Celebration V should return to Indianapolis!

I think it's already a lock for LA for both C5 and C6 as they are "penciled in" the LCCC schedule.
But there was a big something missing for me that was in Indy (besides the much cheaper everything) and that was the feeling of a crowd. Yes, it's great to have a lot of room but I never felt that there was ever a huge amount of people anywhere. I highly doubt the attendance was even close to 30K - more likely 20k. I spoke to a couple of the artists who were going to C4 before I left for LA (at a local Comic Con) and they both said prepaid tickets were significantly lower than expected. Of course they both thought George would show up, too.

and if the local celebrities aren't going to come with it's in their backyard why have it here? Yes the weather was perfect but I'm a former LA native and we sort of lucked out.

 

"Penciled in" certainly would not indicate a lock for LA - it simply means they have an option to return to LA if they choose to. Lucasfilm certainly has to be disappointed with the turnout for C4 due to all the exclusive merchandise - including the ultra-exclusive action figures - now being sold on their website. There is no question they were planning for a much bigger turnout. Regardless, I think it is wide open as to where C5 will be held which is why I started this thread and appreciate the open and honest discussion we are having here.

 

I hope that CV will not be held during a major holiday weekend. I was lucky to be granted the week of Memorial Day off. I work for a small company where there are 3 people above me. So if any of those people chose to take that same week off, I would've been asked to choose another week. I'm glad it worked out this year

 

This is a good point too. I'd think that April or September might be good months for a con in LA. Off peak travel months and generally as cool weatherwise as we were lucky enough the experience during CIV.

-Doc

 

What makes you say that? Early reports (such as the latest Bantha Tracks article online) state the attendance at CIV was greater than at C3, even without a movie to promote. And the C3 Vader figures (along with other merchandise from the C3 store) were sold on SWShop.com after the con as well, which is no different than what they are doing now with leftover CIV merchandise.

I highly doubt Lucasfilm was disappointed with the attendance of CIV or with how many exclusives they sold onsite.

 

Not good months weather-wise, actually. April can be rainy here (in a regular year, not the drought year we're having now) and September is always very hot. You would not like to be in a Stormtrooper outfit or Jedi robes out here in September; trust me. Plus religious calendars have to be considered and certain dates avoided. May only has the one American holiday .

 

Okay, and I'm asking this in all seriousness, is there EVER good weather in LA according to locals? Becuase it seems like the people that live there would have us believe there is about a 2 week window every other year that is a little bit decent.

I've checked the historical weather data and you all have it GOOD! (Aside from the smog) I think you guys tend to think if it is not Sunny and 75 degrees every day then the weather is horrendous. April averages less than an inch of rain. (.83 to be exact) Less than an inch is not "Rainy" by the rest of the countries standards by a long shot. That is like one or two days of rain.

You are right though about September being hot. October or November might be better choices. Well hot is relative too. The 84 degrees Sept. Average is hotter than the May average of 74, but the average humidity is lower than the rest of the summer. It is hardly the rainforrest locals would have us believe.

You guys have great better weather most of the year compared to 90% of the country, but I don't think you even realize it.

-Doc

 

There is good weather, and April is one of the months you can usually count on. But if there is an El Nino, it can bring a rainy month. It's impossible to predict these things so far out. That's why May is a safe bet, even with the "June gloom" that can happen. Me, I like the cloudy days.

Don't like what people like to call "beach weather" out here because that means it's hot, which brings the smog closing in and it's not pretty. Los Angeles is in a basin, and the stuff just homes in. That's why those of us who live here think September weather is bad. The air is very much cleaner than it was when I was growing up, but it can be a problem when the thermometer gets close to 90 degrees.

 

I felt that there was far less people at CIV than at CIII. Maybe it was that the convention center was bigger this year? I don't know. I do know that not nearly as many people were dressed up at CIV than at CIII.

As far as location...it should change for each Celebration. I think East coast one year, West coast another and right in the middle after that.

 

Saturday seemed just as crowded as the Saturday at C3 to me. I think everyones's perception is different. I know what I believe I saw and others saw something different. Okay. It looked to me like there were just as many Costumers. Some say they think less. Part of the perception could be the fact that there where 2 levels in all three halls and an outdoor walkway being used all of the time. In Indy, there was one big "L" shaped hallway connecting all the main exhibit halls and just a couple of smaller hallways branching off from that to the meeting rooms and the big ballroom. It was very easy to see the same costumers 10 or 12 times over the course of the Con. While at CIV you could walk three different ways between halls.

To me it seemed like at it's Saturday peak, CIV may have had a greater attendance. It is just so much more spread out that it was hard to tell. They did a much better job of staggering when the most popular panels would let out so that the halls had a better chance of not being flooded all the time. If the planners do their jobs properly you are supposed to not realize there as many people there as there actually are.

But it does not matter, I'll believe what I want and others will believe what they think they saw. To each his own. Regardless, I hope there was enough attendence to justify CV and I'd love for it to be in the East if possible. But I'll go wherever they have it.

-Doc

 

At first I though there wasn't that many people dressed up but when I seen all the pictures I thought I went to another convention than everyone else. It has to be because of how bog the convention center is.
I even came with a bunch of friends and I never seen them at the convention center the entire time. Only at the hotel.

 

The LACC is almost 4-times the size of Indy. So 30,000 people in a bigger convention center is going to feel "smaller" than the same crowd in a physically smaller area.

It's called the Laws of Physics, people.

Basically, it doesn't matter what is done to make the convention better people are still going to complain. You complain about waiting in lines at Indy but then you complain about "walking too far" in the bigger convention center that doesn't have lines for every panel/event.

I hope that some of you never come to San Diego Comic-Con with 124,000 attendees and a dealer hall that is 5 football fields long. The Fire Marshall shut down ticket sales one year because they could not fit another person inside the convention center. However, the group that organizes this convention is very skilled at handling crowds and the more popular panels are always put in the biggest rooms to accomodate more people. If there are lines for a panel, they don't last more than 10 minutes at most. Although people do line up an hour or two early for the Masquerade Saturday night, even those that can't get in can still watch it on closed-circuit television from other areas of the convention center. Smart. Too bad the Opening Ceremonies couldn't have been handled that way.

LFL did ask the staff of Comic-Con to run CIII, but they declined. Unfortunately for us.

 

I would have to agree. CIII in Indy (Middle), CIV in LA (West), and CV should be here on the East Coast. I suggest the recently constructed Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, CT. Call me selfish to suggest my homestate but I've been in it twice and it seems to be just right, not too small or too big, for the average number of "guests" between CIII and CIV. My only other suggestion would be MSG in New York or the Convention center in Baltimor, Maryland.

 

If there is a CV, it will be much better in LA. The construction you saw was for new hotels and restaurants. It will make it more "Star Wars user friendly. I don't see what was so bad. My hotel was a mile away and I enjoyed the walk in the mornings, and got to meet many new people on the shuttles. I don't think the LACC informed the local eateries that we would be bringing our money, but that will be taken care of when the construction is completed.

I liked it being spread out because it meant more space to hold bodies in line, walking, talking, or hanging out. I didn't like the cramped feeling of CIII. It just was too small and to keep an eye on my 10 year old nephew was not easy and I didn't have armor back then!

And for those who talk about making it central. How can you have a central location on a globe? There were people from all over the world. For our international visitors, adding an additional domestic flight would make their costs even higher. People traveled for a full 24 hours to get to C4, and Americans are complaining that it's not central? Come on. I don't care where CV will be; I will be there if it is Philly, Austen, Indy, LA, San Francisco, Europe, Asia, or Australia. I'm that big of a fan and will suck it up and do what ever it takes to be there.

 

LFL will have C5 wherever the $$$ leads it to.

 

Me and my wife are from Greenwood, Indiana, around 15 miles from the location for STAR WARS CELEBRATION II and STAR WARS CELEBRATION III, and attended the last three STAR WARS celebrations each date of the events.

STAR WARS CELEBRATION II was held in April of 2002 and we had great weather. STAR WARS CELEBRATION III was held in May of 2005 and we had some really bad weather.

I thought the weather was great for the most part for STAR WARS CELEBRATION IV. Sometimes my wife was a little cold and sometimes I was a little hot. And it felt like there was more room to move and to walk and I also felt the lines were very doable and went smoothly. It seemed like a very easy experience.

STAR WARS celebrations being held in Indiana means we don't have to spend money on plane tickets and a hotel and we don't have to ship things home. That saves us money and leaves me more money to spend on STAR WARS.

Funny thing is, I may have spent more money at STAR WARS CELEBRATION IV on STAR WARS than I did on STAR WARS at the previous two STAR WARS celebrations, combined and that's not counting money we spent on our plane tickets and our hotel and our food.

Wherever STAR WARS CELEBRATION V will be held, me and my wife will be there.

STAR WARS CELEBRATION V is getting closer!

 

Same here Scott, Minus the wife..She HATES Star Wars

 

WOW Echo...How can she hate Star Wars, its a very good moralistic movie, oh well!!! JK

I am sorry people but if its in Antarctica I am NOT attending, dont need no Hoth look alike!!!

 

Ohh no the Antarctica. but well if...we can pretend that we are in the rebel hiding planet.

My husband hates SW.

 

Hey, Patty, its been a while since I posted anything over on the Lightside. I'd like to know your thoughts on LA, Indy or some other place for C5.

 

It is absolutely unfair to hold Indy responsible for Gen Con's ineptitude at CIII. To be fair, you should compare locations only when considering a location.

Frankly LACC was too expansive, it was sheer torture to walk to the store or anything away from the Exhibit Hall after working almost nonstop for 6 days.

Speaking of the Exhibit Hall was not cool, they crammed all Vendors withe Autograph Hall and the traffic flow to the Autograph hall was horrible, not to mention the god awful taco stand cooking out in the open next to our photo stock and volunteer central was frankly disrespectful. Anne was wiping taco grease off of her computer at the end!! That was not so at Indy, we had our own hall, where the walls made incoming traffic alot easier to manage.

And morning security was much nicer to volunteers in Indy, LACC security literaly held back Anthony Daniels' handler and made exhibitors wait to exactly 9 am at the exact time that volunteers were pouring in, thanks for nothing.

The fact that we needed to take shuttles was crap. I was kitty corner to Indy Center at CIII and wasn't at an expensive hotel.

Only complaint about Indy for me... the city is dry you can't buy a cheap 12 pack of beer in a convenience store you have to pay $20 at the hotel. Yes there were more internal food vendors at LACC, true, but there were no restaurants in walking distance, whats with that???

My suggestion, Minneapolis. Its central, its friendly....

 

That was so weird...I was constantly passing that taco stand and it would be sending up steam and grease, I was wondering how you guys in the photo / volunteer area were handling that! They really should've had that thing outside or something...I bet everyone smelled like tacos by the end of the day..ick!

Martha

 

If Celebrations returns to Indy, hit me with a pm and I can tell of local places all close and within a reasonable walking distance of the hotels downtown that sale beer. Or places nearby you can drive too.

~PK~

 

I'm not going to suggest my home-state of Florida, just because I know it would be inconvenient for many and there's no real good places to hold C-V.

However, I would like the next Celebration to be held somewhere on the East Coast. I'm 15, and I was unable to attend C4 because of the distance. The midwest/Central US isn't very populous and I think would be a hassle for many, and would result in a lower number of attendees.

Indiana might not be so bad.

 

Hi Sith! Assuming that the RUMOR is true, C5 & C6 could be back in LA again. Start saving for it now. A plane ticket costs approximately $200 so you can start saving $9 per month for 2 years (ASSUMING that it'll be in 2009). Of course you also need to calculate other expenses into your savings.

Also you may want to look into splitting the cost of a hotel room with roommates. The best way to find them would probably be to start early. A suggestion would be to become an active participant of the many SW boards MONTHS or YEARS in advance (not 2 months before the Celebration). Fellow members making the trip would be able to trust you more, and you will have fellow members to vouch for you.

As stated on this boards by ValedaKor, the downtown area is under construction. Hopefully the construction by the convention center will be finished by C5. This should resolve the issues that some people had about LA (such as lack of restaurants):

LA SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT

I wouldn't mind if the next one is in Florida as long as it's held during the winter. I just read that this is one of the best times to visit because it is not humid and there is not as much rainfall. Plus my family could also make an extended vacation out of it. By that time my son will be 5 years old and should have a longer attention span to appreciate Star Wars & Disney World.

Hopefully you'll make it to C5

Mother Mia