Icon Festival

The Icon Festival for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Role-Playing is an annual festival which takes place for the 30th time, on September 29 – October 1 2026, at Eshkol Pais, Shprinzak st 4, Tel Aviv. Icon is a red-letter day for fans of the SF&F (both literature and cinema) and RPGs, and its 2-day diverse program attracts people of all ages. This year's festival theme is "Wonders". In the application you can view the program and event details, build a personal program with the events that you find interesting, be notified before they start and send feedback on the events. You can also receive real time updates during the convention. Note that the application is in Hebrew only. Icon Festival consists many exciting events, such as lectures, RPG sessions, panel discussions, cosplay contests, comical and musical shows, providing a huge celebration for the science fiction and fantasy lovers and even much broader audiences. Icon is produced by non-for-profit organizations that work all year long to promote fandom and creators of science fiction, fantasy and role-playing, and strive to make these genres more accessible to their audience. We also take pride in providing the stage to independent filmmakers and young authors. The Icon Festival is a seminal cultural event, made possible due to the passion and hard work of hundreds of volunteers, from the festival director to the last but not least staff member. Their only reward is the festival itself as all income is used to pay for the facilities and cover expenses. Guests of Honor at the Icon Festival One of our most popular features at Icon is to meet world-class known authors, directors and actors. In previous years, we've had several guests during the festival or in surrounding events throughout the year, including Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, John de Lancie, Tim Powers, Guy Gavriel Kay, Brandon Sanderson, Ann Leckie, Delia Sherman, Daryl Gregory, Walter Jon Williams, Ted Chiang and others. The Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy The Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy was founded in May 1996 in order to promote and augment the fields of Science Fiction and Fantasy in Israel, and has been continuously active ever since. So far its activity included conventions, lectures about fantasy, science fiction and general science topics, premiere screenings of SF&F films, SF&F story-writing contests and much more. publishes an annual collection of original speculative fiction called “Once upon a future” and an online magazine – the Hebrew section of this very site. Both are, of course, in the Hebrew language. The society is a non-profit organization, and all its activities, as well as management, are performed by volunteers only. Website: https://www.sf-f.org.il/en The Israeli Role-Playing Society Founded in 1999, its main goal is to promote role-playing games as mainstream hobby in Israel. It has organized hundreds of activities with the help of devoted volunteers, has published magazines and has taken part in the production of the "Icon", the Israeli Science Fiction, Fantasy and Role-Playing Festival, as well as the production of the annual Role Playing convention, "Bigor". With hundreds of active members, the Role-Playing Society runs a website, a newsletter and many groups around the country. Website: www.roleplay.org.il