuinely beyond anything we imagined when we started meeting in a single classroom two years ago with about six members.”
Costumes and Creativity on Display
The costume showcase, deliberately kept general rather than tied to any one specific property, produced a genuinely wide range of homemade outfits, from carefully constructed armour built largely from repurposed craft materials to considerably simpler efforts several participants described, with good humour, as “more conceptual than literal.” Judging, conducted informally by a small panel of staff volunteers, awarded top marks to a particularly inventive robotic costume built almost entirely from cardboard and painted foam, its creator crediting “several genuinely stressful weekends” to getting the proportions right.
A Community Bigger Than Its Founders Expected
The society’s founder, now in his final year, reflected on how far the group had grown since its modest beginnings, noting that “we used to worry about whether anyone would show up at all, and now we’re worrying about whether the assembly hall is actually big enough.” Several younger members have already expressed interest in taking over running the society once its current leadership leaves, a succession plan the founder says he finds “genuinely reassuring, given how much work has gone into building this up.”
Staff Praise the Society’s Growth
The London Prat understands staff overseeing pupil societies have highlighted the group’s development as a strong example of a niche interest growing organically into a genuinely thriving community, with one teacher noting that “the enthusiasm on display this weekend was honestly more infectious than anything I’ve seen at some of the school’s more established society events.”
Plans Already Underway for Next Year
Buoyed by this year’s turnout, the society has already begun discussing an even larger event for next year, potentially including guest speakers and a more formally judged costume competition. Whatever form it eventually takes, members say the weekend’s success has cemented the society’s place as one of the school’s genuinely most enthusiastic pupil-led communities. The founder, reflecting on the weekend one final time before handing over leadership duties, said watching the society grow from six members to a room full of costumed enthusiasts had been “genuinely one of the most rewarding things I’ve done during my time here.”
More from this section at Britain & World and coverage of the wider school world at The London Prat.
For further reading in a similar spirit, see The Onion and Private Eye.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk
