The Opening Ceremonies at
Celebration Europe were held outside on the Victoria Court. Fans from around the world gathered to join the festivities.
Steve Sansweet greets the crowd and thanks the British fans always being fans and coming out to celebrate the 30th anniversary of
Star Wars.
An airplane ("A star destroyer") flies overhead, making too much noise to hear anything.
Mark Hamill briefly discusses his experience as one of the most evil characters ("The Joker") and the most heroic character ("Luke Skywalker")...and although he was interrupted by a few airplanes flying overhead, he was a huge hit with the crowd.
Ian MacDiarmid was next, talking about his experiences of portraying Emperor Palpatine in both the classic trilogy and the prequel trilogy, and a humorous story about Sebastian Shaw and his roll. When another airplane flew over head, he claimed it was actually the Death Star coming to take him away.
The Opening Ceremonies concluded with an outdoor screening of
Star Wars: A New Hope, with the crowd sitting on the grass watching this beloved film with their fellow fans.
While our original plan was to bring you live reports as it was occuring, the dreaded nemesis of any live internet reporting hit us hard...low battery power and a failed internet connection. So, maybe next time...we've still got a couple days left to go!
