Celebration V Draws 28,000
Aug. 22nd, 2010 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lazypadawanSo sayeth Steve Sansweet on his Facebook page.
This is the lowest attendance since Celebration II, which brought out 27,000 in 2002. (Both Celebration III and IV drew over 30,000 people, with the L.A. con bringing out the highest attendance thus far at 34,000.)
I had a gut feeling there weren't quite as many people as Celebration IV and it wasn't just the size of the convention center. Frankly, if it weren't for Clone Wars's current popularity, Mark Hamill's first time appearance, or George Lucas's appearance, it might have been 20,000 or less. 28,000 is pretty good when you consider the following:
1) The State of the Economy
Unemployment remains high and lots of people have cut back to make ends meet, which might have made a trip to Orlando out of reach. In fact, I talked to a number of attendees who have lost their jobs, had their pay cut, had their hours cut, etc. and could barely afford to go. Another person I spoke to wouldn't have been able to make it had her boyfriend not paid for the trip as a birthday present. As for trying to attract visitors who were already in town for the parks, it's expensive as it is just to visit Disney World, Universal, or Sea World without squeezing in extra days for a convention.
2) Timing
I'm sure there were fans who balked at going to hot, humid, tropical Orlando in August. Not only is it barely tolerable on a good day, who wants to invest all of that money for plane tickets, hotels, and convention tickets if there's a risk that a hurricane could blow through town? Thankfully, that didn't happen. But it could have.
But I'm sure that what was even more of a factor for fans was scheduling Celebration two and a half weeks after Comic Con, one week before Wizard World Chicago Comic Con, and three or four weeks before DragonCon. Comic Con was no big deal to me because I live here. What were you supposed to do if you'd already paid for your Comic Con tickets and made arrangements to come to San Diego and then this gets dumped on your schedule? I had a lot of leave time to use; not every working fan is that lucky.
Moreover, the media was much more focused on TESB's 30th last spring, which marked the film's actual anniversary. I'm sure it came out in August 1980 somewhere, just not in the U.S. of A.
Also, I think you need to bear in mind that Celebration III's attendance was bolstered by the release of the last SW film ever while I think Celebration IV's attendance was bolstered by the fact Los Angeles is a huge city that's part of a megapolis extending from L.A. to Tijuana. You'll easily find 34,000 people in Southern California who don't have to travel too far to attend a SW convention. Orlando's closest neighbors are small cities like Tampa-St. Petersburg and Jacksonville. Miami is a four hour drive away, though the flights are pretty short.
Should they then look for another large metropolitan area/megapolis to hold a future Celebration, i.e. Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston, back in L.A., or San Francisco? There might be cost-benefit balance that needs to be met. You might have had 6000 fewer attendees at this con, but it might have been a heck of a lot cheaper to hold the con in Orlando than in Los Angeles and the profit might be higher this time around.
There's more to say on this, which I'll get to in my next Celebration V post.
Update: Steve Sansweet later posted on Facebook:
For those of you questioning the attendance number at Celebration V, there are several things to remember. Lucasfilm and Reed are thrilled with the final total; I had been predicting a max of 25,000. We are still in the worst economic times since the Great Depression of the 1930s. We had less than 8 months to promote the show, and many European fans—who have to make August vacation plans a year in advance—could not change those plans. And we had 8,000 more attendees than the last event, Celebration Japan. The Orange County Convention Center was a perfect location: its layout, total cooperation from all the great people who work there, and because Orlando is the ideal family vacation spot.”
This is the lowest attendance since Celebration II, which brought out 27,000 in 2002. (Both Celebration III and IV drew over 30,000 people, with the L.A. con bringing out the highest attendance thus far at 34,000.)
I had a gut feeling there weren't quite as many people as Celebration IV and it wasn't just the size of the convention center. Frankly, if it weren't for Clone Wars's current popularity, Mark Hamill's first time appearance, or George Lucas's appearance, it might have been 20,000 or less. 28,000 is pretty good when you consider the following:
1) The State of the Economy
Unemployment remains high and lots of people have cut back to make ends meet, which might have made a trip to Orlando out of reach. In fact, I talked to a number of attendees who have lost their jobs, had their pay cut, had their hours cut, etc. and could barely afford to go. Another person I spoke to wouldn't have been able to make it had her boyfriend not paid for the trip as a birthday present. As for trying to attract visitors who were already in town for the parks, it's expensive as it is just to visit Disney World, Universal, or Sea World without squeezing in extra days for a convention.
2) Timing
I'm sure there were fans who balked at going to hot, humid, tropical Orlando in August. Not only is it barely tolerable on a good day, who wants to invest all of that money for plane tickets, hotels, and convention tickets if there's a risk that a hurricane could blow through town? Thankfully, that didn't happen. But it could have.
But I'm sure that what was even more of a factor for fans was scheduling Celebration two and a half weeks after Comic Con, one week before Wizard World Chicago Comic Con, and three or four weeks before DragonCon. Comic Con was no big deal to me because I live here. What were you supposed to do if you'd already paid for your Comic Con tickets and made arrangements to come to San Diego and then this gets dumped on your schedule? I had a lot of leave time to use; not every working fan is that lucky.
Moreover, the media was much more focused on TESB's 30th last spring, which marked the film's actual anniversary. I'm sure it came out in August 1980 somewhere, just not in the U.S. of A.
Also, I think you need to bear in mind that Celebration III's attendance was bolstered by the release of the last SW film ever while I think Celebration IV's attendance was bolstered by the fact Los Angeles is a huge city that's part of a megapolis extending from L.A. to Tijuana. You'll easily find 34,000 people in Southern California who don't have to travel too far to attend a SW convention. Orlando's closest neighbors are small cities like Tampa-St. Petersburg and Jacksonville. Miami is a four hour drive away, though the flights are pretty short.
Should they then look for another large metropolitan area/megapolis to hold a future Celebration, i.e. Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston, back in L.A., or San Francisco? There might be cost-benefit balance that needs to be met. You might have had 6000 fewer attendees at this con, but it might have been a heck of a lot cheaper to hold the con in Orlando than in Los Angeles and the profit might be higher this time around.
There's more to say on this, which I'll get to in my next Celebration V post.
Update: Steve Sansweet later posted on Facebook:
For those of you questioning the attendance number at Celebration V, there are several things to remember. Lucasfilm and Reed are thrilled with the final total; I had been predicting a max of 25,000. We are still in the worst economic times since the Great Depression of the 1930s. We had less than 8 months to promote the show, and many European fans—who have to make August vacation plans a year in advance—could not change those plans. And we had 8,000 more attendees than the last event, Celebration Japan. The Orange County Convention Center was a perfect location: its layout, total cooperation from all the great people who work there, and because Orlando is the ideal family vacation spot.”
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CV
Date: 2010-10-16 01:16 pm (UTC)Some of us were severely disappointed at the lack of rep and respect for the prequels. Some of us come to these things for those prequels and if Celebrations are going to continue in this direction some of us will have much more difficulty finding the inspiration to come up with the funds to attend another one.
Re: CV
Date: 2010-10-17 01:34 am (UTC)But as I told one of my friends, they need to get Ian McDiarmid or Samuel L. Jackson or something to come to one of those things. That would generate buzz. I was talking to another local fan and we agreed that if Hamill could get $150 or whatever for an autograph, a lot of fans would cheerfully pay double that for Ewan McGregor.