With Celebration Europe in the rear view mirror, MSN take a look at the history of the event, a highlight of the Star Wars calendar conceived by a very special and visionary man, Dan Madsen.
Excitement was high for Celebration. The preparations were complete and ready to go. Then as the event began, it rained for two days straight. Rain is usually fine for most conventions as they take place indoors. But with Celebration being held in a hangar bay and massive tents outside to be the main stages, this was an enormous challenge for the volunteers.
Still, the fans did not let it stop their fun. Madsen said:
“We would have the worst rain in 100 years. It rained for two solid days, pounding rain. It was a nightmare for a while. I was like, ‘I cannot believe that it’s happening.’ If we’d had it in the convention center, it wouldn’t have bothered us in any way, but we had to deal with that. It was a challenge, but you know, it’s kind of become known like the fans of Woodstock, out there in the rain and mud, enjoying Star Wars. Everybody was so excited by the fact that Star Wars was coming back, and we’re going to have some of the first footage from it. All the actors and production people from the new movie were there. So it was a pretty amazing, amazing event. A lot of the groundwork for all the things that you see today in all of the Celebrations were set down right then and there in 1999 here in Denver.”
He then joked: “Now it’s just done on a much larger, more professional scale and in a covered environment where nothing, [not even] the weather, can’t affect it in any way. [Star Wars Celebration] started there.”