Guests of Honour

Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin is an LA-based award-winning teacher and musician, not to mention a lovely guy, and founded and runs the educational non-profit organisation “GriffinEd”, using music to teach everything from ancient Egyptian burial practices to the water cycle in primary schools (that’s elementary, dear Watson, schools, prior to its translation into British English…).

Outside of (hundreds of) schools, Tim has performed in front of NASA, the National Science Teachers’ Association, and many science fiction and filk conventions, to the delight of a wide variety of audiences.  Tim has won the Pegasus Award for Best Songwriter/Composer and for Best Song (“Lucy On The Line”), and “Lucy On The Line” was also awarded the “Filk Gold” Sams award at the 2025 UK filk con.  We are delighted he agreed to come back for the 2026 con!

Tim’s music, along with lyrics, chords, and notes on classroom use is all freely available at: www.GriffinEd.org

The Marsh Herders

We have long-time filkers Mike & Anne Whitaker to thank for introducing Richard and Isobel to the world of filk, and we were ecstatic when they accepted our invitation to be our UK Guest of Honour after they were lured in to joined a MillCon, where we first had the pleasure of meeting them.

The 2025 filk con was their first Contabile, where Richard’s “Something in the Water” won the Sams award for Best Serious Song (we are still not entirely sure what they herd through the marsh, but after hearing that song I suspect it is safer not to ask…), and we should add a (dis)honourable mention for “Three Kobolds in a Trenchcoat” which was one of the nominations for Best At-Con performance.

With songs ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, they will delight you and tug on your heart strings (particularly looking at Isobel; she knows why!), and you may never look at cows the same way again…