Hallowhedon 2009
I'm probably the worst person in the world to do these reports due to my appalling memory, but here we go again anyway. This was Showmasters' first Buffy/Whedon con and in my opinion it really worked. As is typical with Showmasters, the event was brilliantly organised and a lot of fun. I would go as far as to say it was flawless. There was definitely a different feel to Hallowhedon than The Hub and it was kinda odd at first. Even now I can't quite put my finger on what the difference was. I think maybe Hallowhedon had a lot more first-timers who were quite serious and dead-set on getting their moments with the guests. The Hub tends to be more easy-going.
The Gold-pass reception was vastly different. At the Hub we stood around in small clumps of friends like one normally does at a reception and guests were shuffled over to talk with us. At Hallowhedon, the guests started off in corners and people flocked to stand as close as they could to them. I could liken it to a scrum and there was absolutely no fricking way I was prepared to push and elbow just to evesdrop a conversation, no matter how famous anyone is! Perhaps that's just me, but it felt weird. The middle of the room was completely empty with the guests pinned to the outside. WRONG! Anyway, I stood in a group with kitty_poker1, ionaonie and hils and we were quite happy chatting to each other. We got 20 seconds with Nicky as he passed by and while we were coincidently standing next to James's scrum, someone actually turned around and told us to be quiet because she couldn't hear James. You know what, luv? You're not his audience. If you can't hear him, get closer and if you can't get closer, slink off to another scrum. Oooh, here's an idea, get on your hands and knees and crawl through the forest of legs, then you can pop up in front of him and yell 'surprise! I'm your number one fan!'
Now, I just mentioned a few people there. Obviously Kitty and I have known each other for years, but I met ionaonie and hils at the con along with solar_cat and they are all three fricking awesome. I have decided that ionaonie and I were separated at birth because she loves Tony DiNozzo as much as I do and she's totally down with the Reid/Morgan love. The best part of cons is meeting people and making new friends. My favourite parts of the weekend were hanging out with these guys.
The photos were very exciting and I nearly lost control of my knees after my picture with Nicky. As well as the one-on-one shots there was also a group shot for the Gold-pass-holders. I was wearing my Blue Gillespie t-shirt and when I stood in the centre of all the guests, facing James Marsters he said 'Great, t-shirt'. I stuttered out a thank you and then Nicky leaned over James's shoulder and asked if Blue Gillespie was James's band. James said no, they were Gareth David-Lloyd's from Torchwood and they're awesome. I slunk away and hils, who was after me said they were still having a very enthusiastic conversation about it. I wore that t-shirt precisely to support and promote Gareth and so my work there was done. Yay!
The signing all went smoothly apart from James Leary's on the Sunday. He'd partied too hard (so rumour had it) and during the signing he had to keep running off. Amazingly, Showmasters still managed to get more-or-less everyone through. Poor James's Marsters couldn't sit or stand for any length of time and so lay on a table with pillows under his chest. He made us all say trick or treat and then we got a lolly each.
The talks were mostly brilliant, the only duff one being Mercedes and James Leary. He was unwell and she just didn't seem up for it. James Marsters had to stand for his talks and Nicky and Mark stood with him. Nicky was hilarious, just as I expected he would be and he looked very handsome and fit. Nicky did the Snoopy dance twice and I cried with laughter. I wish I could tell you the content of the talks, but I honestly can't remember so I'll leave that job to someone else.
We didn't see a lot of the parties in the end. We I did a lot of smoking outside and we hung out in hils room watching vids and Supernatural. Basically, I think we talked non-stop for three days and didn't have time for much else. I was hanging with a fantastic bunch of people and talking with them was more much more fun than shouting and drinking at the party. I do believe the parties were fun and Nicky sang at the karaoke, which I wish I'd seen.
We met up throughout the weekend with piksa and I have to say, a convention would not be the same without her.
The only downside to the weekend was the hotel. We quickly discovered the speed of service at the coffee/snack bar was appallingly slow. Ten minutes for a diet coke. Hour and a half for a sandwich. We dined in the restaurant on the Saturday night and it took forever (we didn't really care, though, due to all the talking). Saturday morning Kitty and I had a crisis. The shower got stuck on and the room rapidly filled up with steam and moisture and we had evacuate with all our stuff before it all got soaked. They quickly switched us to another room, which was in a way annoying because they told us they didn't have any refurbished twins left and clearly they lied because the room was exactly the same as the double we'd been given on the Friday. But the worst thing was on the Sunday night after the con finished. There was still the chill-out party going on, but we all decide to have dinner in the restaurant. The duty manager took one look at our con badges and clearly decided he didn't want to have anything to do with us. He told us there was no menu. So when solar_cat pointed out that other people were choosing with a menu, he changed his story to there being no discount for con-goers. We said that was fine and we would have a table for six and the walking-turd-of-a-man claimed he couldn't seat six of us together. The place was maybe a third full if that and we were standing right in front of two empty tables that could have been pushed three feet together to make one. We walked out.
So, hotel crap, convention fantastic. Anthony Head is billed for the next one and I'm not sure yet if I'll go. I'd like to, but I don't want to end up doing too many cons too close together because it's a little bit stressful and I really want to go to The Hub 4 and I'm holding out for a Supernatural con (which Showmasters are considering doing). I also, next year, want the chance to meet Bradley James and Colin Morgan, and also Misha Collins. I've already met ASH and he's wonderful and gracious, and in the panel at the BFI Merlin screening him and Bradley were hilarious. I guess if Showmasters book Nicky again, I'll give it serious thought.
Anyway, hurrah for Hallowhedon! Here's a link to some photos I posted earlier HERE