ICon festival

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The poster at the entrance to Icon Festival of 2005

Icon is a Science Fiction and Fantasy fan convention held annually in the Tel Aviv Cinemateque during the Sukkot holiday. The first Icon was held in 1998. The earlier Icons lasted for 3 days each, but with the increasing demand, they started lengthening. Icon 2006 was 5 days long and held about 5000 visitors every day.^{[citation needed]}

The festival is the biggest in Israel^{[citation needed]} and it features lectures, movies, stageplay, roleplay and other activities. Each ICON has a main theme and is visited by a famous guest from abroad (usually, writers). In former years it featured a battling ring, where people could fight each other, using soft LARP weapons. Icon appears to be a 'highlight' of the year for many young Israelis.^{[citation needed]}

Writer Tim Powers, fights at the battle ring. ICON 2005

A battle at the "Colosseum" battle-ring at ICON 2005

Among the organisers of the festival are The Israeli Association for Science Fiction and Fantasy, "Starbase 972" Star trek fan club, The Israeli Roleplaying Association and others.