Miland:The odd new book does come out now and then, but I haven't heard La Espero sung at a British Congress for a while,

La Espero is long from dead; it's sung at the annual DC Zamenhof banquet, it's sung at the US Landa Kongreso, at the UK, etc.

nor any film since Gerda Malaperis.

Unless you count "Senmova", which is admittedly a bit artsy. The Gerda Malaperis team followed Gerda with another film "La Patro", which put me to sleep (worse than Gerda did)

And also unless you count the recent (intentionally bad, old-fashioned) horror films being released with Esperanto dubs. The first was "Atako de la lun-zombioj", and the second just came out recently, "Domo de fantomoj".

You've given me an idea there Miland. I shall be organising the 2013 Brita Kongreso in Ramsgate.

Perhaps I'll get the town band to lead us through the streets playing the himno, as a precursor to the Saturday night pub-crawl and taking on the local yobs in the traditional street battle. And the subsequent victory firework display at midnight should obviously consist exclusively of roman candles shooting only green stars. We should then be all suitably fired up to invade the Continent for a bit of Euro-bashing - if our paddle steamer doesn't get wrecked on the Goodwin Sands.

erinja: The Gerda Malaperis team followed Gerda with another film "La Patro"..

That's right, I was really thinking of full-length films.

erinja:..films being released with Esperanto dubs..

There's an idea, gems dubbed into Esperanto such as Plan 9 from Outer Space, Santa Claus conquers the Martians, Robot Monster and Bride of the Monster!

sudanglo:You've given me an idea there Miland. I shall be organising the 2013 Brita Kongreso in Ramsgate.Perhaps I'll get the town band to lead us through the streets playing the himno...

I'll be content to sing it at the beginning and end of the congress, indoors.

Seriously, I protested at the omission of the himno from British congresses more than once, to no avail. At Edinburgh this year they organised a pop singer to sing it to a modern tune that I didn't like. Eventually I and two others sang the full traditional version in an alley near the hotels which a German visitor filmed! He hasn't emailed me any videoclip of it, as yet.

erinja:

Miland:The odd new book does come out now and then, but I haven't heard La Espero sung at a British Congress for a while,

La Espero is long from dead; it's sung at the annual DC Zamenhof banquet, it's sung at the US Landa Kongreso, at the UK, etc.

It did surprise me at the UK in Copenhagen when everybody stood up and started singing it like it was a national anthem. I almost felt guilty by refusing to stand for it. I don't think i will be going to another one any time soon.

chrisim101010:It did surprise me at the UK in Copenhagen when everybody stood up and started singing it like it was a national anthem. I almost felt guilty by refusing to stand for it. I don't think i will be going to another one any time soon.

It pretty much is a national anthem for Esperanto. Singing "La Espero" used to be common at all relatively formal Esperanto gatherings. Less so, now, but it's still there. Some people really love that aspect of it, the flags, the hymn, the green stars. These are probably the same people who want to make a march into the center of town and unfurl a huge ESPERANTO banner and hand out fliers about how people should learn Esperanto.

Some people are creeped out by the hymn and all of that stuff and really avoid engaging in that aspect of Esperanto. I don't have a problem with the hymn itself, I don't have a problem with very limited use of the flag, but I'm not really into singing the hymn all the time, putting the flag everywhere, and marching into town handing out fliers.

I don't remember whether I stood for La Espero in Copenhagen (I think not) but I certainly didn't sing it. Also, the opening ceremony is pretty boring, if I went to another UK, I'd likely choose to skip it entirely. I skipped most of the Copenhagen opening ceremony anyway.

The main point of going to a UK is (a) to see a lot of Esperanto speakers in one place, and run into them randomly all over the city (not something likely to happen outside of an UK); (b) to attend meetings if you're active in various international Esperanto organizations, who often hold their annual meeting during UK.

Anything else - it's probably not worth attending. Even as for tourism in the city, if you go mainly for the tourism then you could go anytime (not necessarily during UK), and if you go primarily for UK, then you won't get that much tourism time in, if you want to catch any UK events. Other, smaller Esperanto events give more bang for your buck in terms of doing something fun.

An Esperanto speaker I know once told me, years ago, that you should go to UK at least once in your life, just to see that many Esperanto speakers in one place. But he said, don't bother going to more than one, because UK at its core is pretty boring, and other events (like IJK) are more fun.

At the time I didn't really know why UK would be boring; it sounded exciting, a huge meeting of Esperantists! As the years went by, the newness of Esperanto wore off, and I was no longer thrilled to hear a talk in Esperanto on ANY topic, and I was no longer excited to see *anything* written in Esperanto. I got some idea of what he was talking about. And when I attended the UK in Copenhagen (my first one), I *really* understood what he was talking about.