Celebrating STAR WARS

It's hard to believe that today marks the 19th anniversary of Star Wars Celebration!  Held in Denver during the build up to The Phantom Menace and infamous for outdoor vendor tents and terrible weather (along with the debut of the awesome Duel of the Fates music video).  Twenty thousand fans turned out from across the world to attend the first event "for the fans, by the fans" I wasn't there but TheForce.net was and they've posted a nice piece looking back at the first ever Star Wars Celebration ! Celebration has certainly come a long way from those humble beginnings and this Friday will (hopefully) see the announcement of what comes next!  If we're lucky, we may even get a tease on The Star Wars Show this week.

And my hotel is booked! Is it a little crazy to book a hotel this far in advance, especially with the Fall rumours going around?  Maybe.  But here's a few reasons why I think it's something at least worth considering. 1 - Anaheim is almost guaranteed.  Even before the recent rumours, almost everyone agreed Celebration 2019 would be in Anaheim.  So we have a very good idea of the venue. 2 - Ignoring the recent Fall rumours, April is the most likely month for Celebration.  The last two US Celebrations were mid April, debuting the teaser trailer for the upcoming Sequel Trilogy film.  Based on those Celebrations you could predict this one to be 11th-14th or 18th-21st April 2019. 3 - Booking before Celebration is announced could help avoid potential hotel mark ups.  Not guaranteed, but certainly worth keeping in mind.  It will certainly help with room availability. 4 - It's free.  This is the main one.  If you pick the wrong weekend or if you pre-book bo

After last night's rumour that ReedPOP might be out and Disney's own team taking over Celebration 2019 I figured it was time to do a quick look at Disney's own Celebration, the D23 Expo. Like attending a US Celebration, going to D23 is definitely on my bucket list.  I'm a Disney kid at heart, I grew up on their films, I love their parks, I even have another blog dedicated to their musical Aladdin !  It's definitely an event I want to go to one day. Someone who's been to both may correct me on this, but looking at last year's event I'd say D23 falls somewhere between the European and US Celebrations in terms of scale.  It's a 3 day event like Europe and the schedule doesn't seem quite as jam packed as Celebration can be, but I'd say the crowds are definitely more towards the US Celebration levels. Like Celebration the schedule ( which you can view here ) is a mix of major panels, such as the Animation and Live Action film panels, pa

Well I sure picked the right time to start this blog!  Here was me thinking it'd be a quiet build up to a May 4th announcement but instead the floodgates have opened and rumours seemed to be coming daily! This one I definitely did not see coming!  TheForce.net are reporting that ReedPOP, who have organised Celebrations with Lucasfilm since Celebration V, are out.  Their current contract expires next year and, according to TFN, the rumour is that following all the organisational complaints last year Disney/Lucasfilm are bringing Celebration in house and it will be run by the same team as Disney's D23 Expo. TFN is one of the major fan sites (arguably THE major fan site) and this is a much more serious rumour than the date or location so I have to think that if they're running with this then they're as certain as they can be that it's true. Just from reading the comments after Orlando I know this will make some people very happy, but I'd advise c

Ok, so we know the next Star Wars Celebration is in 2019.  But when is it exactly?  And where for that matter! Unlike the major comics cons, like SDCC and NYCC, Celebration doesn't have a set date or location, having been held across America, in Europe and even in Japan during its history.  This makes predicting dates a bit like trying to fire proton torpedoes down a Death Star's exhaust port - you can do it but you can't always trust your targeting computer! Let's start with the easy part - location.  All the rumours going round say it's going to be Anaheim.  That makes sense.  The rumour during the last day of Anaheim was that Celebration would become an annual event alternating between the US and the rest of the world, with US Celebrations alternating between Anaheim and Orlando.  Sure that pattern falls down a bit with Celebration skipping a year, but it holds up well enough.  Plus the Anaheim Convention Centre just completed a massive expansion pr

It's hard to be believe that this time last year it was the final day of Star Wars Celebration Orlando 2017. If you were lucky enough to be there or if, like me, you attended via the Star Wars Show's live stream, it was an incredible weekend that celebrated 40 years of this incredible saga, looking back at what had come before, paying tribute to those we've lost, and looking towards the future. Celebration Orlando gave us our first look at Battlefront II , the announcement that season 4 of Rebels would be the last and, of course, that iconic teaser for The Last Jedi with Luke proclaiming that it's time for the Jedi to end. Now, Battlefront II is out, the journey of our Rebels heroes is over (at least for now), and we know that Luke will not be The Last Jedi . If you're like me, then you're like Luke, "still looking to the horizon".  Looking forward to what comes next.  Next, obviously, is Solo .  I must admit, this was the one I was