Having found out that fans outside of America can now join D23, both Beans and I signed up for the general membership (which is free), we are still talking about upgrading to the Gold Duo membership.
As part of the General plan you get FanFare Newsletter, access to general events and sweepstakes. Beans noticed D23 were doing their first European events, one of which we could purchase tickets to attend, so Beans quickly got us, and his parents tickets.
This event was on the same weekend as Star Wars Celebration London (7th-10th April), and was on Saturday 8th April, at Odeon Cinema Covent Garden.
Also Star Wars themed, this event was a special 40th Anniversary showing of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
There were two showings offered for the film – 7:30pm and 8:30pm, we picked the first showing at 7:30pm as it meant travelling to London. The exclusive screening also included complementary popcorn and water for all guests. There was also a special commemorative gift created just for D23 members.
We arrived at the cinema early, and were first in line, I had dressed up as Ashoka Tano, wearing my robes from Batuu, even though she isn’t in Return of the Jedi.
The queue built quickly and there was a lot of excitement and Star Wars talk, I wasn’t the only one in costume, unsurprisingly a lot of people attending had been at Star Wars Celebration.
When we were let into the cinema we were given a wrist band and our commemorative gift, and shown which screen we were going to be in. We could pick seats so we went for the premium seats as they are slightly more comfy than the standard seats. On all the seats was a bag of popcorn and a can of water.
Once sat down we had a look at what the commemorative gift was – a special postcard set featuring rare international posters from the Lucasfilm Archives.
Before the film started we got some Return of the Jedi trivia, then Matt Ferguson was brought on stage, where he was asked about his work with Star Wars and helping to carry on the Star Wars legacy.. Matt designed the 40th Anniversary poster for Return of the Jedi. As part of Matt appearing everyone was also given a mini print of the poster, we managed to get him to sign one after the film.
For me this was the first time seeing Return of the Jedi on the big screen, Beans had seen it previously in a cinema.
Being transported to Jabba’s Palace, Dagobar and Endor via the big screen was spellbinding, better than I could imagine it would be. Now I want to watch all the Star Wars films on the big screen.
The only thing that made it a bit sad for me was Ashley Eckstein, the actress who voices Ashoka Tano, appeared at the second screening and spoke about her memories of the film.
Now to keep an eye out for further D23 events we can attend.
TTFN, Titch
Leave a Reply