Source: Star Wars Celebration V | Posted By: Dan Geer
It has been over five years since I attended my first Star Wars Celebration, which was Celebration III in Indianapolis, Indiana. Prior to that, I had never really considered going to a Star Wars convention before – but it was the year of the last live-action Star Wars film ever to be made, so I figured it was probably going to be quite an event and that I should go. Needless to say, the con exceeded my expectations and I immediately made up my mind that I would be going at least one more time if there were to be any more Celebrations.
I ended up attending Celebration IV in 2007 in Los Angeles on the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, and now I am currently in Orlando, Florida sitting in my hotel room with a friend and my dad, anxiously awaiting the long-anticipated Star Wars Celebration V to celebrate the recent 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back.
It is my intention to update this every evening during the con, however I cannot guarantee that it will happen. Conventions tend to wear me out big time, with all the walking around, meeting celebrities, waiting in line, etc. While fun and exciting, it tends to be quite draining. But I’m figuring that if the daily update from the convention does not happen, I will still cover all the great things I got to do while in attendance after the con is over with.
As of right now, here’s my check-list of things to do:
– Meet Mark Hamill and get his autograph. I already have the autographs of Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Billy Dee Williams, so it is pretty much a given that I need to do everything I can to meet Luke Skywalker himself. If only Harrison Ford would attend one of these things… then the circle would be complete!
– Sit in on Q&A panels featuring Mark Hamill, Gary Kurtz, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Ben Burt, Dave Filoni and Ray Park.
– Attend some sort of live broadcast of my favorite podcast, the ForceCast.
– Get the exclusive convention action figure.
– Attend “The Main Event” – which is the 1.5 hour interview between The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart and the maker himself, George Lucas. Lucas rarely attends these cons, so at Celebration III, we literally waited in line starting at 1 AM in the cold and rain to see him, and we got into the first of three panel sessions that started at 10 AM. This time, there’s only one session. There will be other rooms broadcasting the live video feed from the panel, but we are going to try and get into the same room with Lucas right there – live. Most likely, we’ll be up all night again waiting for it.
– I am interested in attending the “Why We Love the Prequels” panel. Any movie fan knows that the Star Wars prequels are probably some of the most hated, most maligned films in cinema history. I tend to think most of those sentiments are unfounded and just plain dumb, as I quite enjoyed the prequels – even if none of them were quite on the same level as, say, The Empire Strikes Back. So the commentary during this panel should be loads of fun.
I haven’t really made up my mind on what else I want to do there, but those are some of the highlights. This is bound to be one huge and exciting event, with tons of celebrities from the films in attendance and over 30,000 fans all under one roof. Stay tuned to PCM for all the latest!
Next: Star Wars Celebration V Blog – Day 1
