My Twilight Convention Experience

I'm going to start with sharing my Twilight Convention experience, where Twi-K and I first discussed setting up this blog!

I went to the Twilight Convention in San Francisco with my friend (Twi-K) on February 13th, and we had a blast! We got general tickets for Saturday ($30 each) and sat in pretty good seats. The reserved seats ($50) were right beside and ahead of us, and there were plenty of spots to sit in our general seating area, so I would definitely recommend buying general tickets if you don't care about sitting right at the front of the theater. Of course, I got very tiny photos of the celebrities, but I'm okay with that. I didn't buy celebrity photos (or autographs) either, but I got my own candid photos at the Volturi Vampire Ball so I'm okay with that, too. I prefer to take my own photos.

One of the guest celebrities (Charlie Bewley, who plays the Volturi tracker Demetri) actually ran into the audience to answer questions, so I got a close-up look at him. He was very British and clever and friendly with the fans (and very young!) Overall, he was a fun celebrity guest, earning extra points from me by coming into the audience to chat. Charlie also mentioned that he had fun holding back Alice with one hand (with one hand behind his back) in the Volturi scene in New Moon, especially since it annoyed Ashley Greene. I'll have to watch for that scene on my New Moon DVD (coming on March 20th!)

As a side note, nobody swarmed Charlie when he was in the audience, which was good. Instead, everyone pulled out their cameras/phones and stood up to get a better shot of him.

The other guest actor for Saturday included Daniel Cudmore (who played Felix, the Volturi who smashed Edward's head into the marble steps) and he's very tall (6"7"!) He talked a lot about being Canadian, and said he preferred being outdoors and doing very physical/extreme sports. It was interesting (to me) to learn more about him as a person. The next time I see New Moon (or Eclipse!) I'll pay more attention to Felix.

We also had Gil Birmingham (who played Billie Black, Jacob's dad) as a surprise guest actor. He appeared very mellow and confident. I was super-hungry and tired by the time he came onstage (I'd been sitting for many hours in the theatre,) so I didn't pay as much attention to his Q&A. He seemed to very knowledgeable about "the biz," and was very respectful of his fans. I liked him. It would've been nice to chat with him over dinner. I'm sure he'd have a lot a stories to share.

Tip: Bring along lots of healthy snacks that fit in your purse of backpack while you're sitting in the theater. They did provide ice water in the theater, but you'd have to miss some of the action to go find food and soda in the hotel. I wished there was a soda or snack food machine closer to the theater!

Overall, the conference seemed well-organized. The speaker sessions were broken into one-hour blocks, with short interviews with fan site folks (from Twilight Lexicon, Twilight Moms, and HisGoldenEyes) in between. Many attendees took breaks between the celebrity speakers, but most of us came back for the auction. Wow, the people who made bids at the auction were serious fans! I'd never pay $200 for any celebrity photo or banner! But it was definitely fun to watch.

My friend and I got a nice hotel room (Hyatt Regency, $139/night, very clean and quiet room with a view of the atrium.) We headed there to prepare for the Volturi Vampire Ball ($99/ticket.) We bought our meals at the hotel cafe in the atrium, which offered mostly pre-made sandwiches, salads, and light meals. We ate in our room and prepared our 3 centerpieces for the centerpiece competition at the Ball (prize is a $250 gift certificate.) Twi-K and I both wore Gothic vampire costumes (with different accessories) for the ball. We carried our 3 centerpieces down to the ball early to set them up.

By the way, the Hillywood actors were at the convention. They put on short skits and hosted during the day. They also hosted the Volturi Vampire Ball in the evening, and posed for endless photos with the fans. They were great!

The Ball started at 9 (with a DJ) and the Hillywood players were there all night. They checked out our centerpieces (one of which was called "Bella's Dream") before the dance floor opened. There were also free non-alcoholic drinks and cookies, and a cash bar (although I didn't buy anything there.) The music was typical dance club music, but I wished they played something from the Twilight movies--that would've been so cool!

The stage at the Ball had two cool "fires" that the Hillywood players stood around. The Jacob character (who was shirtless the entire time) really stood out in the firelight. The two Hillywood sisters (Hillary and Hannah Hindi) led a dance competition. They were great professional dancers and both very cute!

I was really surprised when they announced the winning Twilight centerpiece--our centerpiece, Bella's Dream, won! The award ceremony was so quick that Twi-K and I didn't get a proper photo, but here's a photo I took afterwards. There were so many other pretty centerpieces, and I tried to take photos, but it was so dark and my phone camera didn't have a flash. I'll try to post of few of them anyways, even though they're very dark (and blurry--sorry!)



Anyway, Twi-K and I danced and chatted with other fans until midnight, when the Ball ended. We gathered up our centerpieces and headed to bed, exhausted after a long (but fun) day. I was really jazzed that our centerpiece won! (And we got lots of photos with us and our centerpiece--our brief moment in the sun!)

Even though we only had tickets for Saturday, we'd won a $250 gift certificate to spend on Creation merchandise, so were given wristbands the next morning to shop in the vendors' area. I guess if we wanted to, we could've attended the whole Sunday convention (I just walked into the theatre without anyone saying anything!) but we already had plans at our respective homes for Valentine's Day. Anyways, it was fun to spend our gift certificates and have some extra free time at the convention!

Overall, I recommend the Twilight Conventions. They are professionally-run, they pack in a lot of entertainment, the Hillywood people are great, and it's a good way to meet other Twilight fans!

Final tips: if you plan to attend a Twilight Convention, scan the Web for info and reviews, be flexible, and enter the contests. You never know when you might win, and you'll have lots of fun memories!

To see more photos from this Twilight Convention, click here.
To see how we made our "Bella's Dream" centerpiece, click here.
To see how we made our "Twilight Kisses" centerpiece, click here.