Celebration 2013: Essen, Germany
December 2017
Dave
In May 2013 Alex and myself travelled to Essen in Germany for Celebration. It was my 40th birthday and my wife gave me leave to spend a few pennies immersing myself in all things Star Wars.
This was a big year, it was the first Celebration since Disney had acquired LucasFilm in 2012. Kathleen Kennedy was now CEO of the organisation and George Lucas was increasingly distant from the Galaxy Far, Far Away.
The Star Wars universe was being rocked to its foundations: a new trilogy had been announced, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher had already been lined up, the Clone Wars had been cancelled mid production, a new animated TV show was due to be announced and LucasArts (the power behind a number of high profile and very successful computer and console games) had been disbanded.
What could we expect from the ultimate Star Wars event?
Dave
In May 2013 Alex and myself travelled to Essen in Germany for Celebration. It was my 40th birthday and my wife gave me leave to spend a few pennies immersing myself in all things Star Wars.
This was a big year, it was the first Celebration since Disney had acquired LucasFilm in 2012. Kathleen Kennedy was now CEO of the organisation and George Lucas was increasingly distant from the Galaxy Far, Far Away.
The Star Wars universe was being rocked to its foundations: a new trilogy had been announced, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher had already been lined up, the Clone Wars had been cancelled mid production, a new animated TV show was due to be announced and LucasArts (the power behind a number of high profile and very successful computer and console games) had been disbanded.
What could we expect from the ultimate Star Wars event?
Ok, basics first, the event lasted 2 and a half days, beginning Friday afternoon and continuing through to Sunday evening. There was a packed out conference centre in Germany where five halls had been dedicated to all things Star Wars. There were two stages, one of which held over 2,000 people seated. On the main stage, the anchor/host was Warwick Davies and he would be interviewing a wide range of guests. Whilst we had both been to other commicons this was different, both in terms of scale and focus.
Planning is key. There were events happening on the main stage every 2 hours, with each event being about an hour long – typically these events were informal interviews by Warwick with main cast members and senior production executives, where the cast would reminisce and the execs would unveil new and wonderful surprises. There were also (at the same time) smaller events happening on the second stage, these tended to be interviews (with a couple of hosts) of ‘creature’ cast members – those individuals buried under prosthetics and also with production team members who made the magic happen, be that CGI experts, artists, model makers or make-up experts. And then there were random events happening – such as the carnival of R2s, where about 50 R2 units trundled through the main hall. There was a showing of Episode II: Attack of the Clones in 3D (never seen elsewhere), and an open air showing of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (this was the 30th anniversary of the movie). There were also five halls of stalls, exhibits and an art gallery to get around. On the Saturday night there was a Cantina Bar Crawl – I kid you not, where 5 bars around the venue were hosting Star Wars themed events all evening into the very early hours! Celebration was a kaleidoscope of colour and action. The cost was €100 for the weekend. A bargain, even accounting for two Brits who needed to also sort out a hotel and flights from the UK – and, of course, spending money for the obligatory purchases! We managed to see all of the events we wanted to, bar one (which I will come onto…). We saw Mark Hamill and Carrie on stage, re-enacting moments from the original trilogy. We saw the warmth and love that Warwick had with these icons. He was a child himself when he was an ewok in Return of the Jedi and he had fond memories of the way Carrie and Mark had treated him on set, including Mark getting him a ton of Star Wars toys. We saw Ian MacDiarmid and Anthony Daniels on stage giving interviews. We saw Kathleen Kennedy announce that the new trilogy would feature real sets and not green screen to bring back the Original Trilogy wonder and sense of realism – she also announced that John Williams would be writing the music for all of the new trilogy movies. We saw Dave Filoni talk about Clone Wars and unveil concept sketches for the then untitled new animated TV show (that was to become Rebels). We saw all five Fetts being interviewed and having to compete to see who was the best Boba! We even saw Ray Parks being Ray Parks on stage! We got to watch Return of the Jedi in the park on a huge open air screening whilst eating bratwurst and drinking beer! We got merry on the Cantina Bar Crawl and danced until the very early hours with a guy dressed as a stormtrooper and another dressed as Darth Maul. As to what we didn’t manage? Well, the Cantina Bar Crawl was so successful that we overslept the morning after and missed the 3D showing of Attack of the Clones. My one regret of the weekend. At the end of Sunday, after the event was over we decided to walk the couple of miles into Essen from the venue. It was one pretty straight road, it was a warm sunny evening and we were buzzing from two and a half days of complete Star Wars. The strasse we were walking down had a number of bars and restaurants, many with open air seating along its length. As we passed one we were beckoned to by none other than Anthony Daniels. He was seated at a table with another man, a woman and a youth. He introduced his table companions as his good friend Iain McCaig, Iain’s wife and son. Iain is the designer of Darth Maul (amongst many other awesome characters) and Anthony had noticed the t-shirt Alex was wearing that evening. A Darth Maul one. Anthony disclosed that Maul was his favourite character and expressed his admiration for Alex’s taste in shirts. Iain too commented on his approval of the shirt. To which Alex informed the table that I had drawn the Maul image on the shirt. To receive the congratulations and the hand-shakes of the artist who designed Maul and that of legendary C3P0 was more than I expected. This made a memorable event even more so, such that, at the time of writing (over 4 and a half years later) I can still describe the event fully – this is the shortened, edited down version! |