Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates, Star Wars: Celebration | Tagged: conventions, movie, ReedPOP, star wars, star wars celebration, The Last Jedi, trailer

The Journey To 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi': A Celebration Sleepover

The concept of camping out for something is a tried and true part of the convention experience. Those of us that have decided to try and brave Hall H at Comic-Con International have slept out on the grass for over a day to get into the various panels just see footage early. Star Wars Celebration Orlando is proving to be no different as the line to get into the panel for Star Wars: The Last Jedi started many hours earlier than it was originally supposed to. While ReedPOP and Lucasfilm tried to keep people from starting a line before the originally announced 8pm starting time, there were too many people to try and keep everything under control.

Our little group ambled along, consisting of myself and various members of the MarkingStarWars network who graciously allowed me to camp with them, we made our way into the building. There was only one entrance and the line quickly fell apart as everyone pushed to get through one set of metal detectors. Only once everyone was inside and able to get into a line and get settled did we really get a feeling of what kind of experience this was going to be.

It was much colder than anyone expected. This is Florida, and they had the air conditioning turned up. That would made sense on a basic level, it's warm out and there is a lot of body heat in here, but in practice, the concrete floor just made everything a little miserable. The general feeling of the line was a strange mix of tired and relaxed. A good portion of these people were camping for the second night in a row, so sleep deprivation was sinking in on several different levels.

Things got interesting once director Rian Johnson turned up. It isn't rare that an actor or director will swing by a line like this and say hello to the fans, but it is rare that one stays as long as Johnson did. Johnson came in and announced his intentions to see everyone and he stayed for over four hours meeting fans, signing various things, and generally being a stand up guy. He made the experience better for everyone in the room.

What did not make for a good experience was a large group of people that decided the best way to keep themselves awake was to keep everyone else awake as well. They started a large circle of lightsaber fights which would have been fine around 10PM but come 2:30-3:00AM a lot of people were ready to get some sleep.

The general mood of the room never got hostile. There were a few tense moments in the line that shouldn't have existed, and I was not present when they turned people away from the doors, but everyone appeared to be in good spirits. There were a lot of people grouped together as they met new people and made new friends.

The morning got a little tense as the various line jumpers came in and tried to cut in lines but the Celebration staff were on top of it as much as they could be. There was a general sense that a lot of the staff were both more prepared and more organized today than they were yesterday.

The consensus from the room was that the previous day was not great, but the people that were willing to camp out didn't appear to care too much one way or another. They were there to see the panel regardless, and they were optimistic that things were going to be better today.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!