Soul Mates Weekend
| Convention | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Soul Mates Weekend |
| Dates: | October 1984 |
| Frequency: | once |
| Location: | Maidstone, Kent, England |
| Type: | |
| Focus: | |
| Organization: | |
| Founder: | Jackie Allinson |
| Founding Date: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Soul Mates Weekend was a fan-run con for fans of David Soul (mostly) and Starsky & Hutch (more of an afterthought).
It was sponsored by Soul Mates, a David Soul fan club run by Jackie Allison.
Controversy
This is the fan gathering that spiked the last DobeyCon.
The long-running and popular DobeyCons were attended by fans who had a variety of views regarding David Starsky and Kenneth Hutchinson, and as a result, while the con was not billed as a slash con, it was mostly welcoming to those fans who supported a sexual or physically intimate relationship the two characters.
However, a schism among fans regarding slash had intensified during 1984-85. DobeyCon was caught in the flack regarding views on fans' slash, as well as differing views about what it meant to be a "good" fan and how that related to being a fan of a specific celebrity (in this case David Soul) as opposed to being a fan of the characters.
The tensions among these fans can be seen in the comments in Shootout, Between Friends, and APB.
"Soul Mates Weekend" was created by some out-spoken and staunch gen-only fans organized a fan gathering for Soul fans, and it was deliberately planned as a power-play. This was something that drew a line in the sand, causing fans to demonstrate their fealty (and their time and money) to "their side." As a result, the sixth DobeyCon (which tolerated slash) suffered a lack of support. DobeyCon was canceled at the last minute due to lack of support, something that frustrated and angered many fans who'd heartily enjoyed the con in the past.
See many comments at here.
Fan Comments
It was a nice sunny morning when I set off to meet [June B] for our journey to Maidstone to the Soul Mates Weekend. We arrived at the hotel, familiar to us from Dobeycon 5, to find the programme in full swing, a young lady came forward and introduced herself as Hazel, as we introduced ourselves along came another young lady who turned out to be [Tracey H]. We found a quiet corner and sat and talked for ages, we were joined by some of Hazel's family who were taking a break at the hotel. It was soon lunchtime and as we sat eating and talking we were joined by fans we had met at D/Cons. Then it was time for photo call so everyone went outside, [Terry H] was nominated chief photographer and was kept busy taking photos of the group on several different cameras. We met up with Natasha and Alex from Germany, delightful girls who amazed us with their extremely good English. We all went back inside for the auction which was conducted by a very able lady named Val, almost £200 was raised for the charity. There were about 35 fans in attendance, all age groups from school children to us more mature ladies. It was nice to see some young men there too, it has puzzled me why there are so few men in S&H fandom, and at Dobeycons. I cannot comment on the competitions because we had to leave in the early evening and so missed out on a lot of the programme. Our main mission was to meet people we only knew as names, and Hazel and Tracey are every bit as nice as I had hoped they would be. We were pleased to meet the organizer, a friendly lady named Jackie Allison who made us feel most welcome. Everyone was friendly, there was a very happy atmosphere about the Weekend, I look forward to the next one and hope to be there for the en tire Weekend. Thank you Jackie and Soul Mates. [1]