Middle-earth News friend, Lennie Freeman, had an amazing experience at Fantasy Con and we have the honor of sharing her experience with all of you!
In the summer of 2013, I decided to take a trip to San Diego to visit a friend that I hadn’t seen in over ten years. It was a wonderful vacation made up of visits to the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, a trip down to the ocean side and landmark hotel The Coronado. As my friend and I drove around, she pointed out a series of buildings and said, “And that is where Comic Con is held.” I looked out the window with longing, knowing that a visit to that caliber of a con was likely never going to be an option for me. This trip to San Diego had been saved for, for ages and would likely be my only trip out of state for quite a while. My friend continued driving, and I watched my dream of attending a con slip by, or so I thought.
This last April, I logged in to my twitter and saw a “favorite” from someone with an account called Fantasy Con. I wondered, What the heck is Fantasy Con? and decided to check it out. I discovered that Fantasy Con was a convention being held in Salt Lake City, and was practically in my backyard. The goal of this convention was to focus on the world of fantasy including films, books, and art. They intended to bring in the best of the best in fantasy, and I quickly wanted to become a part of it. I tempered the idea of going for quite a while, but I became convinced of the need to go when I saw the names of several of the actors from The Hobbit movies listed under special guests.
Admittedly, The Hobbit and its sequel had become one of my favorite films over the last two years. Maybe that was partially due to the fact that I had developed massive crushes on several of the actors (Richard Armitage, Dean O’Gorman, and Aidan Turner), but the book itself was also of significant importance to me. I had been in line to see the film long before I even realized who would be in it.
When I looked at the ticket prices, they were fairly reasonable, but what I really wanted was a VIP pass ($150), and I just wasn’t sure if it was worth it to buy one yet. Over the course of the month, Fantasy Con continued to add noteworthy actors- Graham McTavish, Adam Brown, Jed Brophy, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher, Ken Stott, John Callen, and Sylvester McCoy. Then, they hooked me with the additions of Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and John Rhys-Davies. That was it! I was done! Click! VIP tickets purchased.
As the months approached, I counted down the days until I would be leaving. The convention was being held over the 4th of July weekend (July 3-5) and in addition to all the fantasy fun, promised the largest fireworks display in all of Utah. The trip was just over five hours from the Boise, Idaho area (a hop, skip, and a jump to us Westerners), and I brought a friend along for company. We arrived just after four on the 2nd and immediately went up to the convention to pick up our VIP passes. We needed them to get into a dance party that night that was being DJ’d by Elijah Wood. YEP! I said it. Elijah Wood would be on the turn-tables. No way was I missing that! And boy did he know his stuff! We were there from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. and left with the music still pounding in our ears.
The next morning was an early wake up call to pick up our VIP swag bags, which included a souvenir program, several coupons for vendors, and a cute cuddly dragon, the mascot of the con. All VIPs were given access to the hall one hour before general admission, and I was very grateful for it. It allowed us to explore the area and take some pictures without hordes of people being in the way. After taking some pictures and chatting with some staff from The One Ring.Net and Badali Jewelry (they are the official crafters of the One Ring), we settled down at a table in the food court to make a plan of attack for the panels we wanted to see. We also scoped out the autograph tables, which was where I planned to live for most of the day. I brought with me an annotated hardback copy of ‘The Hobbit’, which I wanted to get signed by all the Hobbit actors.
You can watch all of Lennie’s videos from Fantasy Con on her YouTube channel.
I planned on attending two panels to start. The first was hosted by The One Ring.Net where they discussed possible upcoming scenes from The Battle of the Five Armies. They are lovely people and very knowledgeable. Next, I went to a presentation by Doug Adams. If you aren’t aware of whom he is, Mr. Adams is the author of the liner notes on all LOTR or Hobbit CD’s and is kind of James Newton Howard’s right hand man. He discussed the music from the films and how they were composed. I enjoyed the panel very much, but my mind was on the Hall of Heroes and the autograph stations.
It was right around lunchtime when I finally made it to the autographs, and several of the actors were at lunch, but in front of me was Adam Brown happily chatting and signing away. I pulled my book out of my swag bag, took a deep breath, and walked on up. My hands were shaking as I pulled out my money to hand to his assistant, but Adam quickly put me at ease. As he talked to me, I couldn’t help but notice what a genuinely kind and attentive man he was. You know when you talk to people and you can tell that they are really interested in what you have to say, and are giving you all their attention? Well, that describes Adam to a “T.” He calmed me down, and by the time I reached the table for Jed Brophy, I was thinking, “I’ve got this talking to celebrities thing down!” The amazing thing was, Adam’s level of attention proved to be the same for all the actors. Each one took time to learn a little bit about me, chat, and shake my hand.
And now, I have to give special thanks to Peter Hambleton. Over the last month, I have mentioned him in several of my twitter posts, and every time, he has taken a moment to respond in some way- favorites, retweets, even an actual response. I told him how much I appreciated his replies and he smiled broad and wide. “I’m just getting used to this whole social media thing,” he said, and I assured him he was doing a great job. I can say beyond a doubt, that I may go ga-ga over the “hot dwarves,” as they are called, but Peter Hambleton is my hands down favorite.
I managed to make it through the autograph area fairly quickly and came away with an experience that I will treasure for many, many years to come. But now that autographs were done, I was planning on panel camping in the main hall. So many amazing panels were scheduled in there over the course of the next several days, and I was not going to miss a minute of them.
The first Middle-earth themed panel scheduled for the hall was also one of the biggest. Fantasy Con had built a lot of their marketing around the idea that this convention would include the largest gathering of Middle Earth actors at one time, in one place, in the history of conventions, and the Middle-earth Kick-off Panel was where this was to take place. It began with introductions of the staff of TORn along with Doug Adams and Mark Ordesky (executive producer of LOTR and ABC’s The Quest). They all spoke briefly, but they knew who the audience was really here to see. One by one, the dwarves and the wizard were brought on to the stage. They were followed by a pair of hobbits and one final dwarf (Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and John Rhys-Davies). A chuckle and a whoop quickly went up from the audience when Sean Astin walked down the catwalk, and putting the mike to his mouth said, “Po-ta-toes!” They took their seats on the set steps and began to take questions from the audience. Over the course of the hour, they delighted us with tales from the set, but there were a few moments that stood out. The first was when an audience member asked Billy Boyd to sing a few lines from his haunting tune in The Return of the King. We were all entranced when he sang the full song. You could have heard a pin drop, which is significant when one considers there were over 3,000 people gathered in the space. The cheers that went up when he finished were deafening. My other favorite moment was when a young woman, asked what the prosthetics were like to wear and John Callen promptly invited her right up on stage and placed one of his prosthetics over her face. Again everyone cheered and clapped. It was such a lovely experience, and on a rather intimate level. Only 3000 people meant it was easy to see the stage and the actors, and there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. This intimacy is something I know that a large-scale convention like San Diego Comic Con will never be able to offer its attendees. I knew in that moment, the first night, that I would be planning to come back the next year.
The next day kicked off a series of panels that flew by. I was so happy and excited to be there, that I lost track of time and even forgot to eat lunch. I listened to John Rhys-Davies tell stories in that deep sonorous voice of his and couldn’t take my eyes off him. Summer Glau graciously graced the stage and showed me how quiet and gentle she is compared to the butt-kicking characters she plays. Sean Astin and Billy Boyd presented together and made us laugh and giggle. Sometime look up the story of Sean and the loom, and you will know why. I ended day two with a smile permanently plastered to my face after listening to all the Hobbit boys give each other a hard time and then take the audience step by step through Dwarf Boot Camp. Day three included individual panels with Billy Boyd and Sean Astin, peppered with listening to Mark Shepard from Supernatural and more wonderful dwarves. When the time came that night to finally say goodbye to Fantasy Con, I found myself exhausted with sore feet and an empty wallet, but I had had the time of my life.
During his panel Mark Shepard mentioned how amazing this convention was and that as fans, it belonged to us. He told everyone listening that if we lost it, and didn’t support it, we were idiots, and I couldn’t agree more. My experience at Fantasy Con was one I will never forget. I had never imagined that I would get so many opportunities to interact with people that had been a part of my upbringing, my childhood, and my still ever present quest to explore the world of Tolkien and his amazing imagination. I have put aside my wistful aspirations to attend San Diego Comic Con. Fantasy Con is where it is at, and I will be back! And maybe next year, some of you will join me.
All of us at Middle-earth News want to thank Lennie so much for sharing her experience with us! A little more for you about Lennie:
Lennie’s love of Tolkien began when she was just five years old when her dad was directing a ‘Hobbit’ play. She had the privilege of playing a towns-person from Lake Town though her only line was “The dragon is coming! The dragon is coming!” From that point on, she was hooked. Professionally, Lennie is a high school English teacher in the Boise area (9th and 11th grade) and an amateur photographer. In addition to Tolkien, she is a huge Doctor Who fan and shares a love for all things geeky.
You can follow Lennie on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube. She also has a Facebook page for her photography called Lenore Freeman Photography.
