What is "Filk"?

In the near future, you will find an attempt at briefly defining the words "Filk" and "Filking" . You will also see a set of links to other pages on the Web that attempt to define "Filk" and "Filking". You might even come across the Wikipedia entry on Filk. Meanwhile, you'll just have to put up with quotes from other filk related websites.

• Commonly thought of as music based on science fiction or fantasy themes, filk evolved over the last fifty years into "anything sung by filkers." This music genre encompasses a broad range of styles, talents, and performers, from solo artists to folk/rock bands to choirs. Sometimes parodies of popular tunes are "borrowed," but more often filk songs are original compositions. Poetry, short fiction, schtick, ose (more-ose), and even improv theatre appear from time to time. No holds barred when it comes to topic.

  - GaFIA website "What Is Filk"

• Filk is a living folk cultural category with its roots in science fiction fandom, poetry, storytelling, and especially music. Like science fiction, it is an odd superset of all other cultural categories, existing on the fringes of many. Strong themes include parody (some would say homage), lyrics only, of the sort you'd find in Mad magazine, and science fiction, fantasy, and the kind of stuff you'd find littering the lives of fans, such as computers, the space program, cats, the Society for Creative Anachronism, and stuff that is stranger than you CAN imagine. The predominant musical format is folk, but there are well-executed instances of practically anything else. As in any living folk culture, all the members can participate, though not all do, and their skill and involvement levels vary widely. Set in the modern multi-cultural matrix, it eclectically adopts elements (e.g., songs) from the surrounding culture that seem to filkers to resonate properly within their communities, which show considerable regional variation and even controversy over what their boundaries should be.

  - J. Spencer Love

Readers may also want to check out some other pages that deal with this issue, including:

• Jane Mailander's "Filk 101"
• Gary McGath's "Filk: A New Definition"
• Joe Kesselman's "Filk Music? What's That"
• Interfilk has a page called "What IS Filk?"
• M.A.S.S.F.I.L.C.'s website has a page called "Filk Defined"
• The Free Dictionary has a definition for "Filk"

History of Filk

Don't know nothin' 'bout filkin' history, but some people do. Karen Andersen, Lee and Barry Gold, and Margaret Middleton are good sources.

• "Tracking Down the First Deliberate Use of the Word 'Filksong'" by Lee Gold.

Filking Awards and Honors

Besides OVFF's own Pegasus Awards, there's the Filk Hall of Fame, run by FilKOntario. In the UK, there's the Sam award, and there are probably others as well.

Filk Community

In the near future, you will find a description of the "Filk Community", and a listing of area filk organizations and communities.

• The Filk community on LiveJournal
• #filkhaven at filknet.org on IRC
• M.A.S.S.F.I.L.C. is the largest filking organization in New England.
• GaFIA in Georgia and it's neighbors
• NYMFO or New York Metropolitan Filk Organization; the link is broken.
• Conglomeration is the Washington, DC/Baltimore, MD area filk organization that stages house filks and runs the filk convention Conterpoint.
• UFO in Southern Ontario, Canada
• SWiGGLE (or "Singing We is Gonna Get Lynched Eventually") in the UK, is a gathering of filkers in the London area for filking, friendship, food (and ale and beer and ...) Rafe Culpin maintains the WiGGLE newsletter and mailing list.
• etc.

Interfilk

In this location, you will find a brief description of the charitable Filk organization Interfilk, along with a pointer to its website

Other Conventions

• GaFilk, a Filk "relax-a-con", is held every January in Atlanta, GA.
• ConFlikt, held in January in Seattle, WA.
• The floating UK filk con changes name and location within the UK every year and is held each February.
• Consonance is held at the beginning of March every year in the California Bay area.
• FilKONtario (aka FKO) is a convention held every year around the first of April in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• DFDF held near Hannover, Germany starting in May, 2009.
• The East Coast Floating Con Troika, consisting of:
• Concertino is held every few years in the vicinity of Boston (most recently Worcester), MA.
• Conterpoint is also held every few years in the vicinity of Washington, DC.
• Contata is the New York/New Jersey area member of the troika. And it's being held THIS YEAR!
• Concerto is/was the Philadelphia, PA area member of what is now the troika. It has been on hiatus for many cycles, but may revive some year and make a quorum of the troika.
• HarmUni is held also in England occasionally, in late Summer.
• Conchord is the LA area filk con, and will next happen in September, 2009.
• FilkContinental is held in a castle in Germany every autumn.

Though they aren't specifically filk conventions, the following are known to be very "Filk Friendly":

• FenCon in Texas in the fall has an aggressively good filking program.
• Marcon in Columbus, Ohio, on Memorial Day weekend, has a long history of hosting a great collection of filkers from all over the region.
• Balticon in Baltimore, MD, on Memorial Day weekend generally has a wonderful filk track.
• Duckcon in Chicago in June is a good place for filk.
• Windycon in Chicago in the fall is also good for filk.
• Capricon in Chicago in February has had some very good filking in recent years.
• ChambanaCon in Springfield, IL on Thanksgiving weekend
• Orycon in Portland, Oregon, is rumored to have excellent filking.
• Conclave in Michigan in October has a strong filking history.
• Confusion in Michigan in January is a traditional winter filking event.
• Confluence in Pittsburgh in the summer has an excellent filking program.
• Westercon on the West Coast
• Boskone in Boston in February is NESFA's annual Science Fiction convention, and has a strong filking program.
• Arisia in Boston in January, a rival to Boskone, also has a strong filking program.
• L.A.Con IV, This year's World Science Fiction Convention, in Anaheim, California, August 23-27, 2006. (The article on their website that covers early plans for the filking at L.A.Con IV is here.)

Perhaps I ought to check out the Science Fiction Convention Webring ...

Filk On-Line

This section will point to other filk resources on-line -- lyrics, BBS's, message boards, blogs, and so forth.

• The Filk Primary Source List at smof.com, invented and largely filled by Michael McAfee and turned into web pages by Chris "The Magician" O'Shea. "Here is a list of original sources of filk songs. These are songs I've heard or seen parodied at filksings, on the net, and elsewhere."
• Filk Radio
• The Filk Archive Located in the UK, but with coolstuff from all over
• Darn Near All the Filk on the Web, maintained by Maureen O'Brien
• rec.music.filk and alt.music.filk on the Usenet
• etc.