Star Wars Celebration: Anaheim was announced in April on the last day of Celebration: Chicago, breaking with tradition and putting two stateside Celebrations in back to back years. The initial announcement was met with the usual mixture of excitement for the event and anxiety for our bank accounts. This past Friday, tickets went on sale and room blocks opened for the hotels.
For any big convention, there is always a joke about the madness to get tickets and hotel rooms right away. In past years, Celebration’s craziness was limited. None of the Celebrations before 2015 sold out. The first Anaheim Celebration in 2015 sold out by the start of the convention. Orlando in 2017 and Chicago in 2019 sold out months in advance. However, this time around seems to be different.
As of writing this, it’s been just over 48 hours since tickets went on sale. 4-day passes and the Jedi Master VIP passes are sold out, with the Jedi Master VIP passes selling out in minutes despite their $900 price tag. Saturday day passes are sold out with Friday day passes very nearly sold out. Hotel room blocks were gone within an hour of the opening. I was unable to locate a hotel despite being in the virtual queue as soon as it opened.
As Star Wars and convention attendance continues to rise in popularity, is it time for Lucasfilm to look at a change for their Celebrations?
Celebration is a traveling show, crisscrossing the United States and venturing internationally. I like that Celebration is in a different city. It gives me the opportunity to travel and see new places, while also giving different groups of people the possibility to attend. However, I don’t know how much longer the current model is sustainable.
So, what are some different options Lucasfilm can look into?
Perhaps, they should give up the constant moving around and settle on a single location? If they choose a single location, they can focus on growth and increase attendance size. However, I wonder if the convention would then get too big and too unwieldy. One of the things I love about Celebration is that it’s not the constant sea of people that you see at places like San Diego Comic-Con.
If they stopped moving, where could Lucasfilm plant their flag? The first potential is Orlando. It’s right there next to the Disney parks, it’s a major tourist destination which makes travel easier for most. However, it could increase travel costs for those not on the Eastern part of the US and limit who is able to attend. Orlando’s weather is generally favorable year round so that does give LFL a lot of freedom in choosing a date. The Orange County Convention Center, where they have held 3 previous Celebrations is large enough to accommodate the current size and give plenty of room for growth in the future.
There is also San Diego, but it has the problem of already being home to the largest convention and would seem to be creating a travel monopoly and run the risk of price gouging by local businesses. A slightly controversial city choice is Las Vegas. It’s a city that has more than enough hotel rooms within close proximity, hosts many conventions throughout the year including the annual Star Trek convention. However, some may not want to go there because of the more “adult orientated” parts of the city. Vegas has a lot of family-friendly options, but there is still quite a lot of things that an all-ages convention may want to avoid.
Other options, LFL could look into without fundamentally changing the nature of Celebration, are to revamp the ticketing system. Does it need to be a first come, first serve? Could they look into some form of lottery? Release tickets in waves? Looking again to SDCC, they have eliminated the 4-day pass and instead only sell individual day passes. If you purchase all 4 days, then you are given a “4-day badge” when you receive your physical badge. This could help because the 4-day passes will always sell out first. Although it can make badge purchases more confusing.
The other stress point is for the hotel rooms. If the rooms sell out immediately like they did this year and nearly did previously in Chicago, perhaps they need to look into scoring more room blocks. I don’t know the type of deals being made with the local hotels, but if there was some way to know if more rooms would open up later or if there is a possibility for supporting any other forms of room rentals. I know linking to an AirB&B or any other “alternative” room rental option could potentially open up a legal can of worms, but maybe there are other options that a large company like Lucasfilm or ReedPop could explore.
SDCC may be big, but always staying in a single location gives them the advantages of working with the local hotels. They have set up a lottery system for hotel rooms instead of letting people choose which one they want. Making it easier, but not giving you the freedom to choose.
I really love Star Wars Celebration. It is the only large convention that I regularly attend and I try my best to not miss out on any of them. However, the stress around getting tickets and hotels is only increasing. It makes me second guess about attending future Celebrations. It feels like there has to be a better way to do this. Star Wars Celebration has grown but it feels like the supporting infrastructure has not. I can only hope Lucasfilm, ReedPop, and any other partners are looking at improvements to be made.
Author: Paul Depaola
Born in the desert, raised on the beach and now residing in the mountains. An obsessive, compulsive geek with a tendency to bring everything back to Star Wars. In his spare time he is TK-5990, a proud member of the 501st Legion. Paul is also the host of his own podcast, Fanboys Talking.