Convention Report- Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016

I recently attended Star Wars Celebration Europe at the ExCel Centre in London, England. This was my second time at a Star Wars Celebration event having attended the one in Germany three years ago. While the event in Germany was great, this event was even more memorable for a number of reasons. The biggest highlight was getting to meet a lot of Star Wars friends I’d made online over the years. I’d met some in person before (at the event in Germany in the case of same of them) but I got to meet a lot more like-minded people that just soaked up Star Wars for three days.

Among them, I spent a lot of time with fellow staff members Dan and Daniel, in addition to running into George in the autograph hall on the Saturday (and seeing him again on Sunday). I also spent a lot of time with our friends at The Star Wars Underworld team (more on them in the next paragraph), in addition to meeting other podcasters and Star Wars fans. I also managed to miss a proposal between two good friends, Ed proposing to Lizzi, by just five minutes. Is it really that hard to wait five minutes? Jokes aside, spending a lot of time with like-minded people was the most special part of the event for me and it was great getting to see so many people I know online in person.

The next few paragraphs will be mainly focused on the Friday of the event. Friday was the day Star Wars fans had been anticipating for such a long time as it marked the first day of Celebration Europe. However, the event really began for me a lot earlier. Myself, Dan and Daniel had decided to join the overnight queue to get wristbands for the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story panel. The panel was naturally very popular when it came about. However, not as many people were queueing overnight as we were expecting so we all knew we would definitely get wristbands (nice to be sure though!). Daniel spent most of his time elsewhere in the queue, but myself and Dan had asked our friends at The Star Wars Underworld (Chris and Dominic) in advance if we could join their group in the queue. They kindly allowed us to and we spent all night talking and waiting for 6am when the wristbands would be given out. We also joined in on The Star Wars Underworld’s live show and I may have created something called the “unapologetic apology”. Don’t ask… come 6am and we were quickly able to get our wristbands for the Rogue One panel. While most of the group quickly dispersed to either get some sleep or food, I went back around the hall so I could pick up my ticket for the Hasbro exclusive Kylo Ren figure.

Friday was one of the most eventful days of the event. I arrived at the venue around 10am knowing that the first panel I wanted to see, “Ahsoka’s Untold Tales”, would be starting at 11am. However, I discovered that there was a massive queue for people to have their bags checked. Having found Dan wandering around too, we both joined the queue. It was great that security was so tight (no one’s safety can be taken too lightly after all) but by the time we got to the panel it had already started. Fortunately there were a couple of free seats near the back and so we were able to enjoy the panel after being worried that all the seats would have been taken by the time we got in. We learnt a lot about the untold stories of Ahsoka on The Clone Wars and what’s to come in the upcoming Ahsoka novel. The panel also revealed that an Ahsoka Tano Funko Pop! figure (based on her appearance in Star Wars: Rebels) will be released this year.

Upon leaving the panel we immediately set about finding the Forbidden Planet booth where the Kylo Ren exclusive figures were being sold. My ticket said I had to purchase it by 1pm and I managed to do so with 20 minutes to spare. As I didn’t plan to meet any of the autographing guests on the Friday I was able to relax until the Rogue One panel which myself and Dan also attended with The Star Wars Underworld crew.

There have been a lot of differing opinions on the Rogue One presence at Celebration Europe. Yes, the panel wasn’t perfect. Everyone (even major companies like Lucasfilm) can suffer technical difficulties and it was unfortunate that a major spoiler was dropped during the panel. However, neither took away from the experience and I thought the Rogue One panel was amazing. Gwendoline Christie was an excellent host and seeing all of the cast on stage was brilliant. The moment when Ben Mendelsohn entered the room in the costume of his character (Director Krennic) is something I will remember for a very long time. The behind the scenes reel was really good (maybe I’m a little biased as we all know that I love behind the scenes material) and the exclusive short trailer was great too. Getting to take pictures of the actual costumes from Rogue One was another highlight for me.

Saturday was another very eventful day. Saturday’s tend to be the busiest at conventions and Star Wars Celebration Europe was no exception. I still managed to get a lot done on the Saturday which I was happy about. I had planned before the day that I would mostly spend the morning taking pictures and video footage which included the Hasbro action figures on display (including the Black Series Jyn Erso 6-inch figure that was revealed at the Rogue One panel the day before) and various cosplayers at the event. I knew my afternoon would be very busy (between Rebels and meeting guests) so I made sure to take as many pictures and as much footage as possible in the morning.

In the afternoon I met Matthew Wood (voice of General Grievous) who, along with Sam Witwer (voice of Darth Maul in The Clone Wars and Rebels), had been added as autograph guests only while the event was going on. Before the event they were said to only be doing panels. Wood is someone I had wanted to meet for a long time and it was a pleasure to finally meet him. We had a funny moment where parts of the Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures panel were playing while we were talking and he overheard him doing the Battle Droid voice. Really funny timing on that one.

After I met Matthew Wood (for what it’s worth I missed the proposal because of checking when the other guests I wanted to meet in the autograph hall would be back) I left to join The Star Wars Underworld crew and queue up for the Star Wars: Rebels panel. The Rebels panel was another big highlight from Celebration for me. The two episodes that were screened to attendees were excellent, the trailer was fantastic and Executive Producer Dave Filoni, Witwer, Tiya Sircar (voice of Sabine Wren) and stage host Warwick Davis were excellent to listen to. It felt amazing watching the episodes and the trailer in a room full of other fans that were reacting to what they were seeing. Even though I’m not the biggest follower of the “Legends” material I got swept up in the excitement of Thrawn’s return. That’s a testament to the passion that everyone in the event has for the franchise.

After the Rebels panel I met Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Daniel Logan (Young Boba Fett) and Al Lampert (Daine Jir) before calling it a day. All three were very nice to meet and a good way to end the Saturday.

Sunday was the final day of the event and very busy for its own reasons. I had decided not to attend any panels that day so I could focus on shooting video. I had picked up a VQ ticket for Carrie Fisher early in the morning so I could focus on shooting the video and meeting other guests until the afternoon. In that time I also met David M. Santana (one of the core Stormtrooper actors in The Force Awakens) at the Topps booth. I interviewed David earlier in the year so it was a pleasure to meet him in person. I later met Sam Witwer and it was great to talk to him. I’d interviewed him on another podcast I used to do and we talked about that for a little bit. In the afternoon when I went to check on Carrie’s number (I had #219 or thereabouts and she was still below 200) it looked unlikely that I would get to meet her. However, thanks to a nice staff member (who was letting people with numbers just over 200 in anyway even though she was only at numbers 1-200 at around 30 minutes from the event closing) I was able to meet Carrie which was fantastic. However, funny story here. By the time I got out of there the event was closed and I had left two posters at The Star Wars Underworld’s booth so I didn’t have to carry them around all day. Security were already encouraging people to leave and the lights were switching off, but they kindly allowed me to race into the hall where the Underworld booth was, get my posters back and come out again. Quite a way to end another magical experience at Star Wars Celebration.

In summary, I had another great experience at a Star Wars Celebration event. Spending time with so many friends was easily the highlight over the three days. However, the Ahsoka, Rogue One and Rebels panels were all incredible highlights as well. Meeting great guests like Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Matthew Wood, Sam Witwer and others was the cherry on the icing on the top of the cake (too descriptive?). I was also able to pick up one of my most wanted Star Wars: The Clone Wars action figures in Sergeant Bric, the Kylo Ren exclusive figure and other great purchases. I’m already looking forward to attending another Star Wars Celebration.

By Ruari Williamson

*The opinions in this article are those of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.

You can watch our footage from Star Wars Celebration Europe below: