Back From RingCon

So, for those unaware, I have been at RingCon in Fulda, Germany for the last couple of days. It is a Lord of the Rings (LotR) convention brought to you by the people at FedCon. It is probably now, by far, one of my most memborable conventions to date.

This was my second RingCon. I am by no means a fan of LotR, having only seen the films once, and that only happened after I had attended RingCon for the first time. I have never read the books. It is a good story, and the films are certainly well made, its just not my cup of tea.

RingCon 2007, for the first time, introduced media guests which had very little to do with the story. Isaac C. Singleton Jr, and Clive Ashburn from Pirates of the Carribean (PotC) joined the lineup. I had the pleasure of meeting with Clive, a fellow englishmen, in the bar on Thursday night. He has a fascinating story, being that he had only recently become an actor before PotC, having left his job to pursue his dream. I also met Isaac, along with a number of the other guests, on Sunday evening, after being invited to join the RingCon crew for thier after con dinner. He was an extremely funny man, which surprised me, as he came across as quite contained on the stage.

Any regular RingCon attendee will tell you that attendance was definatly down, though only noticable in the main room, where seats which would normally be full, where empty. So many reasons coudl have caused this. I had heard some people were not happy about the PotC additions, and there were some cancellations pretty early on, though they were of course eventually replaced. The biggest thing was probably the train strikes in Germany. I was personally terrified that I was gonna be stuck in an airport all day, and as German Rail Unions werent letting anyone know when they would strike, it would be difficult to work around. I don't however doubt that RingCon will be back to its normal attendance next year.

One of my most memorable meetings was on Sunday evening, where I spent the evening in the bar with Kate Robinson, who is producing a film in the UK based on the LotR sotries, and Daniel Falconer, who is part of the team who were responsible for many of the effects on LotR, including armoury, weapons, costumes, make-up effects and other props. The three of us spent the night drinking, and talking about a lot fo things, as well as mingleing with many other people. Words and Phrases that will hold special memories for me that evening (each with thier own story, that I wont go into) include Orlando Bloom, the Pinaquila Coladunrise and "It's only 4pm in New Zealand".

The weekend was rounded off with Monday morning breakfast, where we had our final talks, and goodbyes. I joined Marc B Lee, and a few other friends for breakfast. Jed Brophy joined us, as well as Lori Dungey, where we... talked... a lot. It was interesting to talk to them outside of the pressure and the stage that is RingCon.

All in all, it was good to meet so many new people, many of which havent been mentioned, mostly because I forget names very quickly. It was good to meet with those I have already previously met, and those I consider friends. The costumes were great. The programming was great. The staff were great. Another great Con.

See you next year :D