Greetings! – Star Wars Celebration Europe IV

Hello there! If you’ve found this blog through my ‘Niamos’ postcard I gave away as swag at Star Wars Celebration London 2023 then welcome and thank you for popping by!

This will have been my third Star Wars Celebration – I volunteered as crew at the 2013 Celebration Europe II held in Essen, Germany. I didn’t have anyone to go with so thought crewing would be a great way to get involved. I did get to go along to a fascinating talk about a fan led restoration of the Lars Homestead (and got a fab patch).

By the time the next event came along in 2016 I was part of a Star Wars Costuming group the 99^th Garrison and we even had a stand at Celebration Europe III when it was held in London. I even got out and about in my officer costume for some of it too.

This time at Celebration Europe IV I’ll be a general punter bringing along with my husband for his very first Celebration. We survived a day a New Comic Con in 2018 so that should hopefully have prepared him for the scale of what to expect at the Excel this Easter. But 4 days… that might be too much! Big thanks to my husband Andy for designing my ‘Niamos’ postcard (and also my blog logo), it’s very handy being married to a graphic designer.

Let me introduce myself – I’m a geek, fan girl whatever you want to call a lifelong sci-fi fan. I have a particular love of tracking down and visiting locations used in tv shows and films which resulted in this blog. I think it stems from visiting Portmerion, Wales when I was a child having seen it in repeats of the 1960’s TV show ‘The Prisoner’. Being able to actually walk around and interact with somewhere you saw on TV made a big impression on me.

I’ve been fortunate to be able to travel to some amazing places around the world, the ‘Lord of the Rings’ locations in New Zealand and ‘Indiana Jones’ locations in Tunisia and Jordan are particularly memorable.

As Star Wars has been one of my great sci-fi loves, I’ve obviously been trying to visit places that have been used in the films and now the TV series. Here’s the ones I’ve been lucky enough to visit and have written about;

From the original trilogy;

Luke’s home (Hotel Sidi Driss) Tunisa ‘Star Wars’

Prequels;

‘Mos Espa’ surviving sets, Tunisa ‘The Phanton Menace’

Sequels;

‘Ahch-To’, Skellig Michael, Ireland ‘The Last Jedi’

‘Takodana’ Puzzlewood, England ‘The Force Awakens’

Other films –

‘Scarif Base’ London Underground Tube ‘Rogue One’

Disney+ TV series;

‘Niamos’ Cleveleys promenade, England ‘Andor’

‘Segra Milo Partisan base’ Winspit Quarry, England ‘Andor’

There’s so many still I want to get to. I was so close to another Andor location when we where in Scotland last year – Cruachan Dam – we stayed in the pub mentioned in this article without knowing what was nearby. https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/4818541/star-wars-ben-cruachan-inn-andor-hollow-mountain-power-station/

Given that I live in the Northwest of England I should really pop by the Lake District and take in the rest of Takodana. There’s some stunning locations used in the prequels in Italy and Spain which are on my bucket list. Also there’s been recent filming of the second season of Andor in the Spanish city Valencia at a location used in Doctor Who a few years ago so this has been on my geekdar for a while now  https://bespinbulletin.com/2023/03/pictures-and-videos-of-star-wars-andor-season-2-filming-at-the-city-of-arts-and-science-in-valencia-spain/

Who knows, I might even bag another Andor location while in London for Celebration…

Five random facts about me

1. I started costuming in 2014 as I was curious about the people in amazing outfits I kept seeing wandering around conventions. I joined the 99^th Garrison and soon had my first costume an Imperial Officer then quickly progressed to a Stormtrooper which is a whole load of fun. I’ve costumed as Rey – both Jakku and Last Jedi versions. I thinking my next costume might be a Mandalorian, because… admit it they are the coolest thing in Star Wars at the moment.

2. My wedding day featured a TARDIS, Daleks, Davros along with Darth Vader, Stormtroopers and R2-D2. To top it off Blues Harvest played at the reception. (They’re playing at #Cantina2 at the 02 with Ash this Celebration, that’s so cool!). Basically, we had our own ‘wedding comic-con’ and it was magnificent!

3. I’m old enough to have vague memories of watching the last season of the classic series of Doctor Who. I can’t wait to see what Russell T Davies brings us with his return to the series, the 60^th anniversary specials and what the fabulous Ncuti Gatwa does in the role.

4. I’ve ‘acted’ in a Star Wars fan film – Dawn of the Resistance

5. I’ve started to dabble in the world of podcasts. I’ve contributed to the Really 007 podcast, my husband and I sharing thoughts on Bond films re-released at the cinema. Also check out my friend’s podcast ‘Retrospection’ where we discussed the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie – https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-6sxa3-138b1bf

I aim to write a blog post every month but sometimes life gets in the way. I’ve got so many places I’ve already visited that I still need to write about and many more places I still want to go and see. Hope you found this interesting, please check out my earlier posts, and keep an eye out for updates.

MTFBWY