There is no fandom to me as intense as Star Wars. I've seen all the movies, and immersed myself with fellow geeks, but there's so so so many games, cartoons, and backstories I have zero knowledge of. So I was feeling a little nervous about heading to SWC alone, but I (obviously) survived my first Star Wars Celebration and feel 100% better and happy about being a part of the fandom! I decided to go as Jyn Erso, because she's one of my favorite badass ladies and Rogue One is the best. I made her shirt based off a simplicity pattern (which I recommend to no one) and wore the scarf off my Jyn HerUniverse jacket, a kyber crystal necklace, and a holster belt. It's the first time I've ever sewn a shirt but I felt really good about it, and having a costume I made gave me some Jyn confidence going into the Celebration.
Alright, ready for a long recap? Let's go!
Celebration doors opened at ten but I wasn't sure how early people had to queue? Was this like NYCC where people waited hours or could you walk right in? I got some advice from some FB friends and decided not to wait in line before open. If you wanted to wait the pros were being the first in line for the many things that had hour long waits. I ended up pulling into the parking lot around that 10 and still had the time I wanted. I heard someone say day one they opened late but I didn't have any issues.
A bad part of being alone is that I get lost...a lot. I always figure it out eventually McCormick Place is so confusing. One perk of being lost was finding random gems like this car in the parking lot
or the most wonderful cosplay of the day
RIP Carrie <3
Did I follow them to get un-lost? Yep!
When you walk into the main area the first thing that hits you is the awesome Celebration Mural
My Favorite Rogue Ones <3
I gotta find the mural as one picture because it's awesome. I tried to figure out the layout and get my bearings but that didn't work at all because I had to leave the main building for the 11:00 Celebration Stage. It was a trek over to the arena and I accidentally stood in line for 5 minutes before finding out I didn't have to. Fun. Got in just in time to nab one of the Rey refillable soda cups and took a seat in my "assigned" section. I say "assigned" because there were a million open seats in the nosebleeds but that's where my lottery ticket said I was supposed to be. No one checked but I'm a rule follower like a dummy.
I was SO excited for this panel because it was Bringing Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge to Life at Disney. It's basically HP World for the Star Wars world! The panel was hosted by Josh Gad who I keep typing as "gosh jad" and I like that better.
The panel was great and we got to see sneak peaks of the park. I think it's all online now if you want to see it but I really enjoyed seeing things like the marketplace, the Cantina, and the Millennium Falcon! Here's a shot of the Cantina, which has a "grill" made of an upside down blaster in the middle:
The Cantina is going to have some really fun food, and of course, Blue Milk. They also announced Coke is making a whole line of Star Wars sodas packaged just for the park. S.O to Coke for the free shirts! woo!
They mentioned the marketplace, which I'll talk about a little later, but my main takeaway was that they'll have a light-saber factory where you can make your own custom saber! So cool. I definitely plan on heading to Galaxy's Edge as soon as I can afford it.
I left the panel (which took foreverrrr and was small nightmare) and went back over to the main rooms where I met K2!
"I'll be there for you, Jyn...Cassian said I had to."
and turned myself into a Pop!
Then I headed on over to the photo op area to meet Alan! He was so nice and I wish I had time to talk to him more. I was super sad that Riz Ahmed canceled his whole appearance. One other sidenote: so many appearances were sold out for the whole con before Saturday was even half over. If you go, pre-buy!
After that I walked around and spent money for way too long. One of my main problems with Celebration was Artist Alley. Most cons I've been to have had so many artists with amazing merch. I think Star Wars (the brand) kind of limited it and that's a bummer. I'm a huge fan of Karen Hallion but she had almost nothing for sale? She had designed this uh-maz-ing print and I think it sold out almost immediately. She had some of her other products there but you had to go to a different booth, bring it back and she'd sign it. Licensing is a bummer sometimes, but also why couldn't this print have been unlimited?
Deep sigh. ANYWAYS. By this time I was starving so I headed upstairs to the main cafe and ended up getting some nachos and refilling my soda cup. Nachos were $13 but at least were filling. They also had a grab-and-go area with salads and such, plus a hot grill for burgers and pizza.
My lunch also included this, which was very confusing until I googled it
"True Star Wars fans know who Wilrow Hood is, hero of Cloud City who can be seen running in the background of Empire Strikes Back clutching his trusty ice cream maker. He has become a favorite for many cosplayers and fans, and a big part of the Star Wars Celebration festivities with the “Running of the Wilrow Hoods”. This year, over 100 Woods slow-dance-ran through the winding convention center of McCormick Place, chanting “ice cream ice cream” throughout their path."
Made me laugh. Their parade also included pink shorts boom guy which is also fun to google.
=)
After lunch there were lots of things to check out. I was stunned by the tattoo alley, so intense and busy! Lots of people getting tatted!
Two awesome cosplays, Rebel Rapunzel
Chirrut!!! He even had contact lenses.
I was blown away by all the photo op sets. Here's my favorites of the day
Shoutout to all the regional legions who put on most of these! The fandom is so great in that way and most were taking donations for Make A Wish, double bonus.
Next to the sets were some costumes I loved seeing the detail on
I wanted to get some walking and fun stuff in before I knew I was going to have to stand in some lines. The worst one was waiting for my free shirt from the Disney panel. It was probably an hour. The guys in front of my said the day before was almost three hours! That's crazy to me, no shirt it worth that.
Then I decided to wait for the Galaxy's Edge exhibit. The wait for that wasn't too bad at the time, although they were doing a time capsule of sorts to keep at the land and the line for that was about 45 minutes. Worth it to be memorialized forever at Galaxy's Edge!
So the booth had a few photo ops, one is the Rise of the Rebellion ride, look at me go!
I didn't do this one but it was so pretty.
Matt & Margaret were there signing autographs too!
Some concept art of the land
and to no ones surprise, my favorite part, the MERCH!!!
They're going to have so many cool things. I'm most excited about the costumes for sale.
I need that Stormie doll so bad.
I almost bought one on etsy for the con!
Look at lil Rey!
The woman working the booth sadly didn't know sizing, but did say it would be kids through adults for sure. She also said you can't buy it online, or through Disney, only at the Land.
If you're into creatures some awesome ones:
I was ready for panel that had seats after all the standing so I went to the Funko panel. It was super interesting to see how they design and conceptualize Pops! Like this photo of the two Lukes, how the changed him over the years:
I told myself I'm not allowed to buy Star Wars pops anymore so I thankfully was able to skip the Funko booth lines, I think it had the worst lines of the whole Celebration.
It was about 6:30pm after Funko let out so the only thing left for me was the Celebration store. I'm going to do a separate post for my haul so check that out if you're interested. They had some great stuff, but also a lot was sold out already =( One worker told me pins and shirts were already on eBay for double the price which made me sad. I guess that's con exclusives for you.
this pin alphabet set was $200, apparently on eBay for $500 =(
It was a long day, but overall so great. I was happy to see people of all ages dressed up as their favorite characters. I didn't see very many Jyn's like me, but I think that's the best part about Star Wars - there are SO many characters and we all love different ones. We all agree though, BB8 is adorable =)
***
til next time,
Maggie
