I’d travelled up from the South Coast to attend and was worried that this may have been a wasted trip with reports of people unable to meet the guests that they had paid for autographs and photo sessions for. There had also been reports of long queues for parking with little parking onsite. The Bowlers Exhibition Centre website states that there are 800 free spaces onsite but from what I saw and the people I spoke to this was not the case.
I took a Taxi from where I was staying and arrived at shortly after 8 am at which point there were long queues of cars in both directions leading to the Bowlers Exhibition Centre, walking up to the venue there were at least 4-500 people already queuing to get in.
A fight also broke out between a person and security at the front of the queue, I assumed it was because someone was trying to park onsite but later it turned out it was a trader trying to restock their stall!
Whilst waiting in the queue I spoke to people who had to park up to half a mile away and by the time the doors opened after 9 the queue stretched all round the industrial estate that the Bowlers Exhibition Centre was situated in.
At the entrance there was the ticket check in area and a single person on bag check security, due to the number of people the member of staff just did a very quick cursory visual check on bags and didnt check any of the front or side pockets.
The main outside area had a couple of small fairground rides which would not have been out of place at a village fete, there was also a single burger van and a coffee van, sanitary arrangements were just a row of chemical toilets.
The main entrance to the event was through the Dealer Hall, which was in a Marquee, I was in a rush to get to the Autograph hall so I didnt spend a huge amount of time in the hall, there were a number of stalls selling t-shirts, sweets and collectables, prices were a little on the steep side.
Walking into the main hall there were a number of very impressive full size props and there was a section with retro arcade machines, there were quite a few Cosplayers dressed up as characters from Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, the full size Colonial Viper was an awesome sight!
I joined the queue for the Autograph Hall and there was some confusion as to which line to join as there were 2 lines, one for VIP’s and one for pre-paid ticket holders. The day before there were no segregating lines and it was a free for all, speaking with a member of the team onsite they said that only pre-paid ticket holders would be allowed into the autograph hall before the general public were allowed in at 1.00pm.
The Autograph Hall was quite small taking into account the calibre of the guests, the central section was cordoned off for the queues for William Shatner, Dolph Lundgren, David Hasselhoff and Billy Dee Williams, I joined the queue for Billy Dee at 09:30am.
The queues were being marshalled by a Scout troop and security didn’t seem to know much. I asked one security guard if I could hop out of the queue for a minute and go back and he just shrugged his shoulders and said “Dunno”.
Jeremy Bulloch was one of the first to arrive at 09:30 and started signing before his first photo shoot of the day, followed by Zach Galligan, Casper Van Dien and Jennifer Wenger. The Hoff arrived shortly after 10 to a massive cheer by which time there was about 300 people queuing for the guests, according to people I spoke to the day before once you had one signature you had to go round and rejoin the queue to get the next one, they’d changed this for the Sunday to say if you had more than one signature to get then you could stay in the hall till you were done. William Shatner had the largest queue and he arrived shortly before 11.00, he was an absolute machine and was averaging a signature every 90 seconds! Whilst waiting I hopped out of the queue and got Ian McDiarmid’s signature, he was a true gent, very friendly and shook my hand whilst thanking me for coming.
Billy Dee arrived at 11:20, he was bought to the signing area in a wheelchair and wasn’t steady on his feet. I spoke with someone in the queue who had attended on the Saturday and they told me one person had 50 signatures from him! I’d got to the from of the queue at about 12, I’d taken my ESB poster for him to sign and he was softly spoken asking how I was and how I was enjoying my day, he came across as being a really nice guy. Once he signed I went to get Denis Lawsons signature, I was second in the queue but he had gone to do his photo shoots so I waited 10 minutes before meeting him, he shook my hand and asked how I was, we had a chat about his role in the Original Trilogy and he was quite happy to chat for a while.
Finally I joined the queue for David Hasselhoff at 12:30, he was doing a panel and was due back at 13:00, I hadn’t pre-booked a ticket for him but they were taking cash at the table, got his signature by 13:20 and at that point I was done.
Decided to get some food and drink but the queue for the single burger van was as least 50 people long, I checked the marquee and it was also quite packed so decided to leave.
Overall it was a very disjointed experience, the staff didn’t seem to know much about what was going on, massive queues were building for the general public signings at 13:00, catering was minimal, everything seemed cobbled together, the overall opinion from people I spoke to was that For The Love Of Sci-Fi had grown massively over the last couple of years but their supporting infrastructure hadn’t, and from what I saw and experienced I can only agree, I decided to go due to the calibre of the guests attending but I will think long and hard before attending another one of their events.