Heroes and Villains Fanfest is a convention like no other, it is driven by maximising the fan experience and making guests a lot more accessible to fans. Attending a fanfest convention suggests you are likely to bump into stars from hit tv shows such as Arrow, Flash, Gotham and even films like Guardians of the Galaxy.
Yesterday, we attended the very first London Fanfest, at Kensington Olympia and it was incredible.
Firstly, the convention was organised so well. As someone who has attended various conventions in London, where it tends to get packed and manic. It was so refreshing to finally attend a convention that clearly understands these risks, but takes all the steps to ensure things never get out of control.
There was never a point where crowds couldn’t be controlled-everything seemed to move quite smoothly.
This may have something to do with just how much the team put into ensuring security, especially after the horrific attack in Manchester forced them to change their policy. Considering the little amount of time they had to make amendments, their hard work well and truly paid off.
In terms of guests, Fanfest really hit it out of the park and booked the biggest names in TV right now. Stars included: Stephen Amell, Emily Beck Richards, Sean Pertwee, Shantel Vansanten, Italia Ricci and Robbie Amell.
Just like most conventions, Fanfest offers attendees the opportunity to purchase photo ops/autographs and selfies.
Some of you may be thinking that there isn’t much difference to a photo op and selfies… you would be right to an extent. Photo ops are taken with a professional photographer and are printed out and given to you, whereas selfies can be purchased at the stars’ table and can be taken on your phone.
In my opinion, selfies at Fanfest are better than doing a photo op because they are cheaper, offer shorter queues and allow you to be far more interactive with your faves.
Due to the high demand of photo ops, you tend to have to leave fairly quickly after the picture is taken to ensure everyone is seen.
We got the chance to talk to so many of the guests, via the selfie route and some conversations ended up being around five minutes long. If you get the chance to go next year, I would definitely recommend purchasing one photo op of who you are most excited for and then saving the rest of your money for selfies.
Staying true to the convention fashion, there were panels throughout the day. We attended the Gotham panel and Cosplay Costume Panel, the Gotham panel was amazing with the cast spilling secrets about the upcoming series.
Overall the day was a 10/10… Everything was well organised, the guests were super nice and a pleasure to talk to. Heroes and Villains Fanfest, until next time!
Honourable Highlights:
- Seeing Stephen Amell in the flesh arghhhhhhh
- Getting Shantel Vansanten to send us a message
- Meeting Italia Ricci & Robbie Amell
- Getting to watch the Gotham Cast talk about the upcoming season
- Getting to know some amazing fans
Did you attend Fanfest? Send us your thoughts @CelebMix.