My First Time at SFX Weekender

[Rompa1978]

Well I went on my first SFX weekender and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I thought (wrongly) that I might be too out geeked, out partied is a far more apt description of the weekender. It was class from start to finish, what I’ll take mostly away from it is the laughter. My friends and I laughed like young boys on Christmas day before we obtained signatures from the Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldridge and John Wager and Carlos E…. Carlos even drew me a sketch of Judge Dredd, which I shall treasure for ever. I have never asked for autographs before. What I loved about the weekender, was everywhere you went you were very welcomed and felt right at home.

My only gripes are really with the signing schedules. If you actually kept to the signing seclude, as in like I did on the Saturday, you ended up missing out. The weather couldn’t have helped, but I went and did some other things and then went to see Colin Baker and Brian Blessed, only to be told that Colin was sent home half an hour before the standard signing slot had started; as no one was there for him to sign for the last 10 minutes?! Maybe that was because people were going by the timetable?? Likewise Brian was going home earlier due to travel issues. I felt bad for Colin, as I hoped he didn’t feel unappreciated. I’m sure he didn’t. His Q & A was excellent.

The other gripe was the bloody staff at Pontins. I went insane waiting for the Fish and Chips! It was a chip shop just outside the main entrance. I like everyone else in the queue, waited 1 hour and 10 minutes! Every now and again a 'cook' would ask teh queue if we all wanted fish... ?? She was always shocked to her YES! As I left I did shouted, “These Fish and Chips better be f*cking worth it!”… They weren’t, but it at least made other fellow queuers laugh. It helps when everyone is in good spirits. Pontins could do the rooms up a tad, our chalet had two massive punch holes in the doors.. Maybe this was to do with the chips? The bouncers were a miserable bunch of buggers, all I wanted to do was get my coat, she demanded to see my ticket, as she didn’t believe me?!.

If you go, I really recommend getting into the Cos-Play, for me and my friends it was the highlight of Saturday evening, along with the excellent enthusiasm and brilliance of Craig Charles DJing! We didn’t do a costume, we will next time.

SFX Weekender 3 was fantastic, I’m going next year, if it has to be in Wales where the 1950s seem to never have ended, I’m still going! Well worth the travel.