Star Wars Celebration V

[rewster]

My first batch, more to come......

Here's a pic of the indoor queue line waiting for the doors to open on Day 1. I got there about 2 hours before doors opened and yet had several hundred people ahead of me. What you're seeing here is a few thousand peeps behind me:



Seated in the largest of the panel auditoriums (Chapin Theater, known at CV as the Celebration Stage) waiting for the opening ceremony to start:



This is the closest we get to having Mr. Solo show up :



There was an amazing exhibit of pure Star Wars treasure at CV called The Art of Ralph McQuarrie exhibit. McQuarrie is the conceptual artist hired by Lucas in the development stage of Star Wars who is responsible for much of the design of the Star Wars galaxy, and would be on the Mount Rushmore of Star Wars alongside Lucas, John Williams, and Ben Burtt. This exhibit included actual drawings from McQuarrie's archives, and was absolutely rivoting to stand there looking at there inches away from the actual drawings that started it all. I broke down and bought a signed McQuarrie print at the end of the exhibit. It might be the prize of my SW collection now. Here are a few pics.....

The original concept of Chewbacca and Han Solo:



Original concept of C3PO and R2D2:



Concept drawing of the cantina scene in A New Hope:



First design ever for an Empire shirt:



Yoda painting:



This guy needs no introduction. This is one of the fan-made R2's, believe it or not. Fully functional with mobility, sounds, lights, moving parts, etc:



An AT-AT walker at the main entrance:



One of the highlights of my CV experience - seeing Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) for the first time. He is a very funny guy, and this was a very entertaining panel. This was his first appearance at a Star Wars Celebration in the U.S. (he attended Celebration Europe and Celebration Japan - the only two held outside the U.S.):









G4TV sponsored the Hoth Echo Base Ice Bar at the event, which was an awesome bar set-up for the 21+ crowd. This is a Wampa ice-carving near the bar. (The Wampa is the Yeti looking creature in The Empire Strikes Back, btw):







This was a big Lego mural being built during the 4 days of the event. They would give you a set of Legos, you build your block based on coded instructions, then they add it to the board. You'll see the end result in one of my later batches:



Ashley Eckstein (voice of Ahsoka Tano in the Clone Wars, which is the character you see to the right) mc'ing a Star Wars fashion show for her new line of female "geek chic" clothing called Her Universe:



More pics to come as I filter through them all .......

[rewster]

Second batch.......


Fans in costume:



This was a poster advertising free giveaways at the Collectors panels. There were 16 panels over the 4 days, and at each panel you could get one of these novelty Star Wars boxes of cereal. My personal favorite was the Wookie Crisp:



Blue Milk ice cream. I simply couldn't resist :



There was a highly entertaining Robot Chicken panel. Here we got to see, for the first time, the trailer for Robot Chicken Star Wars III, coming to DVD in December.



From left to right, Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Seinreich, some dude who works with them, and Joey Fatone (for some unknown reason ):



Seth Green also told us a little about the upcoming animated series he was hired by Lucas to produce with Seinreich, coming in a year or two:



Disney had a large presence at the event. Here's a toy diorama they had on display to advertise the Last Tour to Endor event:





The Disney booth had a nice tribute to the 30th anniversary of Empire:



The massive line for the Main Event on Saturday (George Lucas interviewed by Jon Stewart) started on Friday night at 8pm. It worked like this: There was the main theater where the event would be held, which could seat about 2600 people. Then there were several supplemental theaters used for other panels which had screens. They would simulcast the event in these rooms, which could seat an additional 5,000 or so people. So those first in line would get wristbands distributed for the main stage. Then wristbands get distributed for the simulcast rooms. I personally wasn't down with sitting outside all night in Orlando in August, so my plan was to head up there at 5am and at least secure a spot in one of the simulcast rooms. My timing couldn't have been more perfect. When they started giving out wristbands at 6am, my girl and I were among the very last group of 20 people to receive bands for the main stage with Lucas! I couldn't believe our luck. Once we had our wristbands, we were guided to a massive empty hall of the convention center where we set up camp for the next 5 hours waiting to be let into the theater.



After so many hours of anticipation, we were finally seated for the show.



Stormtroopers come out to secure the room for Lucas' entrance:



Host Jon Stewart comes out and greets the crowd first. "I want to thank the organizers of this event for holding it in Central Florida in the middle of August. I guess they were wanting to recreate the actual atmospheric conditions on Dagobah." Not only is he an amazing interviewer and hilarious host, he actually is a Star Wars nerd!



And then, the place absolutely erupts:





The standing ovation goes on for several minutes:





Finally the crowd settles in, and we begin an amazing interview. Jon Stewart was perfect for this. He was funny, thoughtful, asked great questions, and knew what he was talking about when it came to Star Wars. He and Lucas had a great rapport.









R2 comes out to present Jon Stewart with a special edition Star Wars action figure Lucas had made for him. The character was called Stewjon.





Then came the bomb drop we've been waiting for. The house erupted again.



To the crowd's surprise, they suddenly brought out Mark Hamill to help with the details of the Blu Ray release of the saga, coming in 2011.



Hamill gave us a huge treat in addition -- a never before lost scene from Return of the Jedi that would be included on the Blu Ray. This scene was originally intended to open the film. It shows Luke on his home world in seclusion as he's privately completing his Jedi training. Here are some screen shots of it, where he's assembling his iconic green lightsaber seen in the film (since the one he used in the previous flicks was lost when Vader cut off his hand at the end of Empire).







Then they surprised us yet again by bringing out Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia). Carrie is absolutely hilarious, very entertaining.







Between all the elements seen in this shot, all I could think was: I can die now.





Then they wrapped it up. I'll never forget this day



More to come tomorrow night, including my trip to Last Tour to Endor and the majority of my shots from the actual exhibit floor........

[BriMan]

God, how I wish I went to the event. Hopefully it'll be back next year. Fingers are crossed.

[rewster]

God, how I wish I went to the event. Hopefully it'll be back next year. Fingers are crossed.

You can uncross those fingers, cus SW Celebration isn't a yearly occurrence So far the Celebrations have been held in commemoration of a year to celebrate. CI coincided with the release of Episode I (1999). CII for the release of Episode II (2002). CIII for the release of Episode III (2005). CIV for the 30th anniversary of Episode IV (2007), and CV for the 30th of Empire. Celebration VI will be undoubtedly in 2013 for Return of the Jedi's 30th.

As far as it returning to Orlando -- I'm holding hopes they consider it. I saw a number of fans online complaining about it being held in Orlando in August, with it being so crazy hot. But I don't know what they're whining about since the entire event takes place indoors, and they kept that convention center cold as Hoth the entire time . Of course, I'm used to it I guess . In Orlando's favor -- I heard some attendees who were Celebration veterans who did state how the Orange County Convention Center worked great for the event, with ample space to handle the crowds, easy to navigate from place to place, top notch theaters and rooms for panels, and unlimited hotel space in the area. But many complain it was too far away from them (although CIV in L.A. was too far away for East coasters, so let's be fair), and I even saw one guy complain there was nothing else to do in Orlando compared to L.A. (Huh? Nothing to do in the tourist destination capital of the world?) The telling sign will be how profitable the event was in Orlando, along with feedback by attendees on the location. They were already expecting lower attendance for this one due to the economy and the fact that the announcement came only 9 months prior to the event, as opposed to the normal 12 months. But I'm holding hope that Orlando really worked out for them and maybe they'll bring it back.

[Vyrus]

Orlando and Vegas are to two top convention spaces in the world. San Diego ONLY has Comic-con, thats it. So it is definately in their best interest to keep it here or Vegas.

[GrahamSHAZAM]

Thanks for sharing the pictures, rewster!

[rewster]

I still have one or two batches of pics to load, but in the meantime here's a 3 minute segment from CV that aired on G4's Attack of the Show.

http://g4tv.com/videos/48216/-Star-W...-Blair-Herter/

[loribelle]

I still have one or two batches of pics to load, but in the meantime here's a 3 minute segment from CV that aired on G4's Attack of the Show.

http://g4tv.com/videos/48216/-Star-W...-Blair-Herter/

I have a theory that the lady in costume that the G4 guy (Blair Herter) marries at the end is also the Disney CM who always introduces the shows (Hyperspace Hoopla, etc) at Star Wars Weekends and whatnot.
Anyone else, or are rew and I the only ones who've been to SWW too many times, lol? :)

[rewster]

The numbers are in, and Star Wars Celebration V's official attendee numbers show that 32,000 people attended the event. That's about 4,000 more than Lucasfilm was anticipating, making CV a pretty big success both for Star Wars and Orlando.

Also, I've noticed general consensus from the fan community out there is that Orlando and the Orange County Convention Center was a big hit with the majority, despite some reservations by many prior to the event. The best consistent feedback I've seen is that the OCCC was a great facility with plenty of room to handle the crowd (with lots of room left over, might I add), comfortable and impressive looking theaters for panels, room for indoor queue lines (as opposed to waiting in the rain in Indianapolis, in the heat in L.A., etc.), and just an overall beautiful, convenient, well-planned facility. The praise I've seen for Orlando itself has been the convenience of countless affordable hotels and great restaurant choices along International Dr., the ease of transportation to/from the convention center, and (of course) the plethora of other entertainment available. (Not to mention, Disney's involvement with the Last Tour to Endor event was also a big hit with the fans, and a big incentive for all involved).

The one consistent gripe I've seen concerning CV in Orlando: the heat (and humidity). But to be fair, the majority complaining about this have gone on to say they would only like to see the event be held in the Spring if in Orlando again.

I have heard, through the grapevine, a few things about the (possible) future of Star Wars Celebration in Orlando. For one, Steve Sansweet (Director of Fan Relations for Lucasfilm) did mention in an interview last year (prior to announcing Orlando as the location for CV) that they were looking for a more "permanent home" for Celebration in the future, as opposed to moving it around all the time. And if you think about it, this makes a lot of sense for the event planners because being familiar with the facility, spaces, and surrounding area you have to work with is a BIG advantage during the planning stages. I have also heard that the OCCC has been urging Lucasfilm and Reed Expo (the event planners) to sign on for the next three Celebrations. BUT both of these rumors rely on several things that could easily change between now and the next Celebration, which is 2-3 years away.

I would love to see this return to Orlando - and not just as a Star Wars fan. This is a huge event and brought major business to Orlando. SW Celebration is the largest single-franchise convention of it's kind in the world, and bringing it back to Orlando would be a big hit for our local economy.

Here's the official statement on the numbers, from StarWars.com:

Star Wars Celebration V drew Star Wars fans from all over the world to Orlando, Florida to celebrate everything they love about the ongoing saga. The spacious Orange County Convention Center welcomed fans by the thousands, continuing the successful series of official Star Wars conventions that began in 1999.

More than 32,000 individuals enjoyed Celebration V between August 12 and 15th, taking part in a wide and diverse array of activities and programming, including diorama-building, speed-dating, an exhibit of rare Ralph McQuarrie art, the Last Tour to Endor event at Disney's Hollywood Studio, and the main event: Jon Stewart interviewing George Lucas on stage.

Celebration V celebrated the past, present and future of Star Wars, with retrospective programming celebrating 30 years of The Empire Strikes Back, exclusive first looks at Season 3 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and hands-on demos of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures. Fans of all ages had something to enjoy, with the youngest playing and learning in an event-filled Family Room, and older fans visiting the Hoth Ice Bar or celebrating their love at the first-ever Star Wars Commitment Chapel.

If you missed the show, or want to re-experience Celebration V, visit our online coverage here, which includes videos from the event, articles covering the panels, firsthand blog reports, and over 2,000 photos in our Flickr stream.