Star Wars Celebration

As you can see from Wendy's catchy nursery rhyme, we have just got back from the Star Wars Celebration for Europe, which commemorates 30 years since Star Wars was originally released in cinemas! This was also the year my older brother Damian was born, who now deceased, would have definitely been at such an event if he was still with us! Indeed, you could not find a more knowledgeable and dedicated Star Wars fan, who naturally instilled some of the same geekish passion into his little brother (me)!

What an exciting event it was! The atmosphere was wonderful, with fans from all over Europe converging on the Excel convention centre in London's Docklands, to mingle, share, celebrate and entertain! There were lots of little kids there, which is wonderful, as we see the best ever Science-Fiction/Fantasy film been transmitted to the younger generation, for whom it was originally intended. An excellent feature for them (as well as the endless stores of Star Wars merchandise!) was a Dagobah Padawan Training stage, where some Jedi actors taught the essential lightsaber and force skills under the ominous threat of the evil Emperor and his apprentice Darth Vader!!

It was not only these fanatics who were dressed to impress; there were all sorts of excellent costumed people. Some of them were probably just paying guests, others were from popular fan organisations commissioned to be there, but all of them were enjoying every second of it (although it must be hot dressed as Chewbacca, left!) There is nothing to make a grown man become a boy like a jedi outfit!

There was a surprise around every corner; suddenly the crowd was whisked to one side by a legion of Stormtroopers to make way for the Dark Lord himself... only to disappear off into the crowd as if nothing had happened! There was a full size X-wing starfighter parked out the front of the exhibition hall to greet us; a replica set of the Tantive IV (featured in the first original scene, which was re-enacted with help from guests!) and the Millenium Falcon; some items from the Lucasfilm Archives (albeit disappointingly few); an art exhibition called the Vader Project (which was a lot of fun: the iconic Darth Vader helmet redesigned by a host of contemporary underground artists); celebrity signings and interviews...

And since we were only there for the first of three days, we caught the official opening ceremony, with Warwick Davies (small guy who played R2-D2 and Wicket the Ewok) as Master of Ceremonies introducing Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine) who both gave very amusing speeches. Mr McDiarmid was pleased to theatrically wish us "Happy Friday the Thirteenth!" as well as joke about the sound of planes overhead actually being the Death Star on its way to pick him up for dinner!

This was all wrapped up with an outdoor cinema performance of Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) to raise money and awareness for Medicinema (a charity which I have now decided to support in memory of Damian, whose 10th year funeral anniversary I will commemorate this year). Maddy particularly enjoyed this screening, with squeels of excitement and delight!