Celebration Europe - A Success?

I know we as fans loved it but has anyone seen anything from Lucasfilm or any other official source as to how they have seen the success or otherwise of CE?

 

I haven't seen anything official as such, but at the auction on the Sunday, Steve Sansweet pretty much said it's been a huge success so that's good enough for me, lol.
I think it's fair to say they didn't expect the attendence to be as high as it was, so the vast numbers that did turn up (and to some extent the numbers that they had to turn away on Saturday) must have made a big impression and hopefully bodes well for another one

 

I agree. I haven't seen any revenue figures, but based on the turnout alone, I'd say they probably consider it a success. It seems they got about twice as many attendees as they expected, and at twenty-some quid per person per day...

 

I must say I was disappointed with the lack of reports regarding CE if you compare it with Comic Con (not a LFL endorsed event).
There was rumors that CE had much more attendance than CIV. I don't know...
I entered and left so many times, they could easily count me 20 times... lol...

Overall I was happy to attend it, but I expected more of a party than the shopping spree we witness there.
Much like Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clone, it will be better next time, if ever...

 

Greater attendance than C4? I highly, highly doubt that. C4 ran for five days instead of three and it was in a space about ten times the size which was nevertheless usually pretty full. C4 broke C3's records, I believe, which seems weird because of the lack of an upcoming movie, but you never know how the fan's brain works. C4 was in a far more accessible and populated location than C3 and probably drew more visitors as a result.

 

perhaps calculated down to relative to size and # of days, then

 

Yes,TwilekJedi, that's what it sounded to me... Average per day attendance.

 

No, I think even when they calculated it down C4 still had more visitors per day. I think even the C4 lines were bigger then at CE, but they were simply handled better.

I still think they underestimated the number of visitors during the weekend, the place was too overcrowded. So CE became a victim of its own success. Hopefully they'll learn from this and either cap the lines earlier or just open up all the available halls at the ExCel.

 

One thing they do need to do, is not hold the opening ceremony under a flight path of the near by airport.

 

Speaking of the opening ceremony - it shouldn't be scheduled at the same time as a major speaker. I opted for Mark Hamill and missed Ian McDiarmid as a result.

 

I honestly thought the opening ceremony would be much more interesting.
I mean... How many times have I seen ANH? Lost count...

But I loved Hamill's "oops" and McDiarmid's connection to the crowd...

 

We managed to do both. Mark was over early enough and the OC started late enough. And outside, no lines.


and the good thing about the flight path was that one plane that flew over exactly as the Rebel Blockade Runner did

 

Really? I think most of us went to Mark and made it back in time to find the rest of the people and had time to discuss the plans for the rest of the evening before the ceremonies started.

But I would think that whoever organized the opening ceremonies would have spend at least 5 minutes outside on the ground and would have noticed the fact that every 5 min. or so a plane passes by.

 

I couldn't put it better myself

 

We saw the huge crowd and decided against the Opening Ceremony. I think if we had gotten there earlier it might have been a different story. That's why I wish there had been some more leeway. We weren't about to leave Mark Hamill's talk early after spending almost 2 hours in line for it!

 

ah. granted, we didn't see Ian, but rather knew it was him talking on the stage (and Mark and Steve) because we were way in the back

 

We had pretty decent seats for Mark Hamill. We were about halfway back but we were on the side where he was standing so we could see him fine.

 

Initally we were told 45,000 people had attended CE over the three days, but since then that figure has been clasified as over 30,000 people over the three days, which is still very impressive and unexpected. The CE website says it was a huge success, so I guss that could now be classed as the official Lucasfilm seal of approval

I actually quite liked the planes going over during the OC, and that it took place outside. It was certainly different but added a bit of flavour and made it feel more like a festival rather then a convention. The timing with the Blocade Runner was also perfect

 

We actually did some plane spotting from the Thames side of ExCel for a bit of a break. It was fun! However they need more chairs or benches in that area.

 

I honestly wasn't that impressed by the Opening Ceremony, but no biggie, I guess. They also gave Ian an excuse to escape way too early without making further appearances.

Regardless of the size relative to C4, though, CE was obviously more successful than they expected it to be, so I hope they'll plan for a larger crowd next time.

 

I thought Lisbon was mad place to have an airport right in the middle... London City is actually between buildings...
Planespotting paradise!

 

I had a ball. Sure it was my first one, but there wasn't a second I wasn't smiling!

 

It was overwhelming. That's for sure.

 

32,000 Officially