I met up with a group of "original" Xena online fans and convention goers during the Xena Convention, and many traveled out to what was billed as the "Last Official Xena Convention." No one was really surprised to get a copy of the program to find that the last page was an order form for tickets to the 2013 Xena Convention. The "Last Last Official Convention?" I've got a few random observations from the Convention below, mostly about the fan culture. You can read about the stage appearances elsewhere, I'm sure. Try the Talking Xena or Xena Online Community or MaryD's page. I attended events on Friday and Sunday. Saturday I worked on a project that has a deadline looming, so I didn't go to any scheduled convention events.
The convention fan base has shifted. There were a lot more men than I've seen in the past. A lot more young adults. It's still a very gay-friendly crowd (though I cannot imagine it otherwise). A younger, second generation of fans have reached adulthood and have started coming to the conventions. That was interesting.
The conventions have really morphed into something it didn't used to be -- there are now so many satellite meetings and gatherings away from the main auditorium (all of which cost money to attend): Hudson's yoga, Musetta Vander's Chi Qong, the charity breakfast, the cabaret, the cocktail party, the karaoke thing, these tiny "meet and greets" of only 10 fans per actor, the photo ops. Gold tickets only get you a very few autographs, but most are separately ticketed. And, except for LL/ROCs appearances, we found the main auditorium to be lightly attended during the day. It's really got a different vibe than it did in the beginning. Though, I think part of that difference is because the show hasn't been on the air for such a long time. When the show was in production, the fan base was energized by the fact that no one knew where the story was going to go next. Creation writes about the dropping attendance at the X:WP conventions; I think it has a lot to do with how Xena and Gabrielle's story ended.
On the drive back, we talked a lot about how we felt about this Con and especially LL/ROC's appearances. AFIN really traumatized the original fans and they felt so betrayed by the series ending. So much so that some people were burning their Xena collections, almost ceremoniously. The fans went along for the ride while the show was in production and the end of the series made a lot of people feel pretty terrible. Don't think so? Check out the two "Special Group Therapy" issues Kym Taborn published in Whoosh! covering the end of the series. However, a little more than 10 years has now passed since that series finale and the original fans are more mellow about it; not accepting, but not as angry. So, we think this Con went a long way to heal some of that anger. That's just our opinion from our own little observational group.
I did see one auction during the convention: The "no bid minimum" auction was primarily for the large posters and banners Creation makes to decorate the main auditorium. They did auction off one pole arm prop and it went for $150. Considering I bought a bunch of those at It's A Wrap! in 2001 at only 2 for $25, that was a pretty good price.
Creation expected a lot more "reserved" seats to be sold: there were about 10 rows of empty seats in front of us in the general seating. Just before Lucy and Renee came out on Sunday evening, a staffer announced they were unsold seats and they were up for grabs. We stayed in the seats we had, because the scramble was a little bit too wild for us "oldsters."
Honestly, one of the best things I did was join up with my "original con" friends Saturday night. We had dinner together at a nearby British pub and then went back to the hotel to watch a slideshow and some videos, DJWP made. She got permission for us to use an empty conference room, so we popped a couple of bottles of champagne and reminisced with pictures of previous gatherings (a lot taken at my old house and the current one) including a number of pictures of friends trying on various Xena costumes I own. DJWP showed several of her music videos: Smack My Bitch Up, Macedonian Getaway, Gladiator (her masterpiece, IMO), and The Bitter Treat (a fan re-dub of the ENTIRE episode, with all of the songs and dialogue re-written -- I participated in that project).
DJWP sold a Creation Gabrielle's Sais set in the original shadowbox for $200, several cardboard standees for $25 each, and some LL/ROC signed posters for $100 each. In less than 5 minutes, she was standing next to me with over $500 in cash. She just brought these items out to the hotel lobby where we were meeting up to go to the pub, and she had a little sticky note: For Sale on the Sais box. It was impressive -- everything was bought by young women, very excited young women, racing to the ATM and back. Wow. Something to think about.
No comments:
Post a Comment