Mysterium 2020 Registration and Hotel Reservations Now Open!

Happy March everyone!

We are excited to announce that registration and hotel reservations are now open! As is tradition, with registration also comes the announcement of this year’s t-shirt design. We’re so excited to share what the community created this year, so let’s get right to it.

T-Shirts

In the front of this year’s shirt, we have a depiction of the Jefferson Memorial superimposed on the Tomahna book vault. This eye-catching design was created by Katherine “Squee” White.

Shirt front logo closeup and photo of shirt with logo on model

On the back, we have a stunning depiction of Spire and Haven designed by none other than Claire “Shoom’lah” Hummel.

Closeup photo of the rear shirt design with photo of shirt and logo on model

We’re so excited to have both of these designs for our shirts this year. For more information, please see our T-Shirts page. We’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who submitted T-shirt artwork this year. Even if your design was not selected, we hope to feature your work elsewhere during Mysterium.

Hotel

This year, Mysterium will take place at the Westin Alexandria Old Town in Alexandria, VA. Located just a few minutes walk from Alexandria and King Street stations, this hotel offers easy access to downtown Alexandria and Washington, D.C. proper. We’ve secured a rate of $100/night for both single and double rooms.

For more information about our hotel, including links to make your reservation, visit our updated Location page.

Registration

Mysterium 2020 registration is now open! From now until May 31st, you can purchase a weekend registration for $25, or a premium registration (weekend + shirt) for $40. That’s a $5 discount off of the individual items! Starting June 1st, the price will increase and shirts will not be available for pre-order.

We have once again included a space for you to indicate your pronouns on your badge, should you wish. Read more and register today over on our Registration page.

Reminders

As a reminder, we are still accepting submissions for events, enamel pins, activity book pages, as well as writing and artwork. The deadline for pin design submissions is right around the corner on March 15th, so be sure to send your ideas in. All information about submissions can be found on the Submissions page.

New Submission Rights Policy

With Cyan’s help, we have written a new licensing/copyright policy for all submitted works (logos, pin designs, etc). Previously, all works submitted to Mysterium became the property of Cyan Worlds Inc. Going forward you will retain copyright of your own work, but grant Cyan and FMG/Mysterium a perpetual license to it. For the complete details and legalese, see the Submissions section on our Policies page. This applies immediately to all future submissions, and retroactively to all pin design and activity book submissions for Mysterium 2020.

It’s hard to believe that Mysterium is just around the corner! We’ll have more updates for you all soon.

Mysterium 2020 Triumvirate: Capella, Drew, and Dan

Event Submissions Now Open

Greetings!

We hope everyone had a wonderful start to the new year. To kick off 2020, we have a few brief updates to share.

Event Submissions

Event submissions are now open! As always, Mysterium is a success thanks to the wonderful events and presentations from our attendees. To keep things interesting, we like to offer a variety of group activities, fan presentations, panels, open mic time, and more.

This year, we will again offer time for “Microtalks.” If you have something you’d like to present, but don’t want to make a full 30-60 presentation, try a microtalk. We want to provide everyone with accessible opportunities to share their ideas or work, so we hope this will be a useful option for attendees. Visit the event submissions page for more details.

Event submissions are due no later than Sunday, May 31st, 2020.

T-Shirt Design Submissions

As a reminder, T-shirt design submissions are currently open and will be accepted until Sunday, February 16th, 2020. We encourage you to include elements of this year’s theme (Sirrus vs Achenar/Red vs Blue/Haven and Spire) or host city in your design. The creator of the selected design will receive a free Mysterium 2020 T-shirt. For full details, please visit the T-Shirt Design Submissions page.

Other Submissions

As a general reminder, we are also accepting submissions for enamel pin designs, activity book pages, and our Writing & Art Table. Check the Mysterium 2020 Submissions Overview page for full details and deadlines for all of these.

Location Updates

We recognize that attendees may already be pricing out travel options. To assist with your planning, we recommend that attendees flying to Washington, D.C choose Reagan National Airport (DCA) as their destination, if possible, for better public transportation connections. Additional location details will be available soon.

That’s all from us for now. We’ll have more news for everyone soon!

– Mysterium 2020 Triumvirate: Capella, Drew, and Dan

The Official Mysterium 2020 Date and Theme Announcement

Shorah everyone!

A new month has arrived and with it comes news about Mysterium 2020! The committee has been hard at work since we last updated, so we’re excited to share the latest with all of you.

When is Mysterium 2020?

This year, in an effort to maximize our hotel options and keep Mysterium accessible and fun for everyone, we broke with our tradition of holding Mysterium on a fixed weekend. After reviewing numerous proposals, we can now say that Mysterium 2020 will be held August 7th – 9th, 2020!

We are still in final negotiations and expect to have information about our selected venue soon. Please look forward to an update on this in the coming weeks.

For the Brothers

In all of our years, we have yet to theme our weekend around anything from Myst IV: Revelation. The Committee felt that it was a perfect time to break that pattern and select Haven and Spire as our theme. Red and blue, Sirrus and Achenar, crystals and mangrees… we hope to have a bit of everything brotherly represented this year. Two of our Committee members, Rayne and Lutra, have already started planning some decorations and music to help set the mood. We’re excited to see what they can come up with!

Relive Mysterium 2019

Missing Mysterium 2019? Or perhaps you missed Mysterium 2019? We’re excited to announce that this year’s event recordings are now available on our YouTube channel. We want to give a huge shoutout to Taniith for his hard work sifting through the hundreds of gigabytes of footage we collected this year. We hope you enjoy! You can find a playlist of all the videos here.

Additionally, we’ve gathered song lyrics and poems from Open Mic Night for you to read at your leisure here. Many thanks to everyone who participated in the event this year.

That’s it for today. Be sure to follow @MysteriumCon on Twitter, the Mysterium Facebook Page, or our Discord server for Mysterium 2020 updates.

– Mysterium 2020 Triumvirate: Capella, Drew, and Dan

Mysterium 2020: From One Washington to Another…

Shorah everyone!

As we mentioned in our Mysterium 2019 Wrap Up, plans for Mysterium 2020 have been in the works. In the time since the committee departed Spokane, we have been hard at work nailing everything down. We are now excited to announce what everyone has been waiting for: Mysterium 2020!

Where is Mysterium 2020?

As hinted at by our post’s title, Mysterium will be held in Washington, DC for the first time ever!

Washington, DC offers a robust transportation system to connect visitors from a multitude of airports and train stations to downtown and the suburbs. Featuring free admission to museums and other attractions, the capital will have something to offer everyone in attendance this year.

When is Mysterium 2020?

As mentioned in the previous wrap ups, the dates for Mysterium 2020 are still being decided. While we intend to choose a specific weekend by mid-October, we can say that Mysterium will be held on a Friday through Sunday during late-July or early-August.

This past year, Sunday’s schedule was extended to accommodate all of the events we had planned, especially Saturday’s trip to Cyan. Mysterium 2020 will be returning to our traditional schedule, ending midday on Sunday (historically, around 1:00 PM).

Planning and outreach is well underway. Please watch for another announcement in the coming weeks with our selected weekend. The primary goal informing all our upcoming logistical decisions, including date selection, is to ensure Mysterium 2020 is accessible and fun for everyone.

Who’s Running Mysterium 2020?

This year’s Mysterium will be headed by no less than three con chairs! Longtime committee members Capella and Drew will be joined by a relative newcomer, Dan. Nicknamed the Mysterium Triumvirate, they hope to combine their enthusiasm and Myst and community knowledge to make one of the best Mysterium conventions yet. Following Mysterium 2019’s great success, they are eager to take on the challenge and wish Taniith the best as he takes a well deserved rest after his hard work this past year.

We also know that many of you are eagerly awaiting more Mysterium 2019 recordings on our YouTube channel. There is still a lot of footage to get through, but we will make the recordings available as soon as we are able to. We thank you for your patience!

Be sure to follow @MysteriumCon on Twitter, the Mysterium Facebook Page, or our Discord server for Mysterium 2020 updates. We can’t wait to share more with you over the coming weeks and months!

– Mysterium 2020 Triumvirate: Capella, Drew, and Dan

Know Before You Go: Mysterium 2019 Edition

Greetings everyone!

We’re only one week away from the start of Mysterium 2019! To get everyone off on the right foot, here’s a roundup of what to expect when you get to Spokane.

At The Hotel

Check out our Location page for info on how to get to Mysterium. The convention will be in the Ruby River Hotel’s Shoreline Ballroom.

If you are planning to take the hotel’s airport shuttle, they recommend calling the front desk (509-326-5577) ahead of time to give them your flight information. While this is not required, it can potentially reduce your wait time at the airport if they know roughly when to expect you.

Please note that both the main hotel and overflow hotel are completely full for the weekend.

Registration

If you pre-registered, registration is easy. Just come to the reg desk, give us your last name, and we’ll look you up. You do not need to bring a printout of your registration confirmation. Once you’re checked in, we’ll give you your badge, a lanyard, and any swag, shirts, or coloring books that you purchased or were included with your registration.

If you are a minor or are attending with a minor, don’t forget to fill out a parental consent form. Copies will also be available at the registration desk.

If you missed pre-registration and are planning to register on-site on Friday morning, a limited number of badges may be available. Please wait until we get through the queue of pre-registered individuals. We will then accept walk-ins, if space is available.

Please note that your badge must be worn at all times when in the convention space, and your (English/surface) name must be visible.

What to Wear

Spokane is hot, sunny, and dry in the summer, so dress accordingly and remember to stay hydrated. In the event of unexpected rain or thunderstorms, you may wish to pack an umbrella or raincoat. Most of our time at Cyan on Saturday will be spent outside, so we recommend sunscreen, sunglasses, goggles, or other sun protection you might need.

Looking for more ideas of what to pack? A more detailed packing list is available on the Mysterium 2019 FAQ page.

What to Do

You can find our schedule of activities on our schedule page. All major activities will be located in the Shoreline Ballroom, while autograph sessions and VR demos will be in the Clearwater Room.

We’ve also posted a map of nearby food and attractions that may interest you on the Location page. Many food options are within walking distance. Delivery is also available from restaurants directly, or via apps like Grubhub or UberEats. You can check with the front desk to see if they have any delivery menus or recommendations. Just don’t bring your food into the convention room or eat it in the hotel’s public spaces!

Keep In Touch

The Mysterium Discord server makes for a great way to communicate and coordinate with other attendees. In addition to the general #mysterium-2019 channel, we’ll provide some additional channels for on-site announcements, meal planning, and excursions. This may be especially useful for anyone who arrives early or is staying in town after Sunday.

If you need to get the attention of Mysterium staff in a hurry, you can mention “@Mysterium Staff” to notify us.

Policies & Reporting Problems

Please remember to review our policies and code of conduct before arriving at the convention. Copies will also be available at the registration desk. Remember that we have a zero tolerance policy for harassment of any kind.

If you witness any problems or feel you have been a victim of harassment, please find a Mysterium staff member and let us know. You can also use this page to submit a report: https://mysterium.net/harassment/.

That’s all for today. We hope this post is helpful as you prepare for your trip. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

We look forward to seeing all of you next week!

-Mysterium 2019 Committee