Next weekend – February 28- March 1, 2015 – Zagreb is hosting a regional LARP convention, PoRtaL 2015, run by larpers for larpers, with free entrance. The name might look strange, but, as is the custom in geeky pursuits, has meaning: P stands for “play” and for “PoRtaL”, R for “role-play” and L “Larp”. Their website will tell you more and you can also find them on Facebook.
The Croatian LARP scene is not very big, I think around a hundred people actively take part in its quite numerous events and campaigns today, but it is diverse and present at almost all SF conventions. I know that I have been aware of it since I discovered fandom. I vividly remember seeing vampires at Essekon, the now defunct Osijek SF convention that was my first con ever.
I would probably not even be aware of this con either if it weren’t for the fact that some of the finer young genre writers in Croatia also happen to be avid larpers as well. The year of my GUFF trip – 2013 – was also the year of the first Croatian LARP convention. That PoRtal became first in a series of events: last year a convention was held under that name in Budapest, Hungary.
Even though the first one was held in Zagreb, I was so totally immersed in my GUFF preparations that I missed it entirely. I will certainly go take a peek this year.
