Celebrating STAR WARS

Yesterday Star Wars Celebration announced that Thursday tickets are 85% gone! Going by 5-Day and Saturday tickets I'd be willing to bet that Thursday will be sold out by the end of this weekend, so if you're wanting to attend Celebration's Bounty Hunter Preview and haven't got tickets yet, this is your last chance! Remember Thursday will be a preview day with no panels. The focus will be on shopping, guest autographs and photo ops. This will be the best time to try and hit the Celebration Store or grab an exclusive as you don't have to worry about how long you're in the store queue or what time your photo op is clashing with a panel you want to see. It will also be a (slightly) less crowded day as there's a more limited number of tickets available. So this will be the perfect day to explore the show floor, meet the Droid Builders and Prop Makers, take some photos, and just experience what Celebration has to offer!

So you want to cosplay at Star Wars Celebration. That's awesome! One of the best things at Star Wars Celebration is seeing so many fans in absolutely amazing costumes! So where do you start? Firstly decide what you want to be. Do you want to be a Jedi Knight or a Sith Lord? A hero of the Rebellion or the Empire's greatest enforcer? Do you want to be a character from the movies, the expanded universe, or maybe a character of your own creation? Heck, why not mash it up a bit! At previous Celebration's I've seen a Jedi Joker, a Captain America Stormtrooper, and a Pikachu inspired Mandalorian. Be what you want to be! Set a budget! Cosplay be done on any budget, and you will never find a more welcoming environment than Star Wars Celebration. Seriously, no one cares if your costume is home made or bought from a Halloween store, if your Jedi robe is an old karate gi or if you look like you just walked off a movie set. They will just appreciate that you've d...

We are less than 300 days from the greatest Celebration in the galaxy! You've got your tickets, you've got your hotel room booked. Maybe you've even sorted out your travel arrangements. So what's next? Planning and Preparation! With that in mind I've added a new 'Preparation and Tips' tab to the top of this blog and over the next 42 weeks to Celebration I'll be adding weekly posts with all the Celebration advice I can think of! To start things off - TWO GOLDEN RULES 1 - Accept you can't do everything. This is the golden rule of any convention. If you try to do it all, you'll end up exhausted, frustrated and probably won't have a great time. Even Jedi Masters will have to wait in some queues and you will always find two panels you'd love to see that clash. When the schedule is released, make a plan. Be realistic about it (the bigger panels and more popular guests will have longer lines). Pick one or two top priorities ...

The demand for next year's Star Wars Celebration is through the roof! Adult and Kid 5-Day tickets have officially sold out in less than 48 hours! This is a record sell out for the event. Last year's Celebration Orlando took seven months to sell out of 4-Day badges and I believe Europe 2016 held the previous sell out record of 3 months. My first thought was that ReedPOP had limited the number of 5-Day badges along with the number of single day Thursday badges to help ensure that the Bounty Hunter Preview day was more limited. But according to replies by the official Celebration Twitter and Facebook pages, the number of badges on sale is the same as last Celebration so it really is just demand that is driving this record breaking sell out. If you want to attend everyday of Star Wars Celebration (and believe me, you do!) then there are currently still single day tickets available for everyday of the convention. But hurry because it looks like they won't last long! Adu...

It's a Celebration frenzy! The official @SW_Celebration Twitter account has just announced that Adult 5-Day tickets are 90% sold already! Don't miss your chance! 5-Day tickets are now 90% sold out and will be gone before you know it! Get yours now https://t.co/tlqnD4asBu #SWCC #StarWars #StarWarsCelebration pic.twitter.com/IOAyEEcPrM — StarWars Celebration (@SW_Celebration) 6 June 2018 Last time the full weekend passes didn't sell out until around December! Make sure you grab yours now to avoid disappointment! Either demand for Celebration tickets has gone through the roof or the full event badges are more limited this year to help ensure that Bounty Hunter Thursday has a limited number of attendees (at least in comparison with Friday-Monday). If that's the case it could really help those aiming to beat the crowds and get some autographs or visit the show store!

In the wake of yesterday's sale and the crazily fast sell out of not just the Jedi Master tickets but the OnPeak hotels as well, it feels important to take a slight step back and take stock a little. Firstly, congratulations to everyone who managed to get a Jedi Master badge and / or the hotel they wanted. The Force was truly with you yesterday. For everyone else ( like me! ) try not to let it get you down. There's no denying that having a VIP badge or a connecting hotel would be amazing and make things easier, but they certainly aren't needed to get the most out of Star Wars Celebration! Think of it this way - if you missed out on VIP you've just saved $635 (plus whatever the tax difference was). Depending on how much you're planning on spending, that could be a big chunk of your Celebration money right there. Sure, you'll have to queue for the Celebration Store but with Bounty Hunter Preview on Thursday you can do that without worrying about mis...

Well I think it's safe to say that yesterday didn't go quite as I'd hoped! Not getting VIP I was pretty much expecting. But I was still looking like this for a few minutes afterwards; But I have to admit I wasn't expecting the hotel sale to be quite so crazy! I thought I'd lucked out when OnPeak let me in the queue nearly half an hour early only to be taken to the email sign up page. So I went round the queue a few times and thought I was in luck again when I got to the end of the queue just as it turned 1:00pm! Then I got the email sign up page again and went back to the end of the queue. At this point I think I looked more like this; When I finally got through the queue all the connected or walking distance hotels were either completely booked or not available for the full week. I came close to grabbing one hotel but it booked whilst I was entering my card details. To be honest that would be my only real complaint out of yesterday, t...

Good luck, we're gonna need it! Today is the day! At noon CDT tickets for Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019 go on sale, followed by OnPeak's hotel sale at 1:00pm CDT. Here are the current ticket and hotel pages; http://www.starwarscelebration.com/Buy/Ticket-Details/ https://compass.onpeak.com/e/012605262/0 Be sure to refresh those at the appropriate times. Alternatively, direct links should be posted on Twitter and Facebook  the moment sales go live. There were reports of this being faster in 2016. No guarantee it will be this time (I believe last time it stemmed from the main site re-directing people to the Celebration Europe tickets, that won't be an issue this time) but worth a try. Just over 2 hours to go now! May the Force be with us all.

Just a quick post to note that the Hotel Sale for Celebration 2019 has been update! The OnPeak sale will now open up at 1:00pm CDT on Tuesday June 5th instead of the originally announced 12:00pm. This is great news for anyone who wanted to try for Jedi Master and get a hotel as now you don't have to worry about rooms going whilst you're attempting to get your badges. Of course it also means there will be more competition for those who aren't after VIP tickets and were hoping to get the jump on the hotel sale. Hopefully there will be enough rooms for everyone and a shuttle service provided for hotels that aren't in walking distance (with so few hotels in walking distance I can't see how this won't happen), but if you want a close hotel, especially a connecting hotel, be sure to be ready when the OnPeak sale opens. The best news is the official site has also confirmed that there will be no rooms price higher than $200 (single bedded) and $229 (dou...