The Hotel

Holiday Inn, London Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP2 0UA. Telephone: 0870 400 9045

The London Road part of the address is very important as there is a Holiday Inn Express not far away from our Hotel.

The hotel is now full and can accept no more bookings. We will be accounting for about 2/3 of the bedrooms and have all the large function rooms. If you have a credit card then it can be used to guarantee all the meals and bar purchases that you charge to your room. If you leave an open cheque with Reception then you can also charge things to your room. If you only have cash then the hotel's policy is that you pay for meals, drinks etc. at the time you purchase them and for your accommodation when you arrive. No credit card or cheque will actually be debited until you sign out.

Breakfast is included in the price. Lunch will cost £10 and Dinner £15. Bar snacks will be available all day and into the evening.

Rooms will be available from 3pm onwards, but the Convention reception will not open until approx. 5pm.

The hotel has a fitness suite available to residents at no extra cost which includes a swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, exercise machines and weights.

Room Rates

Don't panic - they haven't gone up! Rather the opposite. The rate for a twin or double room has been confirmed as £27.50 and £37.50 for a single room per person per night. Family rooms will be charged at the twin/double rate for those persons only who are over 19 years of age. Currency conversions will be at the prevailing rate at the time the bill is charged.

Directions

By Road:

There are only two major roads which serve Ipswich, the A12 and the A14. At the Junction of the A12/A14 take the exit labelled A1214 Ipswich Central. Go straight at the next roundabout. You will see the hotel on your left. At the next set of traffic lights turn left. Then turn left again and left into the hotel slip road. Park where convenient. For those with heavy equipment or luggage the hotel has at least two trolleys available.

By Train:

Ipswich is served by two railway companies, Anglia Railways and First Great Eastern, both of which operate out of London Liverpool Street Station, which is on the Circle and District underground lines.

Anglia Railways runs an Inter-City service to Ipswich at 00 and 30 minutes past the hour. This service gets very busy during commuting hours and booking a seat is recommended. The journey time is approx. 1 hour 6 minutes if all goes well. This is the more expensive of the two services but definitely the more comfortable and reliable. Anglia Railways has its own ticket office and lounge adjacent to platform 10 at Liverpool Street Station.

First Great Eastern runs a suburban service to Ipswich several times an hour calling at different stations along the way. These trains also get very crowded but there are no reservations available. The journey time varies between 1 hour 15 minutes and 1 hour 30 minutes if all goes well. This is the cheaper of the two services.

Tickets between the two companies are not interchangeable.

Engineering work: There will be engineering work on the Norwich to London line on Sunday 9 February. The service between Ipswich and Colchester will be replaced by coaches.

If you wish to book tickets via the Internet then Anglia Railways accepts bookings via http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/home. For journeys starting or finishing outside the Anglia Railways area then I have found the best site to be http://www.qjump.co.uk. First Great Eastern also has a website at http://www.ger.co.uk but this does not provide ticket booking facilities.

Taxis:

There is a taxi rank outside the railway station. Please check that the taxi is displaying a circular orange badge on the windscreen. If the taxi is not, then it is not licenced to work that rank. The fare from the station to the hotel should be £5 - £6 up until 10pm. After that the taxis charge night rate which is a higher base rate and less mileage/stoppage time per unit. We recommend the following two companiesa:

Avenue Taxis (Hackney Carriage and Private Hire) 01473 404070

Hawk Express (Private Hire only) 01473 222222

Airports:

London Gatwick: If you are flying into this airport and travelling by train then you need to follow the signs for the Gatwick Express train service. The journey into London Victoria lasts 30 minutes and runs at 5, 20, 35, and 50 minutes past the hour. The single fare is £11. From London Victoria take either the Underground (District or Circle lines) to London Liverpool Street, or a taxi which should cost approx. £8. Then follow the instructions above for arriving by train.

London Heathrow: If you are flying into this airport and travelling by train then you need to follow the signs for the Heathrow Express train service. The journey into London Paddington lasts 23 minutes from Terminal 4 and departs at 10, 25, 40, and 55 minutes past the hour. Trains depart 7 minutes later than these times from Terminals 1,2 &3. The single fare is £13. From London Paddington take either the Underground (District or Circle lines) to London Liverpool Street, or a taxi which should cost approx. £15. You can also take the Picadilly Line on the Underground from the airport. This is very much slower but a lot cheaper. Then follow the instructions above for arriving by train.

London Stanstead: If you are flying into this airport and travelling by train then you need to follow the signs for the coach link service to Colchester Railway Station. The train to Ipswich takes approx. 20 minutes and there are at least 4 trains an hour. The single fare is either £3.90 or £4.80 depending on which company you travel by.

Taxis from the Airports:

Taking an unbooked taxi from any of the airports will always cost more than if you arrange for a taxi company to meet you. The two companies from Ipswich mentioned above quote the following prices from the relevant airports to Ipswich. Both companies will have the driver waiting in arrivals with your name and flight number clearly visible on a board which they are holding.

Avenue Taxis - £105 from London Heathrow and London Gatwick. £60 from London Stanstead. There is a charge of £15 per hour or part of hour for waiting longer than one hour.

Hawk Express - £100 from London Heathrow and London Gatwick. £60 from London Stanstead. There is a charge of £12 per hour or part of hour for waiting longer than one hour.

The numbers for these companies are listed under the "Taxis" heading above or the arrangements can be made for you if you contact Hilary.

Other Accommodation

Prices in Ipswich for B&B accommodation range from £20 to £50 per room per night. The Ipswich Tourist Information Centre can advise on places to stay on 01473 258070. The Ipswich Borough website also has an accommodation list at http://www.ipswich.gov.uk/tourism/accom/default.htm. Please bear in mind that the Hotel the Convention is using is on the outskirts of the Borough and not serviced by any buses. The nearest service is the Park and Ride service which only runs from 7am to 7pm and has a very limited number of stops in the centre of town.

Recording Policy

RULE 1: The Quinze Filk Festival is held for the benefit of all its members. Any recording, videoing, photography, storage of performers in stasis chambers/amber/brine, or any other attempts to preserve the essence of the convention beyond its natural life, shall be considered secondary to, and must not interfere with, the enjoyment of the con by its members.

The Quinze committee is not planning to produce, or fund production of, a recording of this year's convention. (N.B. One of the concom members is the regular "recording techie" for UK cons, and he will be plenty busy enough with other things this year; another already has enough recording projects stacked up to last him nicely through his retirement... Plus we expect to have 1-and-a-half sets of tech to run this year anyway!) So there will be no "con tape" or "con CD" as such.

In the past, tech have sometimes been able to record a set on cassette for the performer to take home with them. This year we're hoping to try a more flexible arrangement - More details will be available at the con, but here's the IMPORTANT BIT: If you would like the assistance of the tech crew in getting a good recording of your own set, please let them know as soon as possible. N.B. That means not just as the set is about to start, and of course not while they're busy doing tech for someone else's set. (What we're hinting at here is: Before the con, please! =:o} ) Bear in mind that such "tech-assisted" recording will be on a "best efforts" basis only. (If we forget to hit the "on" switch, or get it mixed up with the Polaris launch controls, we're sorry!)

Members who wish to record parts of the convention for their own use¹ may do so, subject to the wishes of the performers concerned, and Rule 1 (see above). Please keep your recording equipment out of people's way, avoid trailing wires, and avoid disturbing other people's enjoyment as you use it. If you are asked not to record or photograph something, please don't. For this reason, no unattended recording will be permitted . (If you need to pop to the loo or bar, always leave someone you trust in charge of the "off" switch! Or failing that, a fellow filker.)

¹ We really do mean "for your use only". In particular anything recorded during the Convention may not be put on a website without the permissions of the performers, the recording engineers and the Committee (unless you own all rights in the performance, being author, performer and recording engineer).

Paul Bristow - p.bristow@easynet.co.uk; (01279) 315653

Message from Phoenix

"Since we're doing a set this year, and it seems obvious from last year that a lot of folks enjoyed dressing up for the set at C14, we're going to offer two small prizes for the "Most Rock'n'Roll" costumes worn at the Phoenix set at Quinze - one each for male and female. Consider it an incentive to dig out the leather and lace!"

Mike Whitaker

Filk Fund Donations

As usual, here is the annual exhortation for you to remember to bring things for the Filk Fund auction so we can continue to invite fun guests from distant lands. However, this year a slight change - could people please think about what they are bringing/sending? Each year the auction over-runs and last year despite 2 auctions I had to take a box of stuff home with me, most of which I have now passed to the local charity shop as it wasn't anything that would particularly appeal to a filk con attending crowd. I'd rather have a smaller

auction of things people are likely to genuinely want to buy rather than being persuaded into it by Roger's verbal dexterity - quality, not quantity! --

Lissa Allcock

Contabile Fortean

On behalf of last year's Committee we bring you the following:

Dealers

We have room set aside for dealers, conveniently situated between the restaurant and the bedrooms. If you would like space in this room then please contact the Committee via the usual addresses and give some idea of how much space you require. (Measurements in tables will be fine.) This room is fully lockable when it is not in use.

Programme

The programme will start with the Opening Ceremony on Friday at 7pm and run until 10pm. On Saturday there are items programmed from 10am to 10pm. On Sunday the programming again starts at 10am and finishes with the Closing Ceremony at approx. 5pm. There will be the traditional Dead Filk Sunday evening.

General Advice to People Doing Sets

Help us to help you! The main things we need to know are:

1. Who else is performing with you. (Hopefully you've already told us this, so your programme slot doesn't clash with something else one of your performers is in! =:o} )

2. What do you/they do (i.e. what instruments, how many voices, etc.) This is for tech set up.

You'll need to work out a set list, showing what songs you're doing, in what order, roughly how long each one takes, and who's doing what on each one. It's a good idea to send a copy of that to the techies (Martin and Andy GK), with a copy to the concom, sometime in January. It's generally too late at the con itself as Techies are always busy there!! :o}

Please time your set in advance, including all songs, introductions, instrument changes, etc., and setup and "clear off" time, and make sure it will fit the slot you've been allocated. 20 minutes really isn't very long if you have lots of instruments to tune and get miked-up, but is fine if you're just standing at a microphone and singing. Allow time for things like adjusting microphones when you switch between sitting and standing, etc. If you're new to this and don't know how much time to allow, try doing a "dress rehearsal" and actually go through all the movements you'll have to make on the day, including where to put things. Practising it means you'll be quicker and more confident when you get there on the day. I find it helps to allow an extra five minutes confusion time... =:o}

If possible, include at least one song somewhere near the end of the set that you can drop if time is running short. (It doesn't hurt to a have spare one standing by in case you seem to be ahead of schedule, either!)

QFF Tech. 165 Cold Overton Road, Oakham, Rutland LE15 6NU

Paul Bristow (programming bod)