Fantasy-Con’s official mascot!These dwarves aren’t afraid of Smaug!
The first annual FantasyCon was an amazing weekend! Tens of thousands of fans from around the country and many actors from around the world traveled to beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah for an engagingly fun weekend of group panels, signings, photo ops and fireside chats. Here is a recap of some of the fun from several TheOneRing.net staff members who made the journey there.
Elijah Wood Hosts Kickoff Party
Starting off the week was an amazing dance night hosted by Frodo himself DJ ElWood!
Elijah Wood is on the right in the center of the stage. Frodo has some groovy tunes!Official Fantasy-Con photographers got better shots than we did 😉
Middle-earth Kick-Off!
To start FantasyCon with a celebrity blast, an all-star group of Tolkien guests took the stage including:
Sean Astin (Samwise)
Adam Brown (Ori)
Billy Boyd (Pippin)
Jed Brophy (Nori)
John Callen (Óin)
Peter Hambleton (Glóin)
William Kircher (Bifur)
Sylvester McCoy (Radagast)
Graham McTavish (Dwalin)
Mark Ordesky (Executive Producer LOTR)
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)
Ken Stott (Balin)
author Doug Adams (‘The Music of The Lord of the Rings’)
It is now just a little over 2 weeks from the start of San Diego Comic Con International, the biggest and most talked about Scifi/Fantasy convention on the geek calendar. We at TheOneRing.net have been busily planning for an epic week of Hobbity goodness to share with all of you, attendee and stay-at-home fans alike. This is your handy dandy little guide to when and where you can find us throughout the convention.
This year we will only be at one location on the Exhibit Hall floor, sharing space at the WETA booth #3613. We won’t have a huge amount of room in this booth, but then that is because WETA is pulling out all the stops for the final Hobbit film and ‘Bringing It’. You will want to make Booth #3613 a ‘must see’ location, even your non-Tolkien fan friends will want to visit WETA. So stop by the booth, say hello to TORn and WETA folks alike, buy some stuff, have your camera ready and enjoy the geekiness of all things Hobbit.
The full SDCC panel schedule will officially be announced beginning this Thursday, but here is advance notice of when our panel will take place.
An Unofficial look at the final Middle-Earth Film “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” Thursday, 7/24/14, 5:00p.m. – 6:00p.m., Room: Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront
The Hilton Bayfront is next to the Convention Center down near Hall H, and the Indigo Ballroom is probably the biggest room we have yet had at SDCC, so don’t be late and risk missing our sneak peek at the final film in the series.
Edited to Add 7/8/14: Warner Bros. has announced their slate of films for SDCC and The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies will be among them. Their panel will be at 10am on Saturday, July 26 in Hall H. Peter Jackson was confirmed to be attending, and will be joined by Director George Miller with Mad Max Fury Road. Also mentioned was Jupiter Ascending and there will be a sneak peek screening of Richard Armitage’s Into the Storm on Wednesday, July 23 at 10pm at the Reading Gaslamp Theater, but no word yet on how to snag tickets for that.
Throughout the weekend TORn staffers will be tweeting, posting pics and videos to Facebook, posting stories here, live streaming, and giving you as much Hobbit news as we possibly can. This will include some of the new projects the actors are working on that are also at SDCC, such as “The Strain” with Sean Astin, “Legends” with Sean Bean and “Outlander” starring Graham McTavish. See the video below for a message from Graham regarding SDCC:
Graham McTavish has confirmed he will be at SDCC, so consider this your official invite to our Laketown Luau on Friday night, beginning at 7pm at the Kona Kai resort on Shelter Island. The SDCC website has finally posted the shuttle routes and we can now announce that the Kona Kai is on the Teal shuttle route. You can find the shuttle schedule here and remember to click on the PDF link at the bottom for the map of the hotels and route information. The Teal route is set to take about 30 minutes to get you between the convention center and the hotel, but if you have a car, the distance is only 6 miles away.
You can only attend the Laketown Luau by purchasing a ticket at our Eventbrite page. With loads of games and a relaxed, outdoor environment, this will be a family friendly party, so bring the kids.
We will update this post or make a new one as soon as we have confirmation of what Warner Bros. might be doing for film previews, including “The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies” and whether PJ will put in an appearance. Same goes for confirmation on other film projects, such as Richard Armitage’s ‘Into the Storm” and Luke Evans’ “Dracula Untold”. We already know Outlander will have a premiere event during SDCC.
The Official Day 1 of FantasyCon was yesterday, July 3 and was filled with cosplay, LARPing, music and heraldry. A few awesome Middle-earth costumers visited our booth, and we even had a Dwarf in a Barrel. The barrel and the 4 Hobbits standee proved to be quite popular with those holding a camera, especially the children.
At 11am TheOneRing.net hosted their first panel at the convention with the Preview of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies to an enthusiastic crowd. We fully expect that the trailer will be out by the time San Diego Comic Con rolls around in a few weeks, at which point our Preview panel will be dramatically updated.
Near the end of the day, the entirety of the Tolkien programming track was introduced on stage at the Middle-earth kickoff party. Artists, musicians, writers and TheOneRing.net staff on hand, plus an Avalanche of Dwarves, as John Rhys-Davies put it, a Wizard and a pair of Hobbits converged on the Main Ballroom stage to thunderous applause. Moments later, the entire room went silent, you could almost hear a pin drop, along with one wee Hobbit singing his heart out.
During the panel, numerous questions were asked of many Dwarves, Hobbits and a Wizard, but none were handled with quite so much originality as the one about the Dwarven prosthetics.
The day ended with the Red Party, a less bloody affair than the Red Wedding. Costumed denizens of Westeros and many other realms all danced the night away.
Wednesday in Salt Lake City was set up day for FantasyCon at the Salt Palace convention center. The FantasyCon people have been setting things up for days, and when you see some of the images of the sculptures, you will know why. They have gone all out to achieve a rocking cool Fantasy atmosphere, and with the various fan groups they’ve brought in, this promises to be a memorable weekend.
They then closed the hall today at 5pm to allow vendors to leave, or go eat and come back later for the charity event. At 7pm, the doors were opened again for numerous kids and their families who are beneficiaries of various charities, including Angel’s Hands Foundation, Shriners Hospitals for Children, Kids on the Move and Hope Kids. The children and their families were escorted in by a Piper past a processional of costumed warriors, fairies, stormtroopers, Hobbits and wizards. It made for a joyous entry as they were then lead to the main stage for the unveiling of Volos, the King of all the dragons attending the convention.
There are numerous costumed combat troops that will be demonstrating and teaching during the con, there is Dragon training going on, gaming, actors on panels, loads of cosplay everywhere, a Castle, numerous Dragons, giant Sentinels, and last but not least, a Rock Monster.
Panels begin in earnest tomorrow morning, with a Red Party capping off Thursday’s schedule. Friday opens with a Costume parade and Saturday ends the whole convention with a bang, and really really Big Bang of the Fireworks variety. Should you find yourself anywhere near Salt Lake City in the next couple of days, this may well be the funnest way you will find to spend your July 4 holiday. http://www.fantasycon.com
FantasyCon is about to take over the airwaves here on TORn, but before it takes over completely, here is your friendly reminder about the Lake-town Luau taking place in San Diego during comic con. We are planning a number of fun and rather unique games for you all, giving everyone multiple chances to win prizes. So here are your 5 reasons to attend the Lake-town Luau.
1) Golfimbul – For the fans in LA who attend the Baggins’ Birthday Bash, you are all familiar with this game, and for those who aren’t local, you might recognize the name from the first chapter of The Hobbit. Anyhow, this game involves a baseball bat, a goblin head and some rabbits, and remember, there are NO SPECTATORS, ONLY PARTICIPANTS!!!
2) Pin the Black Arrow on the Dragon – This is a Middle-earth twist on an old game, come try your luck and see if you have what it takes to Be Like Bard.
3) Last Fan Standing – This is a trivia contest that creates pandemonium when played, especially when more than half the field is eliminated in the first question or two. Are you brave enough to try and be the Last Fan Standing?
4) Costume Contest – Speaks for itself, but you can enhance your chances for a prize if you can also quote a line or two of the character you are dressed as. This one is for the Hams out there.
5) Hobbit Hula Dancing – Well, we won’t turn down Dwarves, Elves or Orcs doing the Hula either. This event is pending until we find out if we can get an A/V system to play a little Hawaiian music.
So now that you know what is going on at the Lake-town Luau on Friday, July 25, get yourself your tickets, the prices go up after July 10. Lake-town Luau ticketing page
There is a lot of very important info. Please take note of the following:
-To join the TORn Cosplay group, simply email me at Garfeimao@TheOneRing.net to RSVP for everyone in your group, and then follow the below instructions on when and where to meet up. You can also stop by our booth #519/521 to sign up on Thursday.
-The parade is on July 4th at 8:30 am.
-Fantasycon goers get free parking at Gateway Center
– We will start staging at 7:30 am. Please arrive as close to 7:30 am as possible. I will be dressed as Bilbo after the spider fight (think cobwebs), so find me to check with me, and then I will check in for the whole group.
– If you are a walking group, you MUST be in the staging area by 8:10 am. *If you are not in the staging area by the allotted time, you will NOT be able to participate in the parade!
– You will only be allowed to drive up/down 50 North until 8:00 am.
– The staging will take place in the North-West corner of the parking lot on the corner of 50 North and 500 West.
Check-in will be at the staging area. Please send ONE person to check-in as soon as every member of your group has arrived in the staging area. Again, find me in this staging area (look for other denizens of Middle-earth) and then I will check in for the group at 8am sharp. Our group number is 27 and there will be roller skaters behind us.
– Every member who participates in the parade will be receiving one (1) free one-day pass for Friday, July 4th. You will receive them at the parade check-in.
**When marching, please keep 2 – 3 car lengths between your group and the group in front of you. Please also be aware that we have many varying groups that will be on roller blades, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, etc. that many need additional space to do tricks or performances.
If you are confused, or need any help the day of the parade, find someone in a FantasyCon volunteer t-shirt. They will be more than happy to provide any needed assistance.
The parade line-up is as follows:
Police Car
Royd Tolkien
Bagpipes & Drummers
1 – Volunteers w/ Banner & Dragons
2 – FantasyCon Performers
3 – LARPERS
4 – Utah Film Commissioner
5 – Fear Factory
6 – Umbrella Corp.
7 – Mandalorians
8 – Jabba da Hutt
9 – Rouge Base Rebel Legion
10 – Ghostbuster
12 – Castle of Chaos
13 – Midvale Main Street Theatre
14 – NUAD
15 – VIP Limo & Voodoo Productions
16 – Fairy Cosplayers
17 – Loop & Hook
18 – Rose Court Guild
19 – Winter Faire
20 – Atomic Hype
21 – Rocky Mountain Muggles
22 – DrumBus
23 – MASK Costume
24 – Out of Shadows Theater Group & Salty Horror Film Fest/Convention/Productions
26 – Nihon Matsuri
27 – LOTR Cosplay Group
28 – Red Rockettes Roller Derby
29 – United Furry Fandom
30 – Steampunk Cosplay Group
31 – Nightmare on 13th
33 – ****Cosplay Chaos Group All solo cosplayers or small groups
****All solo or small group cosplayers, that are not listed above, will be in the “Cosplay Chaos Group”, which will be ending the parade.*** *
