The scene is the lifesblood of zines
Yesterday was another London Zine Symposium. There's been a lot of reflection lately about the boom in zine events. In this case, the 100 stalls were booked up very quickly and the new venue was much too small (and stuffy) for the amount of people. The amount of mainstream media promotion of zine fests in London also seems to be growing. I hope next time they find a much bigger venue, though I imagine it's got to the point where the budget & numbers of participants are difficult to resolve in a pricey city. The venue was just off Brick Lane, and the participants seamlessly overlapped into the typical Shoreditch Barleys and '80s retro girls. Actually, I was pretty comfortable there apart from the heat & stuffiness. The London Zine Symposium tends to be plagued by overpriced 3-page artshit publications being sold for £3 by trustafarian art students and some dull overpriced comics. This time, those were balanced out by a good range of zine distros from the UK & abroad and some v. nice screenprinted posters. I think the comics have improved a bit as well though comics aren't really  my thing. 

I picked up the new Adventures in Menstruation which included a brief account of their visit to Ladyfest Cork, which is where I last saw the AiM girls. Also got the new Rolling Thunder and some v. good brownies from the event's benefit table.