Editorials

1997-1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002+

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The Time for Celebration

It's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since we stood in the rain of Denver, Colorado for the Star Wars Celebration. While there we're certainly difficulties, we all loved what happened there and of course would like to see it happen again soon.

It's time to celebrate Star Wars. We are in the biggest revival of the popular movies since they were first made. We've got new books, tons of toys, even the last two movies yet to come in the next few years. Why not celebrate Star Wars again at a celebration?

There's so much to be said, and here's a few thoughts about possibilities of having one every year, or at least more frequently than right before each of the next two movies.

Use different locations: The beauty of Denver is really quite amazing, and this location close the the Official Star Wars fan club probably helped for the first convention. But now it's time to spread the wings and fly a little bit, now that we've got one under our belt. I would say give Chicago a shot, or consider Atlanta, New York or Seattle as possibilities. While it would certainly be harder not being in the backyard of the fan club, it would enable fans to travel to a different part of the country and also make it more accessible to regional fans who cannot travel nearly the great distance. I personally like the more centralized locations, but I'm sure there would be other strong points for the coastal locations as well.

Have more props: One of the highlights of the Celebration was the props, and it left me wanting more. Understandably, the props for Episode I were limited, especially since no one had seen the movie at that point. I say have someone pull some strings and have tons of props from the classic trilogy there as well. On a related note, a huge arcade of all of the generations of Star Wars arcade games on free play wouldn't hurt either.

Bring in the big folks: While we did see Ahmed Best, Anthony Daniels and Ray Park (amongst many others) at the Celebration, we'd love to have seen Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman. Of course, this may prove to be most difficult since they're all heavily sought after actors with tight schedules, but it would be a huge draw none the less. I personally loved the video clips from Ewan, Lucas and Ian McDiarmid as well, but would have been amazed to see them in the flesh.

With this having been said -- keep up the good work! There were many strong points during the convention and was really a fantastic experience and we'd love to do it again sooner rather than later, and of course, bigger and better.

Hopefully, we'll see the next Celebration sooner than 2002, and we'll all get to see each other again soon! What a great time to celebrate Star Wars!

Joshua Griffin
TFN Staff
3/19/2000