Elves will be the main theme of the 13th Liburnicon Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival which will be held at the northern Adriatic resort town of Opatija on August 17-19, the event's organisers announced on Monday.

The festival’s location will be decorated with elf lanterns, flags, and coats-of-arms from the fantasy world created by author J.R.R. Tolkien, and the same theme of his Lord of the Rings trilogy will feature in quizzes, workshops and games, as well as the children’s programme, titled Mini Liburnicon.

Over the years, Liburnicon has become one of the biggest youth festivals in the wider region, bringing together fans of science fiction, history, and mythology. This year the event will include over 100 lectures, presentations, panel discussions, competitions, board game tournaments, and music programmes.

Guests invited to take part this year include the Canadian fantasy author Steven Erikson, best known for his ten-volume high fantasy series Malazan Book of the Fallen, who will speak about archaeology and the challenges they face in overcoming established dogmas.

The British fantasy author Jonathan Stroud will talk about how he started writing, and how some of the characters in his books came into being.

Members of the Czech board games studio Czech Games and the Zagreb-based game designer Filip Neduk will talk about the process of designing and publishing fantasy-inspired games.

Other prominent guests include Enis Cisic, comic book artist, professor of animation at the American University in Sarajevo, and illustrator for Marvel Comics, who worked on editions of well.known American comic book series such as Ironman, Spiderman, Captain America, and Hulk; and the Zagreb-based artist Goran Sudzuk who worked on editions of Hellblazer, Wonder Woman, Ghosted, Wolverine, Thor, Deadpool and Daredevil, and will talk about his comic book series A Walk Through Hell which follows FBI detectives investigating a horror-infused noir version of Los Angeles.

Croatian astronomer Korado Korlevic will also hold a lecture about mythical creatures of Istria based on local folk tales and lore, while physicist Ivica Puljak will talk about unexplored and unresolved problems in the worlds of science and philosophy.

For more information on tnefestival’s programme and schedule, visit the event’s official website.

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