Starfest 2011 Denver

Get ready for StarFest 2011. A place for science fiction fanatics come out in droves to present their true feelings about reality by dressing up as SciFi characters.

(As a preface to this story, Jake works with the Young Men of our church but because the area is so close to the University of Denver our ward is not quite newlywed/nearly dead. It's more like young marrieds with kids under 4 and empty nesters. So what has happened is the primary, nursery and youth are combined from 2 wards but the adult classes are still separate.)

The bishop of the other ward works for a company that plans and prepares conventions of all kinds to come to Denver. So he allowed the Young Men, their leaders and the leaders' families to come see StarFest. Although I consider myself a "quiet" nerd (I like SciFi shows and learning interesting things about how life works but would collect memorabilia or wear costumes), I never imagined myself actually going to a SciFi convention. Secondly, I half believed that SciFi convention portrayed on movies or TV shows were typical over-dramatizations. I was wrong. I seriously think that we were 3 of maybe 10 people at this giant convention (a couple hundred to a thousand or more people) not dressed up or wearing a t-shirt with a SciFi design to it.

You could by collectibles of any kind (plates, posters, action figures, books, paintings, photographs, etc) for just about any SciFi genre out there (Star Trek, Star Wars, Supernatural, Harry Potter, Superman, etc) for any time (early shows and books to present). And there were costumes to go with it; Avatar, Sucker Punch, Storm Troopers, Sherlock Holmes (oddly enough), Klingons, etc. I didn't take any pictures of people dressed up but click here or here to see some photos.

I still enjoyed walking around and watching people interact and do their thing. Yes, I did laugh a ton at some of the stuff, especially chicks who acted like it was Halloween (an excuse to wear something slutty). For an extra charge, participants could pay to meet SciFi people; the chick from the TV show V, the guy who played "Crowly" from Supernatural, the guy who played "Chewbacca" the Wookie (who in real life is pretty scary looking), and other people I didn't know.

It was funny to see the creative things people would make to sell.  One of my favorites were generations paintings from the Star Trek shows (Original, Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and 2 or 3 others) with either all the captains, first mates, Klingons, medical doctors, engineering guys, etc. They were really good.

Ellie met R2D2

 

Jake and Ellie with the robot from Lost in Space. Danger Will Robinson.

There were 2 robots from Lost in Space. One for show and this one was plugged into a computer so one of the guys working there could type sentences and the robot would say them. Ellie thought that was great, especially when he asked her name and how old she was.
 

Ellie coloring an award at the World of Wizardry.

This wasn't only promoting Harry Potter but a new, more SciFi type novel about wizards.
 

Here are your Star Wars bad guys.



Yes, these guys are fighting with pretend Klingon something or others.



Room decorating contest

Since this took place at the Marriott, here's a look up at the room's from inside the courtyard. They were numbered so I'm assuming there was a contest of some sort.  

Check out the new and improved Ghostbuster car.

They also had the Jurassic Park jeep.  In the next hotel down, was the comic book portion of the convention. We just glanced at the stuff there. Some of the most interesting parts of the comic books were the newer artists who were trying to make a name for themselves and showing off their artwork.

If I had the money, I would definitely go to these things more often. It was just kinda fun to see all the people and do awesome people watching. Yes, also I am a nerd.