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Jedi-Con 2014 – ForCever
3 October 2014 @ 8:00 am – 5 October 2014 @ 5:00 pm
The fandom celebrates!
On Wednesday evening we entered the Maritim Hotel with great anticipation, because we had intense memories of the huge main hall: on this stage we got to present a lightsaber show for the first time. That had been six years ago. After unloading the booth from our van, we didn't come back to the hotel until the next day for setup. Even though we were done comparatively quickly, we were the last to leave the fan room that day.
The first alarm went off at 5:45, because it took a while until everyone was ready for the day and the sandwiches were made. As in previous years, parking was complicated. But thanks to our experience from the last two Jedi-Cons, we still found good parking spots.
Friday was the busiest of the three con days. We barely had time to get used to standing behind our booth again, because in the afternoon we were already going on the big stage. Performing our stage show in front of an audience made up exclusively of Star Wars fans gave us an extra special kick. The atmosphere was fantastic, so we presented our show with lots of fun. We were very happy with how it went, and most of us now had a break.
But not Tim and Markus, who afterwards held their panel „Team Saberproject and the path to your own lightsaber“, in which Tim talked about the history of the team and the work within it, and Markus about the components of lightsabers and how to assemble them. Of course this panel sparked interest, and we could barely keep up with the interested listeners at our booth.
A little later, when the fan rooms closed to visitors, we were on stage again at the opening ceremony. First the opening film was shown, in which Tim, Fabi and Hendrik starred as Angelo Litricio, René Lezard and Justin Magine – as pirates who, led by Jack Sparrow and searching for treasure, stumble upon lightsabers and a holocron that lets them travel through dimensions. And so they ended up in a Star Trek transporter room, a Western saloon, a fast food restaurant („Burger Wing““) and finally on the Jedi-Con stage, where the film switched straight into live action.
A fight broke out between pirates and Sith. The Sith gained the upper hand, until finally Vader was about to deal the final blow to Captain Sparrow and was stopped at the last moment by Robert Eiba, chairman of the Official Star Wars Fan Club and organizer of Jedi-Con. He then explained to all Jedi-Con visitors that Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean now belonged together because they were both part of Disney, and shouldn't fight each other.
After this festive kickoff, we fell into our beds very soon that evening, because the next day we had to be on site a quarter of an hour earlier.
So the first alarm on Saturday went off as early as 5:30, and after the usual breakfast, the second Jedi-Con day began more or less relaxed for us. Tim, however, was back on stage hosting various panels. So that day we could devote ourselves entirely to advising people interested in lightsabers, or use the time to simply stroll around the con and watch a panel or two.
A first highlight was the panel with Anthony Daniels, hosted by Tim. During this panel, Anthony Daniels not only rearranged the whole hall by assigning all the visitors different seats, but also taught Tim how to move like C-3PO. But the voice actors and the costume contest were highlights that day too.
In the evening the Jedi Challenge took place, to determine the 13th member of the Jedi Council. The two chosen candidates had to compete against each other in four trials, and after a short demonstration of our own skills, we tested both candidates in lightsaber combat in the last trial.
After the challenge ended, many con visitors gathered in the hotel bar to wind down the evening with conversations and drinks.
The following night was of course far too short, and we felt the typical lack of sleep that's unavoidable at events like this. You could see it on us, and especially on Tim, who hosted another panel the very next morning. The last day offered one more chance to meet old friends again or to already say goodbye to new acquaintances.
Of course we couldn't miss going on stage once more at the closing ceremony to give our show. This last show was especially exciting for Hendrik, since his parents and grandparents had come to see him on stage. The highlight for all of us, though, was that Hans-Georg Panczak, the German voice of Luke Skywalker, spoke the intro and outro of our show live.
Afterwards we didn't leave the stage through the stage exit as usual, but sat down in the audience and enjoyed the rest of the closing from the spectators' point of view. So we joined in the celebration when the „Star Wars Cantina Song“ by Mark Dermul was performed live on stage and a conga line formed in the hall. After the farewells and words of thanks from Robert Eiba and Michael Eberhard (OSWFC) and a short film looking back on the last three days, the event was officially over.
Of course, for us that meant tearing down the booth and loading it into the van. After we did this in record time and still were the last to leave the fan room, the event was over for us too.
We look back on a series of events in early October 2014, and Jedi-Con was a worthy finale. We hope to have many more great experiences with everyone involved in the future!
Your Team Saberproject
