Are ReedPOP out?!

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 cautious optimism rather than jumping for joy.  If you do even a little research into D23 Expo from 2015 and 2017 you can see that the number one complaint about the event is, yep you guessed it, the queues.  In fact it could easily be argued that the queues at D23 are just as bad, maybe even worse, that at Celebration (check out this article in the OC Register).  So maybe things will improve, I sincerely hope so, but it could also be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire.

To be fair to ReedPOP and Disney/D23 - these events attract tens of thousands of people, there's no way everyone can be in the room for the main panels and there's simply no solution that would please everyone.  There are always improvements to be made but people have to be realistic.

After Anaheim 2015 everyone said they wanted Celebration to go back to Orlando as Celebration VI was much better organised.  Roll on Celebration Orlando 2017 and people were saying Anaheim 2015 was a much better experience with better organisation and they hoped Celebration would return there in 2019.  Now I'll be the first to admit I wasn't at either event and reading what people posted mistakes were made at both, but I honestly believe one of the biggest factors is simply that Celebration is growing an at incredible rate.  There are growing pains and definitely lessons to be learned, but the bottom line is more fans than ever what to be there, and that's fantastic for both the franchise and the fan community.

If this is true it could also add a little more weight to the Fall rumours as Disney running the event would eliminate the concern of ReedPOP having to do NYCC and Celebration back to back.  It also makes a park tie in event more likely as ReedPOP would gain nothing from moving Celebration to accommodate Galaxy's Edge whilst Disney obviously would.  It also supports the Anaheim rumours as that's where the D23 team is.  One benefit of that could be that if they use the same crew they will all have recent experience and knowledge from running D23 Expo so they could hit the ground running for Celebration!

TFN also said they are hearing that an announcement is due on May 4th so we should hopefully hear something official in just over 2 weeks!