LoneStarCon 3, the 2013 World Science Fiction Convention, in partnership with Ustream, will broadcast the 2013 Hugo Awards Ceremony live and advertising-free on Sunday, September 1, 2013.

The ceremony will be held in the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Rivercenter hotel in downtown San Antonio, starting at 8 PM Central Daylight Time (9 PM EDT, 6 PM PDT). LoneStarCon 3 Toastmaster Paul Cornell, himself a past Hugo Award winner and multiple Hugo Award nominee, will host the ceremony.

In addition to the live video broadcast via Ustream at, the official Hugo Awards site will provide live text-only (lower bandwidth required) coverage via CoverItLive. As in previous years, the CoverItLive event will be hosted by former Worldcon Co-Chairman Kevin Standlee and two-time Campbell Award Nominee Mur Lafferty.

LoneStarCon 3 has partnered with Ustream, the leading video technology platform for live business communications, to provide this exclusive, ad-free broadcast, enabling science fiction fans around the world to participate in this prestigious event without interruption. This means that issue with automated ‘bots that affected last year’s broadcast has been dealt with, and the ceremony is a “whitelisted” event on Ustream.

For more information and the full announcement, see the LoneStarCon 3 web site.

The nominees for the 2013 Hugo Awards were announced at four conventions, online via UStream, through CoverItLive coverage on the Hugo Awards web site, and via the Twitter feed and other social media of LoneStarCon 3, the 2013 Worldcon, on March 30, 2013.

1,343 valid nominating ballots (1,329 electronic and 14 paper) were received and counted from the members of Chicon 7, LoneStarCon 3 and Loncon 3.

See the 2013 Hugo Awards page for the full list of nominations.

The 2013 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award winners will be announced Sunday, September 1, 2013, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony at LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio, Texas.

Below is the window to our live coverage of the 2013 Hugo Awards Nominations Announcement:

The finalists for the 2013 Hugo Awards will be announced on Saturday, March 30. The announcements will be made simultaneously at four science fiction conventions an also on a special CoverItLive internet feed hosted by TheHugoAwards.org

The nominations will be announced at these conventions and sites:

• Online coverage at TheHugoAwards.org (Coverage begins shortly before 1 PM PDT)
• Norwescon 36, one of the Pacific Northwest’s premier science fiction and fantasy conventions, in Seatac, WA (1 PM PDT)
• Minicon 48, Minnesota’s longest-running science fiction convention, in Bloomington, MN (3 PM CDT)
• Marcon 48, the Midwest’s largest annual convention, in Columbus, OH (4 PM EDT)
• EightSquaredCon, the British National Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon), in Bradford, England (8 PM GMT)

Nominations will also be released category by category via the LoneStarCon 3 Facebook page and the LoneStarCon 3 Twitter feed.

Participation in the Hugo Awards nominating process is at an all-time high, with 1,343 valid nominating ballots cast this year, substantially exceeding the previous record of 1,101 set in 2012 by Chicon 7.

Once the nominees are announced, the final ballot voting will commence. Attending, Young Adult, Military, and Supporting members of LoneStarCon 3 will be able to cast final ballots until Wednesday, July 31, 2013, 11:59 PM EDT. The winners will be announced on Sunday, September 1, 2013, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony at LoneStarCon 3.

More information is available in the full LoneStarCon 3 announcement.

CoverItLive coverage of the 2013 Hugo Awards Announcement is made possible through a grant from Chicon 7 to cover event hosting costs.

The 2012 Hugo Awards Ceremony, originally staged at Chicon 7, the 2012 Worldcon, on September 2, will be re-broadcast in its entirety and ad-free via UStream on Sunday, September 9, starting at 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT) at www.ustream.tv/channel/hugo-awards.

The original broadcast on UStream was interrupted when UStream’s automated copyright-infringement software detected content deemed to be in violation of copyright. The content (clips of Hugo-Award-nominated dramatic presentations) had been cleared for use as part of the ceremony, but UStream was unable to restart the coverage of the ceremony.

UStream founder and CEO Brad Hunstable spoke directly to Chicon 7 Chairman Dave McCarty the day after the 2012 Worldcon ended and apologized for the disruption. UStream will rebroadcast the 2012 Hugo Awards Ceremony without ads or interruption and will work with the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee (which McCarty chairs) and future Worldcons to support future Hugo Award ceremony broadcasts.

Further details are in the press release on the Chicon 7 Worldcon web site.

Renovation, the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention, has announced a record Hugo Awards voter turnout.

A record total of 2100 valid final ballots were cast, a 46.1% turnout, from voters in 33 countries. (The previous record set in 1980 was 1788 ballots cast.) Renovation also broke a record earlier this year when it received 1006 valid nominating ballots.

The 2011 Hugo Award winners will be announced on Saturday evening, August 20, at the Peppermill Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada. Jay Lake and Ken Scholes will preside as masters of ceremony, with additional presenters to include Renovation Guests of Honor Tim Powers, Boris Vallejo, and Ellen Asher, along with leading genre writers George R. R. Martin and Robert Silverberg.

The unique 2011 Hugo trophy base design will also be revealed at the ceremony by designer and Hugo base contest winner Marina Gelineau.

For more information about Renovation or attending the 2011 Hugo Awards ceremony, please visit http://www.renovationsf.org/.