July 15, 2007
Story and Photos Laura Goodrum (Taurs)

MISSION SUCCESSFUL
Today was the third and final day of Celebration Europe, and our landing party was there bright and early again at 6.30 ready to go. Even at this time in morning you could tell that it wouldn't be quite as busy today as it was on Saturday, the lines to go in weren’t anywhere near as long.

The fan club was let in an hour-and-a-half early again today and when we got in we had a wander around the dealers stalls again to see whether there were any last day bargains. It was really empty and quiet, then as we were walking down one of the aisles I spotted Jeremy Bulloch and asked him if I could have a picture with him. He was really cool and stopped for the photo, asked us if we were having a good time and said thanks for coming. As we carried on down the next aisle of stalls I saw David Prowse standing talking to some people. When he had finished we asked him for a photo and he was a bit short with us and said only if we were quick, so we got the photo and thanked him for his time. I was really surprised to bump into these two guys on the Exhibition floor and it just shows that it really pays off to be a hyperspace member and get in there early before the crowds descend.

We then checked out the Kotobukiya booth but there wasn’t anything new on display there, only the same stuff they took to ClV I think, the concept Vader vs. Luke, Utapau Clone, Obi Wan vs. Grievous and Glow in the Dark Yoda as well as all their older stuff. There was a card with a picture of the new Royal Guard statue but the actual product wasn’t there.

At 9.30 we went over to the autograph hall to get in line for Billy Dee Williams, as today was the only day he was signing so the queues were set to be pretty long. He didn’t start signing until 10 and we didn’t get to see him until around 11.15. There were some 501st guys around and they kept us pretty entertained while we waited by harassing the lady in front of us who had a phobia of not being able to see people’s faces. Me and Jamie both got Billy Dee's autograph and had our photo taken with him, he seemed pretty cool, as the guy in the line with us put it "if he was any more laid back he could be comatose". We decided to finish up with any other autographs we wanted before we moved on to anything else. Jamie is a massive General Grievous fan so we went over to Matthew Wood; he got his autograph and a photo and had a little chat with him, as there was no line. We then went and got in line for Anthony Daniels for me. The queue took a bit longer because he went off for a short break but we didn’t wait longer than about twenty minutes. The choice of photos wasn’t that great really and the ones of C-3PO were all a bit rubbish so I chose one of Daniels just holding the Threepio head. I was really happy with the autograph and photo I got and he was very friendly. This was the last autograph I wanted from the event as I had already drooped about $300 on the four I got!

Next up on the agenda was Charlie Ross, one-man star wars trilogy on the main stage. I had already seen the show earlier in the year when he was touring the UK but I loved it and Jamie had never seen it so I didn’t mind seeing it again. We got pretty good seats just a few rows from the front. If you know the films very well this is an amazingly funny show, Charlie really comes up with some inventive ways of performing scenes such as the X-Wing attack on the Death star with no other actors or props or music (he does his own). The show went down really well with the audience especially the hard-core fans. Ross said it was great to have the chance to perform at CE and he stuck around for a while afterwards to sign the T-Shirts he was selling. If you ever get the chance to see this show then go because it really is laugh out loud stuff.

The last presentation we went to was The Force Among Us on the Fan Stage. The makers of the movie Cristian and Cortney Macht gave a short talk about their movie about star wars fans. They actually said that they had been having a great time at CE and they thought it was almost better than the celebrations in the US for them because we are friendlier over here!! They then showed some footage from the documentary and we saw clips of Spice and Dustrho in there. We went over at the end and got a signed poster, I had a quick chat with them about ST and the coverage we were doing for the event and got a photo.

And so it all ended, they began to move the crowds out as the con closed at 5pm, it would have been nice to have some kind of show at the end like with Sansweet or something just to finish it off though. It all seemed to go very well and the turn out was great, hopefully Europe will see another Celebration in the future but we may not be lucky enough for it to be in England again. Jamie and me had a real blast, we met some great people while waiting in the lines, made some new friends and got to meet some awesome celebrities. Not to mention all the cool exclusives we picked up and the great talks and shows we attended. I couldn’t have had a better time and I’m sad that its all over, bring on the next one!

PHOTO GALLERY
To see the photo gallery containing 23 photos click here.