The organizational team from the association “Kulturni front” successfully completed 11. Liburnicon Fantasy and Science Fiction Festival, which managed, at least briefly, to awaken sleepy Opatija and attract more than 1500 visitors, mostly young people, from all over Croatia and abroad. In specially prepared premises of the "Rikard Katalinić Jeretov" Elementary School, where around fifty organizers and volunteers worked all week, numerous visitors were offered over 70 points of a diverse program, which included lectures by top domestic and foreign scientists, presentations by world-renowned writers and a series of concerts, games, quizzes, workshops and other interesting content.

Currently the largest festival in Opatija, organized by young people, Liburnicon is, according to many, one of the best indigenous Opatija cultural products, since it was created, developed and remained in Opatija, and it is made by young Opatijans enhanced by friends and other fans of fantasy and science fiction from Lovran, Kastav and Rijeka. Although Liburnicon has been bringing world-renowned scientific and literary names to Opatija for years (e.g. Canadian writers G. G. Kay and Steven Erikson, American author Jacqueline Carey and British comic book artist Ian Gibson), this year's festival surprised the interested audience by offering as many as two honorary guests. After almost two years of pleasant planning and agreement, the organizers presented Opatija with the renowned British economist and futurologist Richard Watson, a scientist who is engaged in predicting future market trends (but also changes in society in general), and who has worked as a consultant in a number of reputable companies and institutions such as IBM, Samsung, Shell, Cambridge University, Imperial College and the Department of Defense of the United Kingdom. Watson gave two lectures at the Liburnicon (on the interrelationship between science and science fiction, and on anti-social media), during which he warned about some evident factors that will significantly affect the image of the future society: demographic change and population ageing, the shift of economic dominance to the Far East, climate change and new technologies towards Watson are the main factors that will shape markets, but also the society of the future.

Both lectures were followed by over a hundred people, and no less interest was attracted by the presentation of the second guest of honour, Russian writer and journalist Dmitry Glukhovski, who presented his literary triology “Metro” to the audience, after whose first installment the extremely popular computer game “Metro 2033” was made, located in tunnels and subway complexes of post-apocalyptic Moscow. Glukhovsky also talked about his inspiration for writing the trilogy, which he shaped, as he says, under the influence of “Russian melancholy: a unique post-apocalyptic sense of life on the ruins of an empire’. Both honorary guests remained pleasantly surprised by the festival, so Watson stayed long after his lecture hanging out with other visitors, and Glukhovsky after his presentation had a long conversation with fans and signed books, and both pointed out that they definitely plan to return to Opatija.

Although the main guests filled the school library to the end, the greatest interest of the audience, as every year, attracted domestic experts. Korado Korlević, who was the tenth guest on Liburnicon (from 11 held so far) in front of the full hall, which accommodates over 200 people, spoke about the Sun and the space climate, as well as ways how changes in the Sun can affect life on Earth (with a special look at how they affect some modern technologies, such as GPS or radar). In addition to the central lecture, Korlević participated in a panel discussion with Doc. Davor Horvatić, in which they emphasized that with the narrower specialization of knowledge we are losing some long-known skills (how to purify water, preserve food from deterioration, etc.), and warned that we should not be afraid and prepare for apocalypse scenarios such as the impact of a large meteor (which are extremely unlikely), but for scenarios of power outages for several weeks, which he considers much more likely, and due to the lack of old ones, today due to the specialization of lost skills, equally apocalyptic for modern man. Ultimately, Korlević and Horvatić concluded that today’s society becomes a ‘dream sales’ society (which used to be, but now ‘dream sales’ in developed countries generate over 50% They described it as an unnecessarily complex system threatened by numerous disasters (such as the aforementioned power outage for several weeks), which is why it is important to be able to survive when the level of complexity of the system drops, and even more important to know how to create your own dreams, and not buy someone else's.

The audience was equally interested in Krešimir Mišak's talk show, which had two excellent domestic scientists as guests: Prof. Igor Čatić and Prof. Elvio Baccarini. In a crowded hall, they talked about transhumanism, a movement of technological and genetic advancement of the human species (which includes improving human abilities, but also health and life span, to virtual immortality). The Liburnicon contained a dozen other interesting lectures, among which the most important were those by Doc. Davor Horvatić, and Dr. Ivan Šimatović, Davor Jadrijević and others, and the presentation of the book “Republika kamena” by the young and talented Dubrovnik writer Tanja Radman attracted attention.

The entertainment program of Liburnicon showed the richness of the festival, presenting a series of entertaining and previously unseen games created by the organizers, as well as numerous quizzes that covered almost all fantastic and science-fiction topics, from Pokemon to Max Max and the famous series “Plema”. Visitors were also entertained by numerous costumed guests who participated in the cosplay competition, in which contestants mask their beloved characters from books, films and comics, and try to embody and act them at the festival itself. The famous Crypta, a huge room intended for playing tabletop social and strategic games, was filled to the last place, and visitors could try almost a hundred different table games there, and they could also turn to numerous volunteers for help, who explained the rules and strategies of games of different games to interested visitors all three days.

To keep the atmosphere warm, they took care (along with the sun, which shone beautifully during all three days of the festival) and bands: The iconic Rijeka PHC performed on Friday and attracted many visitors to the stage (and some to it) with its liveliness and quality of performance, and the Pula rock cover band Cherrybombz made sure that the atmosphere on Saturday was no less fun.

Liburnicon, as in previous years, offered an interesting children's program on Sunday with the participation of about forty children, who learned through play and creative workshops how they can preserve the environment and save the world.

Organizers from the Association "Cultural Front" pointed out that they are extremely satisfied with this year's edition of the festival, thanked the patrons and sponsors, the most important of which are the City of Opatija, the Tourist Board of the City of Opatija and Milenij hoteli d.d., but also emphasized that, after a short vacation, intensive work and preparations are waiting for them from October to make Liburnicon even better next year. As every year, they invited all the young people who enjoyed Liburnicon, but also all those who love fantasy and science fiction, to join them in this difficult but achievable venture.