Looking Back at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023

 

Hard to believe it's been a month since we were all celebrating together in London, and what a Celebration it was!

This post is going to look back at the Celebration that was, the highs and the lows of Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023, offer some thoughts on what could be improved for future Celebrations (especially here in the UK), but mostly just reminisce about the amazing time we had last month.

So let's start with day zero, the night before Celebration when we arrived in London, checked into our hotel, and got our first look at the convention centre.

Day 0

We arrived in London mid-afternoon after driving down from home (the blessing of being local), parking a few minutes walk from the Aloft. An initial "we can walk this" quickly turned into "thank God the DLR is here" as we realised how many bags we had and we were soon checked in to our hotel, the absolutely stunning Sunborn yacht, and heading over to ExCeL.

Banners adorned the walkway from the station to the convention centre, just as they had in 2016, but the new digital banner around the entrance itself was really cool to see, especially later at night.

Overall the set up was pretty similar to 2016 and we had an easy time finding Fan Services and getting Jane's accessibility sticker and my companion sticker. Just a few minutes to provide some details, along with the doctor's letter, and all sorted. I do have to say a massive thank you  to Austin and his team. This is the third Celebration we're been to requiring accessibility and they make everything extremely easy and are always there to answer questions before and during the show.

My only disappointment from that first evening was not being able to get a quick sneak peak at the show floor as we'd been able to do in Chicago and Anaheim. The way ExCeL was laid out there was no chance to quickly glimpse everything being set up through the open hall doors as it was all down the far end of the building, away from my prying eyes. SWCE's show floor would keep its secrets for one more night.

On the way out we ran into Heda, a friend from theforce.net forums and past Celebrations. One of the best things about Celebration for me is running into old friends and making new ones. It's fantastic to meet friends you've only spoken to online, and to just be able to start conversations whilst in line with total strangers knowing that you all share a love for Star Wars. It's a big reason why I loved the overnight line up in 2016. I made friends that night I still speak with today and I would never have met them without Celebration.

Day 1

So here we are, months of planning and anticipation had all led to this. Even though we had been fortunate enough to win Galaxy Stage streaming for the Lucasfilm Showcase I still wanted to get there early as we wanted to get good seats and I just love the atmosphere and the excitement each morning.

Firstly, whilst an Aladdin/Jedi mashup cosplay is great in California, sandals, bare arms, and open chest is cold in the UK at seven in the morning! But was wonderfully comfy once we got inside. Secondly, that whole "no queues before 8am and people will be dispersed" went straight out the window! We may not have been let through security/into the building before eight but pre-security lines started early. It's understandable though, an orderly pre-security line is far better than attempting to constantly disperse people and a having a crush at 8am, they just could have been more open about it. We arrived a little before seven and there were already a few in the accessibility line and reports were of a few hundred in the main line.

Everyone was excited, we even got to say a quick hello to Brian Herring as he arrived! Most where there early hoping to get standby seats for the panel, everyone was wondering what we were about to see. Ahsoka? Obviously. The Acolyte? Hopefully! A new movie? Maybe, but people were, understandably, more cautious about that after Rogue Squadron. But I don't think anyone could have predicted quite how incredible that Lucasfilm panel was going to be.

After a few hours in the main queue hall the barriers were lifted and we headed for the Galaxy Stage. We didn't know it yet but this stage would become our home for most of Celebration! After a surprise meeting with Anne (another friend from theforce.net and past Celebrations) we headed inside where we were lucky enough to get front row seats for the panel that would unveil the bright future of that galaxy far, far away.

But before that I have to give a shout out to LevelUp Leroy and Aussie Dave! Our Show Before the Show stage hosts who made the Galaxy Stage such an amazing and fun place to be all weekend. Jane even got to go on stage and take part in (and win!) the pre-panel games. It was just an incredible start to our Celebration weekend and there was so much more to come!

And then there was the panel. I'm not going to waste time going over the news since it was a month ago but oh man it was insane to be in that room! The cheering, the applause, the atmosphere was just electric. Ahsoka looks amazing. The Acolyte, which has always been the project that intrigued me the most, may just be the thing I'm now most excited about outside of Filoni's work. Seriously, it just looks stunning and the what they showed off has more more eager than ever to dive into that world. A new teaser for Indy was expected but six minutes of footage most definitely wasn't! And speaking of unexpected. Not one. Not two. But three new Star Wars movies taking us from the Dawn of the Jedi to the rise of the New Jedi Order.

As I mentioned above there's been some healthy caution when it comes to new movies, but announcing the return of Daisy Ridley's Rey for Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's New Jedi Order movie and Mangold coming off Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny gives me a greater degree of confidence we'll see these movies happen. And then there's Dave Filoni's movie. Dave Filoni is directing a Star Wars movie and that might just be the single best piece of news out of Celebration for me. If any of these movies is going to happen, its Dave's. He's bringing the wrap up of the New Republic era tale they've been telling across The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and soon Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew, to the big screen and I am beyond excited for this one.

And on top of all that we got an early screening for Chapter 23 of The Mandalorian!

Picture from Star Wars Celebration discord group

Coming out of that panel brings me to the only real negative of the weekend, more specifically of the first two days. The crowds. The picture above, which comes from the SWC fan discord group, shows just how busy it got. I'm sure the numbers were well within safe limits for the ExCeL as a whole but because of how the space was utilised and the layout of the main concourse it became a crush and felt wildly oversold for the first two days. The show floor wasn't much better and the area around the Star Wars Celebration LIVE! Stage was the same. We'd planned on spending most of the day after the first panel at the live stage but took one look at the crowd and quickly decided against it.

After a quick bite to eat we decided to just see the show floor for a bit and picked up the Road to Celebration pins we had ordered for a friend. By the time we remembered the Andor panel it was way too late to try for the main stage so we headed back to the Galaxy Stage and caught the stream instead.

After that there wasn't much time to do anything else but get back in line for The Mandalorian screening so we excited the galaxy stage, quickly met up with our friend Alex who also had a Galaxy Stage wristband, collected the free poster, then headed back to line up once more.

Everyone has seen the episode now so all I will add is that there is nothing like seeing Star Wars on a big screen with a room full of fans. It just elevates the whole experience and makes me so excited for the new movies.

And that was day one! We spent the last remaining time having another quick look at the show floor and meeting up with friends, then the day was done. We headed outside to take a few photos and got to meet The Resistance Broadcast gang at their meet up before going back to our hotel to prepare to do the whole thing again the next day.

Day 2

This was the big one for us - we had Ahsoka in the Celebration Stage. After a not quite as early start we joined the queue around 7:30am. It was colder that morning but we were soon inside the main queue hall and then moved pretty quickly to the Celebration Stage queue area and then into the main stage for the first time!

In a real "pinch me I'm dreaming" moment I got to meet Kathleen Kennedy before the panel and thank her for everything she has done (still can't believe that happened!)

And what a panel! Favreau and Filoni have never disappointed with their Celebration appearances and this panel was no exception. They introduced the cast, Chopper came out on stage, and we were treated to an exclusive extended cut of the new trailer including Sabine in action with Ezra's lightsaber and our first look at Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn before the man himself was brought out on stage!

After Ahsoka we headed straight to the show store which was a massive improvement over Anaheim. Almost everything was well stocked and available (a few things and sizes had sold out on day one) and we were able to get everything we were looking for. With our bags full we decided to do a quick drop off at our hotel before coming back for our next panel.

We'd been debating between Return of the Jedi's 40th anniversary panel (both of our favourite Star Wars movie) and the Young Jedi Adventures premiere (Jane is obsessed with Nubs). Ultimately we went with the Young Jedi Adventures premiere as we figured the Jedi panel was likely to be live streamed so we could watch it later.

We headed to the Galaxy Stage early to get in line only to be advised they weren't clearing the hall between panels so to just go in and move forwards after The High Republic panel had ended. We hadn't planned on attending The High Republic as we're still listening to the Phase 1 audio books and were being mindful of spoilers, but I'm really glad we got to sit in that final third! After announcing the next waves of books they cut the live stream and announced that The High Republic was heading into live action, bringing out Leslye Headland and revealing that Rebecca Henderson would be playing an older Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh in the series before playing that incredible trailer again! I don't mind admitting we got so lucky being there for that as it was completely unplanned!

As The High Republic panel ended we were able to move right to the front for Young Jedi Adventures with LevelUp Leroy and Aussie Dave keeping the crowd hyped between the panels. The panel was fantastic, bringing out the creative team and Dee Bradley Baker (the voice of Nubs now as as well as all the clones) who counted us down to the premiere as Nubs. Then we got to watch two full episodes of the new series and afterwards executive producer James Waugh was kind enough to sign Jane's SWC badge for her. The series, as I'm sure you've all seen by now, was great. Perfect for kids whilst still enjoyable for adults. It's great to have content like this that will bring Star Wars to a new generation.

With the room not being cleared and us having front row seats we decided to stay in the Galaxy Stage for the rest of the day as The Clone Wars 15th anniversary panel was next! Honestly, I could listen to Dave Filoni and the cast tell stories all day. It's clear just how much love there is between them and for this show and as Dave moves into live action, bringing some of these characters with him, he got emotional as he thanked everyone for being part of that journey with him.

After a quick stop back at the hotel to get changed we headed out to the Afterparty at Fox ExCeL to meet Val and the crew from Star Wars News Net. I've had the pleasure of writing for SWNN (and MNN) for a few years now and it's a great team and Val is just the absolute best of the best. It was so nice to finally meet him at SWC and to meet everyone else. Hopefully we can do it again in Japan (or wherever the following Celebration is).

Day 3

Two days in, show store done, and no lottery win meant we got a very rare Celebration lie in on day three, heading over only a minute or two before eight. It was raining lightly which made me extra glad we weren't queuing early that day.

Between the rain, less demand for the opening panel, and it being Easter Sunday crowds were noticeably lighter that morning in both the queue hall and on the show floor making it a much nice experience to just browse the exhibits and booths.

Today was mainly a show floor day for us, seeing Hasbro, LEGO, and all the other exhibitors, getting some photos of some of the amazing cosplay (every year I say I'm going to get photos of more cosplayers and I'm slowly getting there).

The two panels for us on day three were the look back at Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Animation Game Night. The Kenobi panel was great, it was so nice seeing the cast together, especially Ewan and Hayden, and talking about their experiences making the show. There was a moment at the end when it felt like they might announce a second season and you could audibly hear the the audience deflate when it didn't happen but that didn't take away from a great panel.

The Animation Game Night was something else entirely. Back at the Galaxy Stage (again!) host DJ Elliot brought out Ashley Eckstein, Dee Bradley Baker, James Arnold Taylor, Matt Lanter, and Matthew Wood to participate in a game show that has to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen at Star Wars Celebration. Especially the drawing round where they had to split into teams of six (helped by a member of the audience), one person would be shown an image they would draw on their teammates' back, who would draw on the other teammates' back, who would then draw it on paper. If they ever do this panel, or a version of it, an another Celebration I can't recommend it enough. We both laughed so much and had such a good time. I wish it had been live streamed for everyone to see.

There was only an hour left before closing when the panel ended so we decided to check out what the queue was like for the Droid Builders. It was pretty short so we jumped in and managed to make it about halfway around the exhibit before we had to leave for the day.

Day 4

And just like that we were at the last day. I can't believe how fast it went and I am so glad we got a four day event instead of three days we've had for past London Celebrations as three days definitely isn't enough.

Even though we had lottery wins for the opening panel we opted for another slightly later start, again arriving just before 8am. The queue was a little bigger again this morning but once inside I'd say the overall crowd was comparable to Sunday rather than Friday and Saturday.

We made our way to the Galaxy Stage once more for our streaming of The Bad Batch panel, and just after we took our seats LevelUp Leroy asked the crowd who was at the Galaxy Stage for the first time to a small cheer, and who had been there before to a much bigger cheer. Then he announced that some people had been in the room every day. Now, at this point I had a feeling we would be getting a shout out in his list of people. Probably alongside shoelace guy (you had to be there) and Jaina (who yesterday made Aussie Dave afraid for his job when she gets older). I did not expect him to start playing 'Friend Like Me', getting Jane and I to our feet to show the room our costumes and bringing Aussie Dave running our from back stage wondering what on earth was going on! "Our friends are here", "Well I see that now!" It was an amazing start to the final day, so thank you again!

Before the panel started we also, finally, got chance to meet up with Anders, a friend we had made back at the last Celebration London during the overnight line for Rogue One who we'd been trying to catch up with all weekend.

The panel itself was great, along with confirmation that The Bad Batch would be returning for a final season. Once it was over we headed straight to the Droid Builders, back to finish what we had started the night before. I am always in awe of the builders. The droids on display are easily movie quality and there were some fascinating builds, including droids that had just been printed without paint or electronics and partially built droids to show all stages of construction. There were also plenty of photo ops to be had as we went around the exhibit.

After that it was time for our photo with Rosario Dawson, who was absolutely lovely.

Then there was just enough time to have one last browse of the show floor, grabbing any last photos we may have missed before the Closing Ceremony.

For the last two Celebrations we've always gone to the LIVE! Stage for the Closing Ceremony, but this time we decided we had to go back to the Galaxy Stage since it had been our home for so much of the weekend and I am unbelievably glad that we did! When we walked in the room was already pretty full, we headed towards the front, seeing if we could spot any seats there and work backwards. As we did a member of staff called out "Aladdin, we have seats for you", and took us both to reserved seats on the front row! We were both speechless! And it only got better, as Leroy and Dave were talking the room through what would happen during the closing ceremony a member of staff came over to our row and told us that we were to be on stage for the last shot as everyone cheered and we passed the stream to the next stage! It was the perfect end to an absolutely incredible weekend.

As the last panel drew to a close, I don't think anyone had Japan as their guess for the next Celebration, you could feel it was the end. The excited buzz was gone, replaced by a mix of contentment but also a twinge of sadness that it was over. We thanked Leroy and Dave, our brilliant Galaxy Stage hosts for the weekend, and headed over towards the LIVE! Stage.

With Celebration over, the LIVE! Stage hosts and crew were taking their own final photos and meeting with fans. We were lucky and got to say hi to both Anthony Carboni and Krystina Arielle before Celebration truly drew to a close and we had to leave the ExCeL Centre one last time.

Suggestions for Improvements

After such an incredible weekend these are just a few things I thought could be improved on for future events.

Bring back the preview day. They only did this once, in Chicago, and I loved it. Having a day to explore the show floor, the Celebration Store, and get photos/autographs without having to think about panels or needing to be somewhere was absolutely amazing and I really wish they would bring it back. Even if it was only an afternoon or evening rather than full day. Having that extra time to just explore the show floor was amazing.

Begin letting people through security earlier. I know there's a balance, the earlier they open security, the earlier people will line up, but starting security checks only two hours before an event this size was cutting it a little tight for people who arrived at 8am (as instructed) and wanted to be through the queue by 10am due to the volume of people on the first two days. If not 6am like previous Celebrations, perhaps 7am could be a good compromise?

Do queues for each stage in the morning queue hall. They had general and accessible queues for Celebration Stage winners but Galaxy and Twin Suns winners were mixed in with the regular morning lines. Whilst separate queues aren't essential they had the space to do them.

Make better use of the venue. The crowds were huge, but there were virtually empty halls where things could have been spaced out better. Droid Builders got there own room in Chicago and Anaheim, even if they weren't able to have that here, there was certainly space available to give them more room that they had. Having the Droid Builders and Tattoo Pavilion virtually on top of each other led to massive crowding, especially on those first two days. The LIVE! Stage as well could have done with a better location, allowing it to be more central and fit more people around it.

Linking to that is merch pick up - this was in one of the emptier halls (with the cloak room) meaning you couldn't pick it up the night before Celebration. In the past it has been with Fan Services so you could collect outside of show hours and it didn't take up additional hall space from the event. It felt like an unnecessary change that just made collecting pre-order merch less convenient and took away floor space that could have been utilised differently.

Get a new UK venue. Star Wars Celebration has grown too big for the ExCeL. Celebration Stage capacity was (roughly) half what it was in Chicago and Anaheim. They need an arena. And, whilst the halls themselves are big enough, the layout of the venue with the central concourse is not suitable for the volume of people they had. The frequent bottlenecks of the concourse due to food locations made it almost impossible to move at times on those first two days. If (hopefully when) Celebration returns to the UK I'd love to see it at the NEC in Birmingham. It's bigger, has an arena, and has a more central location with excellent travel connections. It's also where I went to my very first Comic Con so that would be kinda cool on a personal level.

All of these aren't really complaints, just suggestions on where improvements could be made to make Celebration even better.

I only have one real complaint from the weekend and that's security. Getting in each morning was great, no complaints there. But to say the security staff clearing the building each night were over zealous would be putting it mildly. On the first day they were making people clear not just the ExCeL itself but the public space in front at 7pm on the dot. As people were trying to take photos and have conversations with friends outside the building security were telling them to move. As we were leaving on the second day a member of the security staff literally said "go on use your brains, if you have brains" before laughing. And on the last day, before the tannoy announcement had even finished saying Celebration was over, security were asking us to leave as we were already heading towards the exit. I get there's a closing time and you need to clear the building but there's a balance to be found and they really took away from what was otherwise an excellent experience with all the staff and crew.

So that was Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023. This was our fifth Celebration and, the one complaint and the crowding issues aside, it was one of, if not the best that we have been to! Outside of the panels, which were amazing, I think LevelUP Leroy and Aussie Dave really made this one for us and getting to meet so many people who I've either met at previous Celebrations or only spoken with online.  To everyone who said hi, thank you! It means more than you will ever know. There really is a family spirit to Celebration that you just don't get at any over event this size. Mark Hamill really did say it best, we're not just fans, we're family. I truly hope we can do this all again in Japan, but if not then I'll definitely see you all at the next one!