Today was my longest day ever.
After about eight hours of flights, two hours of lugging 65 pounds of luggage across three different train lines, and a single serving of chia porridge to tide me over that whole time (due to a clerical error, the in-flight sandwich I pre-ordered never got to me ) I finally reached my hotel for Star Wars Celebration Europe.
It was a grueling and confusing journey, but I wore my Grogu hoodie and tried to keep my spirits up. Here’s the thing about traveling to Celebration, though: there are fellow pilgrims all around you, hidden in plain sight. You catch a glimpse of a TIE fighter duffel bag, a Darth Maul tee shirt, or a 501st Legion patch, and you lock eyes and give each other a slight nod and a smile, as if to say: we’re both on the same journey. We’re still headed in the right direction. This is the way.
There was no rest in sight, though. Despite the fact that I’d been awake for roughly 26 hours and could barely keep my eyes open, there was stuff to do. For example, I had to figure out how to get from my hotel to the actual convention, because sometime between now and when I booked it, the entire expanse of concrete in between the two was ripped up for construction. The choices, attendees were told, were to walk around to the other end of the convention center, a fifteen minute journey, or pay thirteen pounds a day to ride a single train stop back and forth to a station we could actually probably see from the hotel lobby.
So I dragged my weary body out of the hotel room and set out on a scouting mission, wondering if this Celebration, I would make any friends.
Last year, I made friends almost right away. While wandering around on the first day, trying to figure out where to go, I ran into a very nice couple, Ray and Jen, who were similarly wandering. We ended up figuring out the way together, and sat next to each other in the absolutely epic first panel. We laughed, we cried, we cheered, we oohed and aahed over Kyber crystal jewelry and Padme-inspired hoodies.
I wasn’t sure I would run into Ray and Jen again after the first panel last year–the convention is a big place–but to my surprise, at the very last panel on the very last day, I was sitting in my seat waiting for things to happen and heard, “MY FRIEND!” So we sat together for the very last panel, too, which is how we all learned that our next destination would be London.
So, I knew Ray and Jen were here somewhere, but, again–big place. So I made it my goal to make more friends.
I made the trek over to the convention center with a nice young man named James, who was from Leicester and had never gotten to attend Celebration before. I offered to take his picture under the banner, because things like this are important to commemorate, and he offered to do the same for me.
And just as he snapped the picture…
Along came Ray and Jen!
They introduced me to the rest of their traveling party, and we headed to pick up our tickets and attend the sneak preview of the official convention store.
While we awaited our turns to go on a shopping spree, a group of important people skipped the lines and headed into the store. Jen raised an eyebrow and awkwardly waved at one.
I looked at her strangely. “Who was that?”
“Jon Favreau.”
He disappeared pretty quickly, and we all dispersed into the store to do our shopping. But it wasn’t long before I noticed a small but growing ruckus forming near the tee shirts, and this time, I was able to immediately pick out who was causing it:
Jen was trying on a tee shirt that said ‘Fly Casual’ nearby. Acting as cool as I could muster, I wandered over that way to line up a surreptitious shot.
“You realize Dave Filoni’s behind you?” She asked.
“I know,” I answered. “I’m flying casual.”
Once I had picked out my souvenirs, I headed to the lengthy payment line, where I struck up a conversation with two New Yorkers, Frank and Keith, who were wearing exhibitor badges.
It turns out, it was THIS Frank:
He’d gotten a spot in the Celebration art gallery, which is insanely competitive. And this piece was one that I had AGONIZED over whether I’d be able to find space for it on my walls. So Frank and Keith were cool dudes, and now I think I have to stop by their booth and pick up that print I left in my cart…
Well, tomorrow is day one of the Celebration. The big day. The Lucasfilm Showcase. If it’s anywhere near as epic as last year’s, it will be worth the trip, and it doesn’t look like I will have trouble making friends.
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Laura Writes 