Star Wars Celebration VII: Anaheim, CA 2015

[Californian Elitist]

Lucasfilm has announced the next Star Wars Celebration (VII) will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center, April 16-19, 2015. It will coincide with the release of Star Wars: Episode VII, and "promises to be a Star Wars Celebration like no other."

I can see it now. Crowds, crowds and more crowds. Disneyland will be packed, as well as the surrounding area, filled with Star Wars fans. I wonder if Disneyland will join in with this convention? Not to mention it's the same time as the 60th. Only time will tell. May the force be with those who are visiting during that time.

http://starwars.com/news/star-wars-celebration-vii-announced.html

 

[TP2000]

What is Star Wars Celebration? Is it like ComicCon for just Star Wars? And it moves from city to city every few years? Is this really a big deal raven24?

EDIT: Okay, I just Googled it. For those like me who are clueless...

Star Wars Celebration IV was at the LA Convention Center in '06 and had 35,000 in attendance.

Star Wars Celebration V and VI were held in Orlando's Convention Center in '10 and '12 and had 32,000 in attendance.

The Anaheim Convention Center is much bigger than the LA Convention Center, but let's say they get 35,000 again when it comes to Anaheim. That's not really a big convention. D23 Expo averages 40,000 to 50,000 in Anaheim. ComicCon in San Diego has had 130,000 to 150,000 in attendance the past few years. The biggest convention of the year for the Anaheim Convention Center is the annual NAMM music industry convention, and this past year they had 95,709 people attend the convention that strictly does not sell tickets to the general public.

Star Wars Celebration coming to Anaheim sounds like a natural, as the ACC is the largest convention center on the West Coast and there are rumors of Tomorrowland getting more Star Wars rides in the next few years. But I don't know that it will be much of a crowd impact to the Disneyland Resort district as a whole.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

My husband is a BIG Star Wars fan so I asked him if he wanted to go to this. He looked at me and said probably not because it was be full of crazy people, and then said it would be like if you went to that D23 convention you wouldn't want to do that would you? I looked at him and said of course I would go to a D23 convention because I'm one of the crazy people! He just laughed at me....

 

[Californian Elitist]

Star Wars fans would descend straight to Tomorrowland, I bet.

 

[TP2000]

Star Wars fans would descend straight to Tomorrowland, I bet.

And yet, I wonder if Disneyland could pull off an event that compares favorably to DHS Star Wars Weekends? They really do go all out at DHS for those annual events, with special parades and stage shows and general festivity. A lot of the same audience that would come to Anaheim for this would have been to at least one Star Wars Weekend in DHS, and use that big park event as a point of reference for whatever Disneyland did in conjunction with the ACC across the street. Disneyland may not be able to pull off a suitable event in those fans critical eyes, at least that first year.

Of course, Disneyland would have in its favor a superior climate, gorgeous scenery, the vast cultural offerings of SoCal at its door, plus the better maintenance at a growing plethora of rides and attractions packed into a compact walkable Resort District at the only Disney theme park that Walt and his hand-picked team of brilliant Imagineers ever had any personal impact on. So, I guess there's that.

 

[Californian Elitist]

And yet, I wonder if Disneyland could pull off an event that compares favorably to DHS Star Wars Weekends? They really do go all out at DHS for those annual events, with special parades and stage shows and general festivity. A lot of the same audience that would come to Anaheim for this would have been to at least one Star Wars Weekend in DHS, and use that big park event as a point of reference for whatever Disneyland did in conjunction with the ACC across the street. Disneyland may not be able to pull off a suitable event in those fans critical eyes, at least that first year.

Of course, Disneyland would have in its favor a superior climate, gorgeous scenery, the vast cultural offerings of SoCal at its door, plus the better maintenance at a growing plethora of rides and attractions packed into a compact walkable Resort District at the only Disney theme park that Walt and his hand-picked team of brilliant Imagineers ever had any personal impact on. So, I guess there's that.

TP, you said it all, my friend.

 

[gsrjedi]

I don't think the parks will do anything really big for Star Wars especially during that time. There'll already be enough going on at Celebration to keep Star Wars fans occupied. I've been to two Celebrations, but have yet to go to a SWW. I think that holds true for a lot of us West Coast SW fans who will be more tempted to go to a Celebration in Anaheim than the ones in Orlando or Indianapolis. I've been to one of the Indy shows and neither of the Orlando ones. In the past when they've announced a Celebration and not announced the venue, it's always a hot topic of discussion since a lot of people want to go, but most don't want to fly cross country.

I don't know if the parks will get a crazy influx of people, but I will hazard a guess that Star Tours will have a slightly longer line than usual.

All I know is I'm planning on going