Star Wars Celebration returned to London for the first time since 2016 and was packed with guests, art, props, panels and thousands of fans celebrating everything Star Wars. This write up is based on my experience as a paying punter attending the event.
I’ve only ever been to a Celebration once before and that was the last time it was held at ExCeL in Docklands London. This meant I was prepared for the crowds and the craziness and had an idea of the layout and what to expect. I watched the previous year’s live streams from Orlando, Chicago and Anaheim, and was really looking forward to attending the panels in person. Over the past seven years I’ve met lots of autograph collectors at UK events that were attending, so being able to share the experience with friends was something I was very much looking forward to.
When the tickets went on sale the Jedi Master sold out very quickly, and even the four-day tickets sold out in minutes. This was quite disappointing as there appeared to be plenty of single day tickets available. I was online ready to get the tickets as soon as they went on sale, but to attend all days I had to opt for buying three sets of individual day tickets. It would have been nice to get the four single day tickets at a discounted rate, as buying them separately was a lot more expensive than buying a four-day pass.
In the run up to the event ReedPop opened lotteries for five panels on the Celebration Stage. I entered for every panel and didn’t win any of them. Seeing online posts on this topic, I was not alone in not winning any panels and I did initially share the frustration when seeing people post that they had won several panels. I know it’s a lottery, but this exclusive panel access does need looking at for future events. Charging £85 for a ticket and restricting access for ticket holders is not fair; they should at the very least ensure fans have the option of viewing the panels via a stream at the venue. I understand they need to make sure people are not filming the latest content, but they should find the space to stream and make sure everyone has an opportunity to see these big panels.
One thing I did “win” was a fast-track ticket to the official store, I didn’t bother with the store in 2016 as the queues were crazy. I also managed to get a free autograph ticket for Sean Crawford by being online at the time they released tickets on the 2nd day. I attempted to do this for Samantha Alleyne and didn’t get a ticket as the organisers released autograph tickets at random times – so you really had to be lucky or spend a lot of time refreshing on the page waiting for tickets to go on sale. They seemed to sell out after 5 or so minutes so you had to be quick! I liked that they gave out some free autographs and feel more of this would have been nice bearing in mind the price of the ticket.
Being part of the unofficial Star Wars Celebration Facebook group was useful in the run up to the event. Seeing people’s questions and posts about things like the lotteries and giveaways was useful. If I hadn’t been in this group, I would have missed a lot and not got the inside track on what was going on and how to get involved.
One thing I did investigate in preparation was swag as swag trading is a big thing at Celebration. Collector friends of mine were putting swag together and seeing on the Facebook groups the cool pins, badges, stickers, and patches that people were making inspired me to create my own. After some thought I put together some limited edition Return of the Jedi 40th anniversary stickers. Here’s the set I made very much inspired by the original 1983 Topps cards.
Day One: Friday
I decided after not winning any panels that I really wanted to try my luck on queuing up for the Lucasfilm Celebration panel. Organisers stated no queuing before 8am so we arrived at 7:45, not surprised to see lots of people in the queue already. We joined the queue along the side of the venue and at 8am they opened the holding area, and we got in the 2nd holding zone where we got comfortable and waited 2 hours for the show to open at 10am. We chatted with people in the queue and the time went really quickly, before we knew it the doors opened, and we made our way into the show.
We rushed to the Celebration Stage and made it into the standby queue for the Lucasfilm Showcase. My friend who was right behind us didn’t get let into the standby queue, and they were stopping people from joining, so we thought we had done enough to get into the show. We waited around an hour whilst the lottery winners made their way into the auditorium which held around four thousand people. About ten minutes before the panel was about to start, we were informed that they were not letting any more people in. This was obviously disappointing, but we took it on the chin and made our way into the rest of the show.
We dusted ourselves off and headed to the autograph hall. First up was Sean Crawford. Sean is always a delight to meet and is great with the fans. Not only did he offer free autographs but also had lots of swag. This is not new for Sean, anyone who has seen him at a show will know Sean designs and gives out custom swag at events, Celebration was no different. He took time with each person at his table – chatted, signed, and gave out swag. I saw Sean also having pictures with anyone who would ask for one. Our interaction with Sean certainly lifted our spirits and got us back to a positive place after #StandbyGate
Seeing a small Anthony Daniels’ queue I went and spoke with the volunteer managing his line. I had a ticket for Anthony, but it was For Saturday, not Friday. The chap was super friendly and told me it was OK to redeem my autograph early. It was great to see some common sense and flexibility here and I queued up for about half hour to get to Anthony.
Anthony Daniels signed my Official Pix 8×10 (quite a rare image from Return of the Jedi); he commented on the image, retelling the story of the green gloop staining the gold suit. Anthony was taking a few minutes with everyone; he is a true pro!
Anthony Daniels really takes his time making sure he signs in the optimum spot, he also personalised the audio book for me, shook my hand and I was on my way after a few minutes with him. This was my second great experience with a hero that has been in every Star Wars film to date!
I then headed over to the Celebration Live stage and we managed to get a great spot opposite the front of the stage and saw lots of interviews. There was a fantastic atmosphere around this stage and the crowd were buzzing seeing A-list Star Wars talent up close and having 15-minute interviews live.
The stage jutted out into the crowd, meaning the guests had their backs to the bulk of the crowd, so we were lucky with our spot. The disability access area was next to the camera section and allowed for people using wheelchairs to have a fantastic view of the stage. Seeing the Ahsoka trailer on the screen here was great, really liking the look of this show!
You can watch all the live stage interviews for day one right HERE.
I made my way over to the Celebration store and there was a massive queue with people waiting around an hour to get in. I was lucky to get a fast-track ticket which got me straight in. As it was the first day, they had plenty of stock. I got four Star Wars t-shirts and a cap for my friend.
I then met up with a friend who attended the Lucasfilm panel, and he surprised me with a special wristband which granted the bearer a Celebration exclusive poster and access to an advance screening of the penultimate season three episode of The Mandalorian.
For me Star Wars is built for the big screen, so seeing The Mandalorian in this way, introduced by Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau and some of the cast, really was a treat.
We were surrounded by thousands of Star Wars fans – there was laughter, cheers, and the inevitable “awwws” for Grogu’s scenes! This was a fantastic way to finish the first day!
Day Two: Saturday
We arrived at 10:30, got in the show at 10:45, and headed straight over to Warwick Davis’ queue. I bumped into a few collector pals and waited for around 30 minutes to meet Warwick.
My friend handed over a piece I’d bought from him. I am on a Return of the Jedi focus this year and really liked the image and got it for a better price than Ian’s Celebration Price, technically I got it at Celebration right? 🙂
We headed over to the Celebration Live stage and noticed it was a lot busier than it had been the previous day. To the point where we couldn’t get anywhere near where we had stood before. We did see Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni take the stage though, as well as Kathleen Kennedy. You can catch up on every guest from the live stage right HERE.
Then the Return of the Jedi actors Anthony Daniels, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams, and Warwick Davis joined the stage to talk about their experiences. Anthony Daniels is always good for stirring up the banter whilst Billy Dee was a man of few words, except for when promoting his new book
At the end of the panel, they announced a Celebration exclusive poster which everyone with a ticket got a copy of.
Following Graham’s tip from earlier, I headed up to a Q&A Panel with Doug Chiang on the challenges of film design. This panel was so insightful, Doug was taking each question in his stride offering open and honest answers.
After the Panel Doug offered every person at the panel the chance to grab a photograph with him, such a nice guy to take time to do that!
A few of us autograph collectors gathered outside waiting for Doug to finish his photographs, we were initially told no autographs, but I sensed a few of the guys where holding on in case it happened. When Doug came out he walked over to us and we all got one piece signed each. This was my first experience of in person graphing, I was buzzing afterwards!
There were various out of hours events happening, after going for a meal with friends we wandered into the Fox Connaught pub near our hotel as there was an RS Prop Masters party happening. I walked straight into Derek Lyons who was packing down from his signing event he arranged. I recognised Chris Bunn, Eileen Roberts, John Mogridge and Alan Austin. It was great to see these original trilogy actors getting together to sign for fans outside Celebration. I had a quick chat with Derek who told me the event had been a huge success and along with the guests had met many new fans they had not met before from the United States and Australia.
A few beers were had at the pub and then a few of us continued the party back at the hotel bar, where we bumped into some other collector friends winding down from the day’s events. We traded banter, stories and had a good laugh, it was a fantastic evening with great company.
Day Three: Sunday
We got to the event a little later, after catching up on some much-needed rest as we had been on the go since arriving in London Wednesday evening! When we got to Celebration we headed into a panel hosted by Star Wars Tours looking at sites in Tunisia that you can visit.
I was half expecting a sales pitch, but it was quite informative. A lot of details about the sites is on their website and it would be quite easy to arrange now a lot of the filming sites are known. Visit their site HERE for lots of information on filming locations.
I then headed over to the artist area, I went round to each table speaking to all the artists and looking through their portfolios. Every artist there was licensed by Lucasfilm and had some incredible prints and original sketches for sale.
I paid a visit to the Echo Base stall which is a very trustworthy source for vintage Star Wars figures. I bought a 1977 A New Hope Stormtrooper to display with my stormtrooper helmet.
Following Saturdays success with obtaining free autographs from panel guests, I thought I’d try my luck on a panel called ‘Making Star Wars Magic: Behind the Scenes Stories”. This panel had Fon Davis (Model maker for the sequels, Prequels and the Mandalorian), Brian Herring (BB-8 performer), Jake Lunt Davis (Concept and Creature artist for Sequel Trilogy, Andor, Rogue One and Solo) and Lee Towersey (Senior Model Maker and droid maker from the Sequel Trilogy, Rogue One, Solo and Andor)
This Panel was probably the best one I saw all weekend, hearing first hand accounts from these guys, honestly I could of listened to them talk all day.
After the panel Brian Herring did dart away on business but the others all stayed back and signed everything the fans had for them and posed for pictures with everyone. They took well over half an our meeting and chatting with us all.
After the panel I went with my friend Neil along the corridor to another panel room, as Henrik Svensson (BB8 Painter & ILM production designer) had just finished a talk. After politely asking staff if it was OK to meet Sven and get his autograph we were allowed into the room to shake hands and ask some questions about what he worked on. He signed for us both and was happy also to pose for pictures with my friend.
Heading back down to the show floor, the live stage was even more manic on Sunday and they were cordoning off the area and redirecting the crowds to stop more people trying to get in. We headed over to the other main hall and took a look at some vendors and fan tables.
Cosplayers are great to interact with, some really do not break character! I did notice alot of cosplayers were representing the Disney-era of Star Wars, there were not as many Luke, Han and Leia’s as 2016.
We called it a day at the show and headed out to the Cantina2 at Indigo At The O2, another fantastic event put on by fans, for fans.
I have been to a lot of gigs in my time but never been to one that had Star Wars signers! I left my autograph book at home on purpose to enjoy the music, but I did have a walk round to the signing area and they were all really busy.
Northern Irish three-piece Ash headlined the gig and absolutely smashed it, they have so many great songs, and the atmosphere was great. They had a huge screen playing various scenes from Star Wars to accompany their songs.
At one stage there was an Ewok and stormtroopers on stage. They handed out inflatable light sabers and threw out giant death star balls into the crowd, it was a fantastic way to mix up the experience of Celebration bringing fans together in a unique way and really complimented the experience.
Day Four: Monday
Last day and chance to walk the floor. I visited the droid builders, who had some wonderful droids on display, some very interactive. I am feeling very inspired to have a go at making a mouse droid, so watch this space!
Huge thanks to Jamie who introduced me to James Feurtado who built an R5 unit that was used in some scenes in Rogue One, along with Oliver Steeples who built R2 for The Force Awakens. Both these guys were happy to sign my celebration 8×10.
Taking in the sights of some of the life sized props on around the show floor
Prop Store where displaying some of Anthony Daniels’ private collection that will be auctioned off later this year. A lot of these pieces really do belong in a museum!
Vintage figures still holding their value!
Last panel of Celebration had to finish with the legend that is Doug Chiang. Doug talked about design for Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Mandalorian, this guy is a genius in my opinion, our modern day Ralph McQuarrie!
I left the panel a little earlier to queue up for the closing ceremony at the celebration stage, not really knowing what it was other than an announcement for the next celebration. Having missed the opening Lucasfilm showcase I didn’t want to miss out on anything on this stage!
It turned out the closing ceremony was a little something of nothing. Whilst it did show a reel put together of highlights of the event, it was all about the announcement that Japan would be hosting Celebration 2025!
On the way out I caught sight of creature & droid performer Dee Tails. Dee was happy to add his autograph to my 8×10 Celebration image and posed for a picture. This is the way!
Final Thoughts…
Now this event wasn’t perfect, in my opinion it was oversold and restricting experiences like the big panels shouldn’t be a thing. Celebration should make these panels available to all paying attendees via a live stream, even if this means adding extra staff to stop people recording content on their phones. Autographs and photo shoots were overpriced compared to other large-scale conventions such as London Film & Comic Con, MCM, and Monopoly events. Being an autograph collector in the know on current prices in the UK, many guests were an easy pass for me. However, there were guests such as Anthony Daniels, Warwick Davis and Andy Serkis who were only about a £20 mark up on their previous price elsewhere.
I would also say that the layout of the event could have been a lot better, it made no sense having the Celebration stage and the other large stages close together as when panels ended people flooded into the central walkway, which made things very cramped. Luckily people were sensible, fans would take their time and not push and shove, but things could have taken a turn with the sheer volume of people moving in different directions.
There were halls that went unused and after the first few hours of the show, the entry hall, which was massive, went completely unused. At the Celebration Live stage there really wasn’t a lot of space and got noticeably busy from day 2 onwards. Why this was in the same hall as the autograph hall I cannot fathom, it really made no sense at all. We would have had a better experience if the event was arranged differently, better spaced out and more thought had gone into crowd flow.
This event could also have benefited from more photo op places and interactive displays such as the Rogue One costume display in 2016. I remember there being a VR experience and some drones flying at that event. We did not have a lot of extras this year, so it relied on you knowing what was going on at panels and also things to get involved in like trading. Getting involved with trading swag really did enhance my experience, giving away stickers to strangers generally felt quite rewarding and sometimes you would get a little something back. I didn’t make swag to receive swag but ended up with lots of cool patches, badges and stickers, even some salt crystals from Crait and sand from Tatooine!
Overall, my wife and I really enjoyed the event and had a wonderful time. This was in large part due to collector friends, old and new, who we spent time with. We also had the inside track from friends on getting autographs from behind-the-scenes people that were not advertised guests, along with the panels and after-hours events. I would like to give a special shout out to Lewis, Neil, Jamie H, Graham M, Graham C, Stuart, Andy, Darren, Mark & Sarah, Jamie F, Chris & Courtney, Paul & Neil, Dave R, Barry and Mark C who enhanced our celebration with their time, energy, and great company. Good times were had that’s for sure!
Celebration reminds me a little of Glastonbury – you can’t do everything, bands play at the same time, so you get clashes, and everyone’s experience differs. You can have a fun time at Celebration without spending big bucks. Smaller panels, autograph hunting outside of the autograph hall, hanging out at the live stage, trading and giving out swag, and interacting with the cosplayers really can make for an enjoyable day.
When the announcement came about Japan, we got super excited to visit a country that has been at the top of our wish list for a while. Celebration has given us the excuse to now make this happen, I can’t wait to visit Japan and do it all over again.
You can find me on the socials as Cloud City Collector where I post images from my collection and other Star Wars adventures, until next time, may the Force be with you…. always
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