San Diego Comic Con
By: The Nerdy Girlie aka Megan Gotch
Nerdsville USA converged on San Diego,
California this past week. San Diego
Comic Con was bigger than ever. Nerds
packed the exhibition hall, panel rooms, and the Gaslamp District over the
course of the con.
Everything Comic Con touches sells out at
an alarming rate. This year badges, hotels and even parking passes went faster
than ever have before. The actual Con
was no different – busier than ever.
Preview night was the busiest I have seen
the in my five years in attendance. You
could barely move in the exhibition hall.
It was difficult to find where a line ended or began. My sole purpose that night was to purchase
the exclusive BBCA Doctor Who and Sherlock tees. I made it to the booth rather quickly, but
the line had been capped, I was told to come back in fifteen to twenty minutes. Upon my return, the line was still capped and
there was even a pre-line that was forming.
After spending most of my night in this pre-line, I was still unable to
purchase my items, and ended up leaving Preview Night empty handed.
On Preview night I also attended my very
first Comic Con party ever! My friends
over at the SDCC Unofficial Blog threw a party at Henry's Pub. When I arrived the place was packed and there
was even a line to get in! It was so
great to finally meet the faces behind all Twitter avatars! I had an amazing time, chatted with some
great nerds, and left with some awesome swag.
I then bounced over to Nerdioke hosted by
The Nerdy Girls. I arrived to a fellow
nerd girl belting her heart out and every seat taken! It is so great to see nerds gathering and
having a good time together. We weren't
able to stay long due to obligations to my own SherlockeDCC party, but I was so
glad to drop by and support the Girls.
After dark the Gaslamp of San Diego is
filled to the brim with excited fan boys and girls! Swag is getting thrown at you from all
different directions. Lights and sounds
bombard your senses. Every building is covered with something comic/popular
arts related. So even if you don't have
a San Diego Comic Con badge, there are still so many things for you to
participate in and still get into the Comic Con spirit.
The first official day of Comic Con began
bright and early to line up for the first ever SDCC Sherlock panel. We arrived at five in the morning, but there
were plenty of nerds already camping out from the previous evening. The line
for Ballroom 20, exhibition floor, and everything else made up one big LONG
line, but the line for H Hall was pretty slim.
That was the only time during the week this would happen. You don't really have to line up that early
to get into a panel -- unless you want close seats. On Saturday, I did Ballroom 20 again, lining
up at nine in the morning and still was able to get into the first panel of the
day. BUT word to the wise, H Hall is a
beast and to get into that room, you MAY want to play the camp out game. The Con staff as usual were great at keeping
the lines contained, moving and keeping people from cutting. Throughout the entire con I never heard there
was an issue with cutting. You just had
to line up EARLY.
After sitting all day in a room full of
nerds, listening to stuff you came there for, and stuff you didn't, you feel a
sense of community. That stuff you
didn't care about before, becomes number one on your list of things to do as
soon as you get over your Con coma. You
make new friends and begin building relationships that will grow with each
Comic Con.
This year I was excited to be asked to
help host the SherlcokeDCC fan party.
What started out as small idea, as a Sherlock fan meet up, grew in to an
amazing event. The party sold out, had
people waiting in a huge line to get in,
and had three very special guests grace us with their presence. Steven Moffat, wife Sue Vertue and Mark Gatiss
all showed up to our fan party! Everyone
was ecstatic and it made the event even more of a success.
That same night was the Nerd HQ fan party. Nerd HQ is an offsite event. It was held at Petco Park this year. The event is run by The Nerd Machine's
Zachary Levi with all proceeds donated to Operation Smile. Throughout the Con they hold Conversations
for a Cause -- small intimate panels of only 250 people. The fans get an hour of Q&A with their
favorite celebrities. This year some of
the many panels included: Doctor Who, Sherlock,
Supernatural, Orphan Black and one featuring Zachary Levi himself. The Nerd HQ fan party is held every Thursday
of Comic Con and it is a place for all the nerds and nerdettes to dance the
night away. Nerd HQ also features tons
of video games and a photo booth. Smiles
For Smiles gives you a chance to get your picture taken with one of the many
celebrities that visit Nerd HQ.
The rest of my con experience was quite
mild compared to that first massive day.
Though I had to wait in my fair share of lines, nothing can compare to
the beast that is the H Hall line.
Saturday night we wanted to camp out for Doctor Who, but came to find
out that some people began the line for that panel (which started Sunday at noon)
at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday! The line had
at least a thousand people in it by the time we got there at midnight. So we decided against spending the night on
the concrete and spending the last day of the Con in a seat at the back of H
Hall.
Even though I had two good days on the
exhibition hall floor, I still left feeling like I didn't see everything . The hall is massive, with massive amounts of
people. What did help me this year is
planning ahead. I had a list of all the
exclusives and swag I wanted in addition to the booth number I could find them
at. I spent all the free time I had on
Friday and Sunday trying to get through the list. Slowly but surely I marked things off. I found that is faster to venture away from
your group to get the items you want.
Planning is key when trying to tackle a Con
as big as San Diego's. Make your lists,
take your notes, and just get out there and have fun!
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