Participants
The guests of honour for the convention were Joe Haldeman, Wolfgang Jeschke and Harry Harrison, with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro as Toastmaster and Andrew I. Porter as Fan Guest of Honour. The organising committee was chaired by Kees van Toorn. The total membership of the convention was 3580, despite the preparations for the Gulf war which deterred many Americans from traveling.
This was the first Worldcon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, so was the first convention which many fans, writers and editors from Eastern European countries were able to attend. The convention was opened by the then Minister of Cultural Affairs of the Netherlands, and the Hugos were presented by the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands.
Read more about this topic: 48th World Science Fiction Convention
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“A civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)