Less than a week after flying back from fall break, I hopped on another plane to Columbus, Ohio for Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF) 41. This is the largest gathering in the world for an obscure yet longstanding genre of music called ‘filk.’ I tend to define the genre as music often about, but not limited to, science fiction, fantasy and parody, usually sung in a collaborative circle format where people can join. Filk music is a balance between silly and deeply serious, original and parody and scientific and spiritual. However, what counts as a filk song or not is always up to the artist, and that’s part of what makes filk a community as much as it is a genre. What I love about it is its openness: anything can count, and people will bring what they are passionate about or interested in to life. I have found that filk songs are often stories in and of themselves as much as they are about stories people love.
Although first originating in the 1950s as a typo of folk, the name stuck, attaching itself to the names of various filk spin-offs from science fiction conventions, where filk music went from being unofficially played in lobbies to gaining recognition and becoming a common program track. Nowadays, people find the genre in all sorts of ways, from attending a science fiction convention to running into the music on YouTube, (especially the beloved song “Dawson’s Christian” with 1.1 million views from the album “Carmen Miranda’s Ghost”). In older days, the equivalent was likely the filk songs published in fanzines. Few were born into the community, like me! I attended my first convention, Windycon, at 4 months old. There’s few people my age, and those I met in Chicago have become some of my closest friends. Over the years, I rarely missed the Chicago conventions until I started college, but had only made it to OVFF once, in seventh grade. Through the Interfilk Mini-Grant, aimed at people ages 18-35, I was able to go during my freshman year and then find my own way there this year for a wonderful weekend of music and friends.
OVFF’s main event is the Pegasus Awards For Excellence in Filking, hosted every year since 1984. People from across the filk community vote on the Best Filk Song, Best Classic Filk Song (more than 10 years old), Best Performer, Best Writer/Composer and two floating categories. This year, those categories were a pair: Best Hero Song and Best Villain Song. Ideas are gathered from November to May in a brainstorming poll, eligible songs/ people are posted. People can draw from that or from what they know to submit a nominating ballot before the end of July, which is tabulated into the final ballot. People are able to vote from September through the third week of October, when the ballot closes online.
Instead of a traditional opening ceremony, OVFF opens each year with the Pegasus Awards Concert, which is live performances of all nominated songs. The Pegasus Concert is always a beautiful tribute to filk music that brings the community together, friends onstage singing songs that have grown to mean a lot to so many people. This year, “The Evil Eyeball,” written by Sybille Machat and performed by the band The Blibbering Humdingers was a hilarious highlight. The song is a humorous rendition of the story of Sauron from The Lord of The Rings. The funny, ad-libbed lines and heartfelt silliness of the performance probably helped net The Blibbering Humdingers the Best Performer award, which was well deserved. Eric Distad, who recently moved from the Twin Cities and was active in the local filk community, won Best Performer. Multiple songs were repeat nominees, including two winners: “One Small Boat” by Marilisa Valtazanou, performed by Jen Midkiff on harp, which is based off of Helen’s title in The Illiad, was the Best Filk Song winner. “Merry Meet” by Steve Macdonald, performed then by Cathy McManamon, was the Best Classic Filk Song winner. Before beginning, we were told basically “you know the words, join the chorus.” In the recording, you can hear everyone’s voices joining in. Thus it makes sense to me that “Merry Meet” earned the honor of being the new closing song at the Sunday Jam with its bittersweet yet uplifting message of going separate ways at the end of gathering together, perfect for everyone singing together for the final performance of the con before goodbyes.
Even songs that didn’t win moved me deeply — I teared up during “Helium Miner’s Song,” written and performed by Heather Preston and nominated for Best Filk Song, when I realized the Helium-3 miner gazing at Earth from the moon wouldn’t ever make their way home. After the concert, those of us at the convention were able to submit our ballot, and then a lot of us headed to filk circles to share music and play along with others, me with my five-string electric violin that was passed down by fellow fiddler and filker Amy McNally.
OVFF is more of a “relaxacon” in nature, which means the rest of the con has limited programming and many people take time at night to see their friends instead of going to circles. For me, this con was an opportunity to see those friends I’ve grown up with for the first time since 2022, when we used to see each other twice a year. Another highlight of the convention for most people is the Pegasus banquet Saturday night where the Pegasus Awards are announced, but I spent that part of the night with friends instead (and saved some money the extra ticket would’ve cost). As long as Sun Country offers cheap and well-timed flights to Columbus the third week of October, I will go. I encourage other people to tip their toes into this genre — the internet offers ways to start listening, as well as a community (which especially had to blossom during Covid) to connect with, and the Interfilk Mini-grant is a great way to finance going to an event. Locally, CONvergence over Fourth of July and Minicon over Easter weekend have filk programming tracks, as well as offer great panels about the literary world and discussions about recent, nerdy media. I also make this plea from a personal place: As I have tried to allude to throughout this article, I am one of the youngest filkers by a longshot. I don’t want to watch this community end.
