Star Wars Celebration Chicago part 2

Saturday - Day three of Celebraion

I actually didn't go to Celebration at all on Saturday. Instead me and Ingeli followed some people from the 501st Legion: Star Garrison to a baseball game at Wrigley field. Neither me nor Ingeli had ever been to a baseball game, and since we both though that Saturdays are usually just too crowded on Celebrations we thought it was worth skipping a day of Celebration for a cultural excursion instead.

 The day wasn't totally void of Star Wars though. It was Star Wars day and the Midwest Garrison was out there trooping before the game.

 I felt a baseball game was the perfect place to try out a proper Chicago hot dog. No ketchup in sight.

Me and Ingeli had great fun, we also didn't freeze unlike the poor Texans who were shivering. One of them can be seen wrapped in the Star Wars/Cubs blanket that we got as a freebie. I think some of them were annoyed that we didn't open ours but used them as seat cushions instead. It was chilly, but most of them would probably have been a lot warmer if they had been wearing something warmer on their heads.

After the game I joined up with my original Star Wars family, the mods and oldbies from TheForce.Net's Jedi Council forums. It was my best evening of the trip, but I don't have anything but blurry "people in a bar"- photos.

Sunday - Day Four of Celebration

It was snowy and windy the whole day, I wouldn't call it a snowstorm, but it was nice staying in a connected hotel so you didn't have to go outside at all.

7:45 - get up, dress up in Admiral Daala and eat breakfast on the way down
8:45 - Gathering for the 501st Legion photo.
I have missed out on the Legion photos the last Celebrations, I haven't thought that it's been worth the hassle. This was the most organised photo I've been too, and in fact I think it was over at 9:10, which gave me time to be in the Nordic Garrison photo and the Imperial Officer photo as well.

Nordic Garrison

The official photo. I'm in the middle of the first row of officers behind the stormtroopers, beside an Ysanne Isard in red

The Imperial Officer Corps - I'm in the far left corner (being late to the photo I was happy to be there at all)

9:30 - Back to the hotel room and get changed to my fandom fashion version of Enfys Nest.
10:00 - Heading into the exhibit hall
10:40 - Photo opportunity with Paul Bettany. I stressed in the omrning in order to be in time for this, after the disaster with my photo with Erin Kellyman I really wanted to be there in time.

Yes, I am holding a copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and yes he noticed that. His performance as Chaucer in A Knight's Tale was the reason I wanted the photo at all.

After the photo I stayed at the Star Wars Live stage and saw the streaming of the panel for "The Mandalorian", the new live action series that is coming to Disney+.

12:15 - back to the hotel for lunch
13:15 - I went to the panel "Designing Episode 1" with Doug Chiang. I actually thought that I went to the panel "Behind the scenes of the Cantina" but had apparently mixed up the location and times between them. It didn't matter since I had had problems deciding which panel I should go to anyway, and it was fasciniating to hear Doug Chiang talk about his design process.

14:15-15:15 I finally had some time to just walk the floor, visit the drod bilders room and take some photos.

I ran into Jenna - Song of Amazon 

This is the mouse droid that was in the big box we were travelling with

15:10 - I got called in if I could jump into the Fantha Tracks booth early, I was supposed to be there at 16:00. I stayed there, until I was called down to the Fantha Tracks broadcast from the podcast stage at around 16:30. Then I met up with some of the Fantha Trackers for a little future project, and I didn't get back to the hotel room until around 19:00

20:00 - Game of Thrones season premiere with pizza in one of our hotel rooms!

It was great to finally be able to see the show at the right time, without having to get up extra early.

Monday - Day Five of Celebration

I seriously think a five day Celebration is a bit too much. Monday was a lot calmer, a lot of people had left on Sunday already, there were also fewer costumes around on the floor.

08:00 Get up, eat breakfast and dress in the Gold Handmaiden costume. I'm a lot bigger since I made the Gold Handmaiden, but thankfully it can be held up by the corset instead of the zipper and the gaping is hidden under the robe.

10:00 - I went to the queue for The Phantom Menace 20th Anniversary panel so I would be there early, but there was no queue so I could just walk straight in. The warm up to the panel was really nostalgic. They just played hits from 1999, finishing with The Saga Begins and the "Every Saga has a beginning" trailer.

The audience waving their lightsabres and phones during "The Saga begins"

 11:00 - The Phantom Menace 20th Anniversary Panel

The panel itself was unfortunately underwhelming. No surprises, no new details and nothing was handed out to the audience afterwards. The most fun was actually the thunderous greeting that Ahmed Best got and seeing photos from the mudfest that was Celebration 1 in Denver, few who were there would probably think Celebrations would turn into this huge convention circus. I did hear from a very reliable source that they had planned for a surprise guest but that the guest's flight had been cancelled on Sunday due to the snow and wind in Chicago. This probably explains why the panel felt short and scripted.

12:00 - back to the hotel for lunch, ordering a big bowl of noodles before I remember that I wore a corset and can't eat much. Caught the news of the Notre Dame fire while having lunch.

14:00 - I walked the floor for a bit until I went up to the top floor to catch a panel by The Kessel Runway on collecting Star Wars fashion.

I met a Naboo group

Handmaidens will rule the galaxy one day

On the 5th day I finally met up with Arty Anna and Pilerud's Cosplay on the floor

14:45 - back to the hotel to change out of the handmaiden dress. I did a last walkthrough on the floor and bought some final things, so much easier without the crowds.

15:30 - I was at the Fantha Tracks booth for the last hour, meaning that I missed the Closing Ceremony. As soon as I heard the cheard from the streaming stage I could go on social media to see that the next Celebration had been announced for Anaheim 2020, but no exact dates.

17:00 Celebration closed. I stayed around for a group photo with the Fantha Tracks team, and later we had a dinner together.

Here are some random costumers that I found during the days.

On Tuesday it was a matter of packing everything together and go to the airport. Celebration was over for this time.

As usual it was exhausting and wonderful.