The weekend just gone was that of the SFX Weekender at Pontins, Prestatyn, North Wales, a sci-fi convention. Alex went with some of the boys from the Griffins – well deserved after being a show widow for the past month. It’s completely my cup of tea, so I was a little gutted at not going myself. However, thank goodness for Twitter. Thanks to the #sfxweekender tag, I was able to see everyone’s tweets from the event, keeping up with what was hot/not and seeing photos in real time.
It was also a very useful tool for relaying information to the boys. On the first day (Thursday) I was able to note that there was no food available on site after 7pm, the acommodation was shoddy having been hastily finished the day before and people were having to queue for a long time in freezing temperatures outside. I advised the lads to take food, home comforts and warm clothes.
Equally, I knew even before Alex did that Brian Blessed’s panel had been possibly the highlight of the convention and that he was now an 800-hours trained cosmonaut. Brian, not Alex.
Even now, long after the last attendee left the holiday camp, I’m enjoying people tweeting links to their photo collections of the weekend. Such amazing costumes, and some that are just good fun, i.e. Iron Man being a guy that sellotaped the chalet’s ironing board to his back.
Although this is from last year’s con, this has to be one of the best baby costumes I have ever seen. And yes, that is Steven Moffatt. (I think.) What a brilliant upcycle of a walker!
So if you’re attending an event or would just like to pretend that you are, I strongly recommend tracking down the tag and following it on Twitter. It’ll keep you way more informed than the organisers will.