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Fellowship Festival 2004 was the UK's first full-blown 'Lord of the Rings'-themed convention, and only the second in Europe to be officially licensed by New Line Cinema (Ring*Con in Germany being the first). As such, this was an important event in the Tolkien calendar, and a 'must attend' for any serious fans, particularly those UK fans who, until now, could only look on in envy at those who could afford to attend similar events in Germany or the USA.
Admittedly, other UK events have featured some of the guests that were featured here, but these are primarily events for obtaining cast and crew autographs. Fellowship Festival was something different and the first UK event that really attempted to do more - a lot more! With fight and makeup demonstrations, competitions, endless Q&A panels, autograph signings, exclusive merchandise, computer game previews, actor comedy sketches, and Tolkien Society talks and lectures, nobody could deny that the organiser's plans were ambitious. Some might say too ambitious, given its relatively late arrival on the scene, and the fickle nature of the public where 'the cult of movie celebrity' is concerned! So how did it do? Pretty damn well, actually! Admittedly, there were problems, but by late morning on the first day most of these problems had been rectified and I think it's fair to say that the event delivered on all its promises save one - that of 5000 people being in attendance on each of the event's three days. Sadly, daily attendance figures were lower - a LOT lower!
		Alexandra Palace, 'Ally Pally' as the building is affectionately known, is situated about 10 miles from the centre of London, and proved to be an excellent venue, if somewhat over-sized for the number of people that showed up for the event. For those, like myself, weighed down with camera equipment and other paraphernalia, a free car park and some stunning views across London helped compensate for the long walk up a steep hill that had to be taken if you wanted to use public transport. With the surrounding greenery, a beautiful Summer's day and abundance of fresh air one was able to feel one had escaped 'the Big City' - at least until one had to use the venue restaurants and bars, where the rather surly service of low-paid, part-time young staff at a venue that's clearly used to attracting no more than 'passing trade' at weekends were unfortunately much in evidence. And a single barman to serve customers across a busy lunchtime at this sort of event is, frankly, just plain ludicrous! Thankfully, while the venue's own staff may have been somewhat inadequate, the same could not be said of the steward volunteers who remained helpful and, more importantly, cheerful throughout. It may well be that things were a chaotic mess behind the scenes - but if this really was the case, none of it was apparent to the general public. I'd say that, based on my experience, this was probably the best stewarded fan event I've been to which, given the rather worrying appeal for volunteers sent out to ticket purchasers just two days before the event, was a very pleasant surprise. The first stop for many was the concession stand, which sold high-quality t-shirts for £15, a whole slew of colour photo's of the cast on set and in costume for £2 a pop, and a lavish and expensively produced souvenir programme for £5. I thought the prices were more than reasonable - the official programme would have cost £20 at a bigger event like a Madonna concert, and this event will undoubtedly have had higher production costs because of the low print numbers. So far, so good and at this stage the endless internet postings about 'rip off' prices started to sound like the mean-spirited sniping of those who clearly have no idea of what things actually cost. Once past the concession stand attendees had the choice of two adjacent main halls - one 'Hall of Fire' featuring a stage where most of the panels and Q & A sessions were to take place, the other an exhibition hall where small talks, demonstrations, and autograph signings were scheduled in areas positioned between various exhibitors selling 'Lord of the Rings' -related wares. Initially, most headed for the main 'Hall of Fire' where the opening ceremony, and subsequent programme of events, was delayed by about an hour to ensure that most, if not all of those, in the long queue for ticket collection could avoid missing things. The idea to have a theatre-styled tiered ticketing system in this main hall would have worked well if the event had attracted the hoped-for numbers. The front six rows with the best view of the stage were reserved for 'Gold' ticket-holders, selling at £200 for the three days. The next six rows were reserved for 'Silver' ticket holders, with tickets priced at £150, and then the 'standard' tickets, priced at £50 for the three days, followed. Unfortunately, with so few numbers, things quickly fell apart. Struggling to get any kind of atmoshphere going in a largely empty hall, MC's Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson appealed for people in 'the cheap seats' to come down to the front. This was undoubtedly the right thing to do, but it understandably upset those who'd found they'd paid four times the price of the person sitting next to them for what was essentially the same experience. As a purchaser of a 'Gold' ticket myself I felt the organisers and hosts did the right thing - for the cast it's difficult, if not impossible, to 'work' a room where all you can see immediately before you is a lot of empty seats. In fact this would have been a problem even if all the tickets had sold out because there was so much going on in the Exhibition Hall that attendees were frequently leaving their seats empty for great long stretches of time. Hence, the invitation to 'come to the front' helped make for better audience participation and entertainment, albeit at the expense of those who'd paid a rather premium price for the experience. Hosts Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson helped whip up some excitement with their infamous comedy double-act and their appearance effectively marked the start of 'The Opening Ceremony' which proceeded with a costumed theatrical piece written by costume expert Julia McGee and performed by volunteers from The Tolkien Society. I'm going to say no more on this because, quite frankly, I can do without more tedious emails from Tolkien Society representatives. Suffice to say that MY dictionary ('Oxford Dictionary, Thesaurus and Wordpower Guide') defines 'pomp' as 'ceremony and splendid display', despite what others may think it means :-P That being said, The Tolkien Society made a lot of new friends at this event, working tirelessly to ensure the demonstrations and talks were successful, adding fun to the proceedings and, seemingly, enjoying themselves into the bargain. Popping into the Exhibition Hall just before the opening ceremony, and with the vast majority of convention attendees still waiting to get inside the venue, The Tolkien Society's Ian Collier was faced with the daunting task of giving what could have been a dry talk on 'Tolkien's Oxford' to an audience of just three people. Lesser individuals would have thrown their hands up in horror and run, but Collier pushed on to deliver a talk with such gusto and obvious enthusiasm I found it hard to walk away (something I had to do to catch what was going on in the main hall). Alas, while the small 'Talan' lecture area may have proved adequate for Ian's talk, there were times later in the day when it got distinctly over-crowded and uncomfortable. Alan Lee and John Howe's talk on the art of Lord of the Rings or John Noble's informal talk on playing the role of Denethor in the movies were amongst those that suffered from not being on the main stage. Enthralled audiences found that they not only had to fight for 'standing room only' places, but also had to struggle to hear what was being said over the loud noise from the rest of the exhibition hall. Fortunately, things were much easier in the main 'Hall of Fire' and for me the highlight of the panels here was the lack of banal questions that have marred similar events abroad. Unless I missed it nobody asked 'Is Legolas gay?', 'Are hobbits real?' or 'Hi. Do you remember me from MadStalkerElfCon?'. Questions thankfully lacked the 'It's all about me' prologues that one has become used to in the States and were, for the most part, designed to ease the cast into telling anecdotes about their days on set.
Click here for second page of this report Elsewhere, you can read the interview with the event organiser or Sound Bites from Craig Parker, Sarah McLeod and Bernard Hill.
Don't forget you can check out reports of lots of other Lord of the Rings -themed events in the Web Logs section

Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk