One Story From Every Star Wars Celebration I've Been To (So Far...)

Ahead of Celebration London this weekend, here are some of my favourite stories from my favourite event from 2010 to 2022...

It’s weird to think how nervous I was when I first arrived at Star Wars Celebration.

The year was 2010, and my family had just pulled up to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida for day one of Star Wars Celebration V. It was my first time going to any convention of any kind. That fact, in and of itself, isn’t that strange. There are plenty of people who make Celebration their first con. What felt strange, however, was how far we had travelled for this moment. Literally.

Late 2009/early 2010 is when my Star Wars passion was reignited. Despite being practically obsessed as a ten-year-old heading into the release of Revenge of the Sith, I’d let my enthusiasm wane in the intervening years. Or rather, I’d tried to force it to wane. I thought Star Wars was something I needed to grow out of and, as a result, I tried to force myself to let it go.

It was podcasting that brought me back into it. Not my own podcast, that would come later, but I had recently been introduced to the concept of podcasts to listen to back episodes of radio shows. Then, one day I decided to look in the “Podcasts” section of the iTunes store for more things to listen to. Despite my efforts to outgrow Star Wars, I decided to do a search for it just to see if any existed.

To my delight, a handful of shows existed (a tiny fraction of the number that exist now) and I found one that suited my tastes. The hosts soon began talking about something called “Celebration”. I was intrigued. I looked through their back catalogue and found some shows from Celebration IV, which had taken place three years earlier in LA. It sounded like an absolute blast! I knew I wanted to go.

There was a major obstacle standing in my way at the time, I was still only fifteen and travelling on my own seemed out of the question. My only hope was to convince my entire family to go. No small feat.

My brother was also super into Star Wars at the time, so not much convincing was needed there. But neither of my parents had even seen all the films—they still haven’t! When I first broached the subject with them, to say they were confused would be an understatement. Neither of them had ever been to a convention, and prior to that conversation, I had never shown any interest in going to one. And now there I was pitching the idea of a family trip from Toronto to Orlando for a convention about a series of movies that they hadn’t seen all of.

For reasons that I still don’t entirely understand, they decided to go along with it. I still remember my utter shock when they told us that our family vacation for that year would be a week in New York City, followed by five days in Orlando for Celebration.

That shock and joy, though, were replaced by fear and anxiousness that first morning of the convention. We’d had such a fun time in New York that I had begun to worry that we were cutting the better vacation short to do something, in my mind, only I wanted to. Fortunately, I had nothing to worry about and everyone had an amazing time at Star Wars Celebration.

So much of what I’ve done, so many of the friends I’ve made and some of the best experiences I’ve ever had have come at Star Wars Celebration. I’m going to tell you about some of them now—one from each Celebration I’ve been to, which is all of them since 2010—and I owe it all to my parents agreeing to take this risk with me. Whenever you try something new you run the risk of it blowing up in your face. But when you take that risk it also has the chance to be life-changing.

It may sound melodramatic or over-the-top to say, but it’s true. Without Celebration, I wouldn’t have started podcasting or writing about Star Wars and I wouldn’t have met so many of the incredible people I’ve met because of that, some of whom I consider to be among my best friends. All because of Star Wars Celebration.

Now that the corny bit is out of the way, let’s get to the stories! And we begin at that very first Celebration I attended back in 2010.

The Main Event: Celebration V (2010)

The top-billed panel at Celebration V was a live interview with George Lucas, conducted by Jon Stewart. Talk about two legends, one stage. It was not to be missed.

“The Main Event”, as it was called in the schedule, was slated to take place on Saturday morning on the Celebration stage, with satellite broadcasts being beamed out to the other stages for those who couldn’t get in. Fans were expected to camp out overnight if they wanted to get a seat in the Celebration Stage.

Camping out overnight outside a convention center in central Florida in August was where my parents drew the line. They had been fully swept up in the spirit and the energy of Celebration, totally enjoying their time there. But an overnight line was a bridge too far.

Still, I desperately wanted to go, so a compromise was made. We would arrive at the convention center at 5:30 am and see what the situation was. The night before, my parents were bracing my brother and me for the fact that we were probably going to watch it in one of the satellite rooms. But despite their warnings, I still believed.

When we arrived that morning the line was long. A lot of people had camped out overnight for the interview. But my brother, my mom (my parents traded off who accompanied us to the con after the first day), and I all still dutifully joined the back of the line and began the wait for wristband distribution that would determine our fates.

I don’t remember when exactly they began giving out wristbands but eventually, the line began slowly moving toward the distribution point. I could see folks ahead of us being given yellow wristbands, indicating they would be watching George and Jon from the Celebration Stage.

We inched ever closer to the handout point. Then the line came to a stop when there was just one group in front of us. It looked like we might just miss out on the Celebration Stage. I began to console myself with the thought that, at least we would get the best seats in one of the overflow rooms.

That’s when I heard one of the convention staffers say the magic words,

“I think we have eight yellow ones left.”

Immediately I counted the group in front of us. There were four of them. That meant there would still be enough for us (plus one more person) to get in. Sure enough, the staff began to wave us through.

“George wanted you to have this,” another staffer said with a wink when they put the yellow band on my wrist.

It was a moment of pure elation! Even my mom was overjoyed at the moment, having gotten the all-powerful yellow wristband. We then waited for another hour or so until it was time to go into the Celebration Stage.

The interview itself was fantastic. Jon was a terrific interviewer, balancing interesting questions that die-hard fans would be curious about with some good old-fashioned Star Wars jokes. George was also in a free-wheeling form, dropping tidbits left and right—and even matching some of Stewart’s comedy bits with jokes of his own. Among the reveals was the confirmation that Darth Plagueis was in fact Darth Sidious's master (something that had only been speculated up until that point) and the debut of a new clip from season three of The Clone Wars which introduced the character Savage Opress. He also “revealed” the name of Obi-Wan’s homeworld: Stewjon. (Get it?)

George actually jumped the gun a bit with the Savage Opress reveal, mentioning that the character is actually Darth Maul’s brother. This was something the PR team, and production crew, were hoping to keep secret. Later in the day, at the big preview panel for the third season of The Clone Wars, showrunner Dave Filoni addressed the moment by saying that George had said something “interesting” about the character that morning and that he wasn’t going to repeat it.

The Main Event concluded with Stewart bringing out Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher to join Lucas on stage for a mini-reunion—and to announce that the Star Wars films would be coming out on Blu-ray next year. Included on the Blu-ray set, promised George, were some never before seen deleted scenes. He even showed one to the crowd.

Both George and Jon had delivered on the promise of the event. Plus, seeing the excitement on everybody’s faces, especially my mom’s (again, she hadn’t seen all the films), when we got in was a joyous experience in and of itself. There really is a magic to Star Wars Celebration.

Fanboys II—Canadian Eh’dition: Celebration VI (2012)

The next Celebration was back in Orlando two years later. This one was also an interesting journey to get to but in a different way.

This time, we invited our friends Gabriel and Daniel and their dad Mike to come along to the convention too. Gabe and Dan were also big Star Wars fans and, intrigued by our stories from two years earlier, wanted to experience Celebration for themselves. (Side note: listeners to The SWU Podcast will know Dan as the creator of the “Ben Hart the Star Wars Guy” and “Ben’s Connection Corner” jingles).

The only catch: we were going to drive from Toronto to Orlando for the con. We hyped ourselves up for the trip, saying that we were going to live out a real-life Fanboys (the movie about a group of friends who go on a road trip to steal an early copy of The Phantom Menaces) moment. Little did we know…

The road trip was an experience, to say the least. We basically drove for 24 hours straight, the driving split between my Dad and Mike (my mom decided to sit this one out). That amount of time with six people in a car would be a test for any relationship. I’m pleased to say we all made it through the experience still as friends.

But the car ride wasn’t the only part of Fanboys we would live out that weekend, we would also get the same experience that the characters at the end of the film when they are next to someone on the phone with George Lucas. Here’s what happened.

At the end of the first day of the con, we saw Dave Filoni hanging out outside the convention center and decided we should go say hello. It was myself, my brother, Gabe, and Dan.

As we approached Dave, however, we noticed that he was on the phone and was diligently taking notes. At first, I didn’t think anything of this. Dave Filoni is the king of Celebration. I assumed he was getting directions to all the super-exclusive parties he was invited to that night. But the conversation seemed to be going on for a very long time and Dave’s note-taking pace could only be described as furious.

Slowly it dawned on us, there is only one person he could possibly be on the phone with.

Once Dave got off the phone and came over to say hello to us, my brother—who can be direct to a fault—just straight up asked him, “Was that George on the phone?”

“Well, you know…” Dave replied in that classic, non-committal, Filoni way, before changing the subject. He would later confirm in a blog for StarWars.com that it was George on the phone that day while “a group of fans” was waiting to meet him. We were that group of fans.

Unlike Kristen Bell’s character in Fanboys, however, I couldn’t hear his beard…

European Vacation: Celebration Europe (2013)

We learned at the end of Celebration VI that the next Celebration would actually be the following year and that, for the first time, the event would take place in Germany.

I, of course, committed to going on that very same day. I doubled down on that commitment two months later when we learned that Lucasfilm would be sold to Disney and that work had begun on Star Wars Episode VII.

This would be the first Celebration since that announcement and the first opportunity for the new regime overseeing Star Wars to tease what they were working on. Ultimately, the film was still too early in development for there to be much in the way of “groundbreaking” information. The big news to come out of that Celebration was that John Williams would be returning to write the score for the new film.

But what I remember most about this Celebration wasn’t the announcements (or lack thereof) but the new friends I made. This was the first Celebration I went to by myself—heck, it was the first time I’d travelled anywhere by myself. By this point, though, I’d been writing and podcasting for The Star Wars Underworld for long enough that I tangentially knew a few people who would be there. I hoped to cross paths with them, but I didn’t fully expect quite the connection I would make with my soon-to-be new friends.

The two people I want to highlight in this story are Ciaran Duggan and Chris Lynn. I’d interacted with both of them online a little bit prior to the con since both of them also contributed to the SWU back then. We happened to find each other on Saturday afternoon in the food court area. What followed is one of those beautiful, quiet moments that Celebration can create. We spent the afternoon together, just chatting about Star Wars novels (specifically Darth Plagueis by James Luceno) and visiting the photo ops.

That afternoon was the foundation of some beautiful friendships. Once we returned home from the convention, Ciaran and I launched our first podcast together, “The Clone Wars Strikes Back” where we rewatched The Clone Wars and discussed them episode-arc-by-episode-arc. Our first, and most frequent guest on that show was Chris Lynn.

The Force Awakens: Celebration Anaheim (2015)

The sort of announcements about Episode VII that I hoped for in 2013 were delivered upon, and then some, two years later at the next Star Wars Celebration.

This one took place in Anaheim, California, about eight months before the release of The Force Awakens in theatres. So, naturally, the new film was at the front of everybody’s mind.

The organizers clearly knew this and scheduled the big preview panel to be the very first event of the con. This time I would line up overnight, joining my SWU co-hosts and some other friends and acquaintances in what we believed was a rite of passage.

The idea of lining up for a really long time for a Star Wars event has something of a mythic quality to it among fans. There are tales of people who waited in line for months outside of movie theatres just to buy tickets for The Phantom Menace in 1999. I’ll have more to say about the experience of lining up overnight at Celebration in a later story, but for this one, I’ll just say it was something I really wanted to do.

It was fun for a lot of the time, with adrenaline and excitement fueling you through most of the night. Other points, like around 4 am when you decide you want to try and get a little sleep on this horrible concrete floor, were less fun. But waiting in that line guaranteed a spot in the Celebration Stage. In for a penny, in for a pound as they say. It was a really fun and unique experience.

Like the Lucas/Stewart interview in 2012, the Force Awakens preview did not disappoint. There was an excitement and energy to that panel that has yet to be surpassed. JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy both seemed thrilled to be there, as did the new cast members Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac. They also introduced us to BB-8 for the first time, showing off the impressive technology used to make a “real” BB-8 that rolled out on stage with R2-D2 about halfway through the panel.

But the real kicker was the trailer. The panel concluded with the debut of the film’s second teaser trailer. You probably know the one, it’s legendary among fans. The first two minutes of the trailer show all new characters and locations, only to conclude with a shot of Harrison Ford, back as Han Solo, standing next to Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon.

“Chewie, we’re home.”

If you heard the roar that went up in the Celebration Stage when that moment happened, you probably would have assumed someone had just won the Superbowl or the World Cup. It was truly electric. I’ve described it in the past as a borderline religious experience for me, and I stand by that. I don’t remember standing up to start cheering. I just remember being seated, seeing Han Solo and Chewbacca again for the first time in 30 years, and then the next thing I knew I was standing and cheering.

I’ve never quite experienced anything else like that. And that was just for the trailer!

London Calling: Celebration Europe (2016)

There were many great moments, seven years ago, at the last Celebration in London. There was the reveal of Thrawn making his animated debut in Star Wars Rebels. Ben Mendelsohn appeared in character as Orson Krennic during the Rogue One panel. And Carrie Fisher made her final Celebration appearance, on stage next to Mark Hamill at the future filmmakers panel (which also featured Phil Lord and Chris Miller…)

But for me, what stands out about Celebration Europe (2016) was that it was the first year The Star Wars Underworld had a booth on the show floor. This was not my idea, but I was excited by the prospect. The podcast and the website had grown a lot in the last few years and this would give us a nice home base to operate from as well as a consistent place where listeners could come by and say hello.

Since it was our first go at it, there was a lot to be learned. We did some things right. I got a nice banner made and shipped to Ciaran who held onto it until the con. But what I didn’t realize was that you needed to actually hang the banner and you couldn’t just duct tape it to the wall (which, in hindsight, duh).

We also were a little too ambitious in what we wanted to do for giveaways and wound up not being able to get much of anything together. Somewhere I still have the design plans for the SWU water bottles we were going to have made to give away at our booth. But, sadly, those plans fell through and all we were left with for giveaways was…(drumroll please) business cards! (*insert sad trombone noise here*)

Regardless of the shortcomings/learning experiences, having the booth wound up being a tremendous experience! And one we would build on in 2017 and 2019. We did an impromptu podcast in front of a live audience from our booth following the Rogue One panel, which was tremendous fun.

We also had a proposal take place at our booth! A funny story about that, as the proposal was happening, another listener came up to the booth and was so hyped to meet us that they nearly took the attention away from the future bride and groom. It was a funny balancing act, but I like to think everyone came away from it feeling pretty good.

It’s Midnight in America, Do You Know Where Your Star Wars Director Is: Celebration Orlando (2017)

I said before that I had more to say about overnight lines, and there’s no better time to talk about them than as it relates to Celebration Orlando.

There are two keys to a successful overnight line: (one) there’s only one of them per convention, and (two) just about everyone who lines up for whatever the panel is gets in. Celebration Orlando came up short in both those regards. This, I have to think, was a major factor in the switch to the online lottery system that has been implemented for all subsequent Celebrations. It’s just a better, less stressful, and more restful way of doing things (even though I somehow managed to not win a single lottery for Celebration London this year…)

By the time Celebration Orlando rolled around, the Star Wars franchise had expanded to the point where there were multiple “big” panels, which the organizers (wisely) spread out across multiple days. The mistake was having overnight lines for each of the “big” panels. Part of this is on those of us who lined up, nobody made us do it several nights in a row. But it made it so that by the second-night people were feeling tense and frustrated with their fellow fans in the line because they’d barely gotten any sleep the night before.

Adding to the tension and frustration was the news that less than half the people who waited all night would get into the main stage for the panel. This is the definition of an unforced error. The organizers should have known based on the last two Celebrations that more space was needed and planned for such (to be fair, they definitely addressed this two years later in Chicago).

The line the first night was for the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars panel. People were obviously excited about it, and the line felt like a party. But in the morning there were a lot of very tired, very let-down fans who had waited all night to see the panel and had not been allowed in. The atmosphere up until that point had been electric, but it changed from then on to be one of anxiety and nervousness.

None of this is to say that Celebration Orlando was a bad time, and I don’t want it to seem like I’m still whining about an event that took place seven years ago. But to understand the power of what happened next, you need to know the context—what the feeling in the line was that second night as fans waited for the preview of The Last Jedi the next morning. The general mood was not a happy one, with people afraid of not getting in or losing their spot to line cutters.

But all that changed, when he walked in.

The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson showed up at the line around 11 pm. He didn’t leave until close to 4 am, even when his security tried to make him leave around 1:30. He stayed and met with fans, taking pictures and signing autographs for anyone who wanted one. The mood in the line tangibly changed. Now, even if you didn’t get in, at least you got a cool experience of meeting the director.

And he was just so kind. I was among the last people to meet him and he still took the same time and showed the same care for me that he did for the first people who met him. You could tell he was truly moved by everyone being there to see him and wanted to return the favour.

Whatever you may think of The Last Jedi and some of the choices Rian made in that movie, there is no denying that he is a truly kind and caring person. I roll my eyes every time I see someone online say he “hates the fans” because his actions that night proved the opposite. He made the night of every single person he met and singlehandedly changed the mood of the entire line. A Celebration miracle!

Changing The Narrative: Celebration Chicago (2019)

A lot changed between Celebrations Orlando (2017) and Chicago (2019). The Star Wars franchise went through something of a reckoning over some of the most toxic elements of the fanbase.

To say the release of The Last Jedi was divisive is an understatement. Lots of people love it (like me), and others do not. While there are many people with legitimate criticisms of the movie, the loudest voices after the film came out were the ones with the most vile opinions. The cast and crew became targets of a vicious mob of so-called “fans”, with Rose Tico actress, Kelly Marie Tran, leaving social media after an onslaught of racist and sexist comments directed at her.

It was, sadly, nothing new. Following the release of The Phantom Menace 18 years earlier, many of the stars of that film also faced a similar backlash. And while the prequels are far more well-regarded now than they were when they came out, the impact of those early days left deep scars. In 2018, shortly after Kelly Marie Tran was chased off social media, Jar Jar Binks actor, Ahmed Best, opened up about his struggles with mental health following the backlash to his character. He revealed that he even considered suicide because of what he went through.

I know this is a dark way to kick off the talk about Celebration Chicago but, again, it’s important to understand the context of what went down.

Celebration Chicago was the first Celebration since The Last Jedi was released, and Kelly Marie Tran and Ahmed Best were both scheduled to attend. Celebration has always been just that, a celebration. But the 2019 convention also felt like it was a response to everything that had happened in the year and a half since the last one. It was a chance to show the world, and the stars of the franchise, that the toxicity they see online isn’t what Star Wars fans are really about. Star Wars is about hope and love, and when the fanbase is at its best it celebrates those ideals.

And that’s what we did at Celebration Chicago.

The panel that kicked off the convention was a preview for The Rise of Skywalker, with a majority of the cast in attendance. When celebrity host Stephen Colbert introduced Kelly, the audience erupted into a massive standing ovation, complete with the entire auditorium chanting “Kelly! Kelly! Kelly!” Three days later, a similar scene played out again on the Celebration Stage when Ahmed Best took the stage for the 20th anniversary of The Phantom Menace panel.

I was in the audience at the Celebration stage for Ahmed’s moment, hollering and chanting my appreciation for him and all he’d been through, along with the other 7000 fans in attendance. I wasn’t able to be in the main room for Kelly’s moment, but I was in one of the satellite rooms and, even in there, there was a massive ovation when she was introduced.

Both Kelly and Ahmed were clearly moved by those moments. And ultimately, that was what mattered most. All those two ever did was give a performance in a movie that they hoped we would like. They did not deserve the hell they went through, regardless of what you may think of their characters. To see the two of them nearly brought to tears by the love they felt was the absolute highlight of the weekend.

Live From IHOP: Celebration Anaheim (2022)

We don’t need to go over in detail everything that happened between Celebration Chicago (2019) and Celebration Anaheim (2022). There was a pandemic, the world shut down, and the Celebration that was scheduled for 2020 was, like everything else that year, cancelled.

So the return of Celebration felt even more momentous than usual. It wasn’t just a chance to see previews of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and The Mandalorian, it was a celebration of just being alive!

For me, the absolute highlight of the convention wasn’t on the official schedule. It was the after-hours Star Wars Underworld podcast & pancake party that we hosted at the IHOP across the street from the convention center on the first night of the con. We did a live show with great discussions, had live music, and invited everyone in attendance who wanted to be on the show and talk about their Celebration so far. The whole event ended with an impromptu performance by Din of F-105 and Hannah Raeside that brought down the house. In this list of great moments, for me, it might be the greatest.

And to think, there was a moment when I worried nobody would show up.

It wasn’t because of COVID or the usual fears everybody has when they throw a party. But because that morning we learned that everyone who attended the Lucasfilm Showcase panel, which kicked off Celebration that morning, was invited to the world premiere of the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Kenobi was definitely the focus of Celebration. It was one of the most anticipated series Lucasfilm has produced to date and was debuting on Disney+ during the convention. Naturally, everybody was buzzing about it.

The hype for the series was evident from the Showcase panel, which was fantastic by the way, and I was lucky enough to be back in the Celebration Stage for it. The panel began with a video from the stars of Star Wars talking about the magic of Celebration. Given how thrilled everyone was to be back, I doubt there was a dry eye in the place.

As that video was playing, I noticed a large group of people gathering on stage. Before I had time to wonder what they were there for, the video ended and they began to sing. The song? The choral portion of “Duel of the Fates”. The crowd went wild as the choir, who were bathed in red light, sang their hearts out. As they reached the end of the performance, from opposite sides of the stage walked Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. They met in the middle as the choir stopped.

“Hello there, Celebration,” said McGregor.

From there, the two were joined by series director Deborah Chow and their co-stars Moses Ingram and Rupert Friend. When asked if she had any previews to show the fans, Chow replied that rather than show a new preview she’d rather show everyone the episodes. She then announced that everyone at the panel would be invited back that evening to watch the world premiere of the first two episodes.

Everyone else was thrilled, I was horrified. The time of the premiere was the exact same time as our podcast & pancakes party. While I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to attend the premiere, I was committed to our party. I ripped off the wristband that would get me back in that night and gave it to a friend I ran into on the show floor, telling them to enjoy the premiere.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t briefly consider going to the premiere and then coming to our party late. Some of my friends did just that. But as the host of the show I knew I couldn’t. I had to be there.

And, as much as I wish I could have done both, I know I made the right choice. Our podcast & pancakes party was a blast! There was a chill, fun atmosphere at the party, with everyone just happy to be together, eating pancakes and talking about Star Wars. The Kenobi premiere may have been great, I know it was from everyone who was there, but I left our party on Cloud 9.

It was a mini celebration of all that makes Celebration great. And that’s the people. I hope you’ve noticed through all the stories here that as great as the convention itself is, it’s the people who are there that make it truly special and truly unlike anything else. Whether it’s the people you come with, the friends you make there, the crowds you’re a part of, or even the celebrity that takes a little extra time with you because they know what it means to be there, it’s the people you encounter at Celebration that make it truly the best event out there.

And that, more than anything, is what I’m looking forward to this weekend at Celebration London. I hope to see you there.