ETERNAL TWILIGHT CONVETNION – NORTHAMPTON

Bonjour! Hello there Kallie and Kassie, and greetings to you all from England!

My name’s Hannah, I’m 22 years old and I jut wanted to tell you all about what a fantastic

time I had at the UK Twilight convention last weekend. I contacted Kallie before I went,

and I thought id just write up a bit about my day.

Ok so firstly let me admit that I’m one of the BIGGEST British Twilight fans there is!

As everyone knows, the books are not as well known here in the UK as in the US, (most people I ask have never heard of the saga, but do say –

‘Oh is that like Harry Potter?’ – I just roll my eyes!), so I only stumbled upon then last year in July.

By the end of September and after when Breaking Dawn had come out, I was hooked!

Naturally I couldn’t wait till the movie!

So after keeping my eyes and ears open at my work experience at Empire magazine in London, I heard about this convention for the film –

the first in the UK! How could I pass up an opportunity?

One other thing I should mention is that I’m currently studying journalism – hence the work experience.

I’m hoping to become a film journalist, as there is nothing I love better than going to watch a film, then coming back home and writing about it.

So here is my faithful account of the convention. Hope you manage to stay awake reading it!

So where to begin?

…Well as I said, I heard about the convention the previous week, and set my sites on finding a way to attend.

I hadn’t bought a ticket, so I knew that I would have to go as press and hopefully be allowed in. Fingers and toes crossed, but I had nothing to lose.

Sunday 1^st!

6.30am – snuggled up in bed, not wanting to get out!

I’d had the most amazing week at Empire, but only got back home on Saturday evening. Waking up after 6am on Sunday morning,

I was exhausted already, and very nearly kept on sleeping!

30 minutes later, with my camera and National Union Journalists press pass safely in my bag, and my faithful laptop slung over my shoulder,

I made my way out into the cold UK weather…can I just say, I envy your weather Kassie and Kallie! I want to move to Texas!

My ticket for travel on the tube in London was still valid to cover the weekend, so after travelling from Surrey where I live to London Waterloo,

I then made my way to Euston station, where I finally got the train to Northampton at around 9.30am.

9.30 – 11.00am – listening to New Moon audiobook on my ipod on the train…

I might possibly have snored on the train!! There were two teenage girls squawking away in a Northern accent in the seats opposite,

so I tried my best to block out all noise and drift away into the Twilight universe!

11.30am – Northampton – Lots of giggly girls!

I arrive at the Park Inn hotel, and everywhere I look I’m seeing girls with convention passes hanging around their necks…

I’m now thinking ‘Bugger, I’m never going to get in! Ok, here goes…’

So I arrive at the info desk and immediately she asks if I’m re-booking – I reply ‘No I’m press.’ She then practically falls to her feet and constantly apologising tells me

‘Oh I’m so, so sorry, you shouldn’t have had to queue!’ I’m like, ‘No really that’s fine! I need my press pass anyway.’ How jammy!!

Anyway, after flashing my NUJ and journalism university card at her for ID (these are like golden tickets!), she gives me my press pass, and gives me a timetable.

Its one very busy day for the twilight stars! Photo shoots and signings all day.

12.15 – Peter walks in the room, and I’m now drooling!

I’ve now paid for my photo shot with Peter Facinelli, and after talking to the staff around the hotel, I’m now waiting in line to see Peter.

I managed to see the end of Kellen’s photo shoot, but wasn’t allowed to take any shots (understandably, as the professional photographer was meters away from me!).

Peter walks in looking very, very cute, and after I’ve had my photo taken with him, I asked if I could stay behind and sit and watch.

I wanted to interview the photographer as well. The staff members at the convention were really, really lovely and very friendly,

and so I sat down and watched another 20 minutes of the photo shoot.

I have to say that Peter (and all the stars I saw) was wonderfully patient and professional! Hundreds of fans were queuing up to have their 5 seconds of time with him,

and he was great to every single fan, hugging and smiling for the pics. It must have been exhausting for them all!

I wanted to talk to him at the end of his shoot, but his agent and PA were very close, and would not have allowed it, but it’s cool because

I actually got to speak to all of the stars when getting photos signed.

2.00pm – Taking to Ashley, Peter, Christian and Kellen!

In one of the conference hotel rooms, tables had been set up covered in hundreds of glossy photos and memorabilia for fans to purchase and then get signed.

I bought two beautiful photographs (one a studio shot of the Cullens, and the other a still of Bella for promotional posters).

I then, just like everyone else, queued to meet the stars and get the photos singed.

First up was Ashley Greene:

Looking a bit worn out, bless her, I passed my Cullens photograph to her and smiled brightly saying, ‘Hi Ashley! How are you enjoying your trip to the UK?’

She replied ‘It’s been great thanks.’ I then asked the question which I asked all of them, ‘Have you gotten to see anything of Britain besides the inside of hotel rooms,

or gotten to do anything while you’ve been here?’ She said, ‘A little bit, but we’ll get to have fun at the party tonight’.

Next was Kellen!:

Can I just say I love him! He’s just the nicest guy you could meet. He was being so kind and friendly to every person who came up to meet him.

Again, I smiled and asked him the same question. He replied, ‘No I’ve not got to see anything at all, but everyone has been really great and I can’t wait to chill out

at the party tonight.’ I said, ‘Well it’s so great having you guys here in the UK. You’ve made the British fans very happy!’ He said, ‘Thanks’ I then threw my hand out,

‘Thanks again and it was really great meeting you!’ He shook it saying ‘Thank you so much Hannah, you’re welcome. It was great to meet you too.’

That made my day!!! I love him!

Number three – Peter!:

I was queuing to meet him, and when I was nearly at the front, a girl had fainted while walking away from Justin’s table, next to us.

Poor Peter, as she had collapsed right in front of him, and he was looking very shocked and concerned.

I don’t want to sound mean, but I sort of giggled to myself, because all I could think of was that the sight of Justin and Peter had made her faint!

She was OK within a few minutes and was escorted outside to get some fresh air.

When I got to Peter a few minutes later, I asked him if he’d been to the UK before, and he replied, ‘I came to London about 10 years ago and saw a play on the

West-end, and I’d always wanted to come back to the UK’. I replied, ‘Well I hope you guys can come back again soon,

and that’s you’ll get more time to see the rest of the UK.’ As he thanked me, I put my hand out again, and as he shook it,

I remember chuckling as he said, ‘Oh my god Hannah, you’re hands are so cold!’ I said shyly, ‘Oh I know, I’m freezing!

I’ve lost circulation in my hands from lugging my laptop around!’

I didn’t get to meet Justin, as by the time I met Christian Serratos, the hall had started to empty, in preparation for the staff putting out chairs for the talks,

and he had disappeared. I was gutted, but I did spend about 5 minutes with Christian because there was no queue left.

She was the most fun! No offence to the others, but because I got to chat with her for about 5 minutes, I remember just how cool and sweet she was!

I passed her my print of Bella for her to sign, and she was so funny as she hadn’t seen this picture from any other fans yet,

and she just pulled it up to her face to examine it in awe.

She was like, ‘I’m so sorry. I always do this, in that I’m supposed to be signing it but I just want to look at it.’ I said,

‘I know it’s a gorgeous photograph isn’t it? I got it from the room next door where they’re selling them.

If you get the time, you should definitely go and have a look at all the pictures, they’re really beautiful.’ She said, ‘Yeah, I will if I can!’

I asked about her time here in the UK and she told me, ‘No I’ve not got to see anything which really sucks, but oh wait, tomorrow is Monday right?,

She turns to one of the staff members sitting next to her who nods, and she then says, ‘Oh Yey I get the day off. Im going into London!

I then, (which I like to think was very cool of me), said, ‘Oh hang on…’ I then pull out my tube map fm my bag, which I had picked up this morning,

and I passed it to her saying, ‘Here have this!’ I then gave her some advice on where to go in London! How cool is that!!!

I said, ‘If you get the chance go to Covent Garden!’ She replied, ‘Oh is that like a garden I have to see?’, and I said

‘No, no, it’s like an area with shops. It used to be a market place years ago, but now it has lots of cute shops and market stalls…

ooh ooh, or you could go to Camden…that’s just a huge market place! You can get clothes, shoes, trinkets, belts, scarves,

badges…anything there. It’s really cool!’

She then turns to me and says, ‘That sounds cool. I’ve heard about Bond street, what’s that like?’ …

The conversation sort of went on like that. I showed her what routes to take on the underground if she used it, which was fun, and I hope it helped her.

I left with a huge grin on my face, as she so lovely to talk to, and the fact that I had waited until it was nearly over meant I could talk to her for a while, which was great!

3.00pm – shoved into the crowed corridor while they put out chairs for the talks!

I purposely stayed near the door, when I left the room, so I could see what was happening while they put the chairs out. Plus it meant that when the doors were

finally opened, I could get a front row seat! It was so great!

3.30ish onwards– Christian and Ashley!

I’d gotten a great front row seat, which I then stayed in all afternoon. It was fantastic being so close to them on the stage. I got to take some cute snaps of their

named chairs before they came in, and then while they were walking in and sitting down, we were allowed to take pics of them for about 30 seconds.

I’m pretty useless at remembering what they said as I was just in awe at how close I was and how lucky I was to be here at all, but the guy behind us in the

isle was reading out questions for them to answer; ones that had been written down earlier by members of the audience.

The boys are back in town…Peter, Justin and Kellen!

After a while, the girls left the stage, and then the boys entered, followed by a huge rupture of squeals, whistles and applause. Kellen certainly made himself comfy

as he put his feet up on top of peter, who then got up and hugged his ‘screen son’,… this then followed by laughter, and many ‘AHHHHHsssss!’

The crowd were in hysterics when Kellen stated that Rob couldn’t run properly on set, and then everyone screamed when Justin was asked to reprise his famous

‘La Push baby!’ line, while Peter was asked if he preferred his hair blond or brown?…The audience replied for him, screaming out ‘BBBRRRROOOOWWWNNNNN!!!!’

Grinning from ear to ear, he then spoke about the fact that everyone on set, seemed to have had to die their hair for their roles.

Other than the hilarious odd, ‘I love you Kellen!!!!’ fan screaming out, which was responded with a ‘I love you tooooo!!’ from the man himself, the questions

were pretty good, and they all made us laugh so much with their responses.

5.15pm – One big happy Twilight family

After the smaller talks, all of the cast appeared on the stage, and by now, the screaming had gotten so wild, that the guy in charge with the microphone had to ask us

all to please be quiet, as the stars we very tired and we were giving them all headaches with all the screams and bight flash photography.

The big group talk was the best. One of the funniest questions penned to them from an audience member, was, ‘If you were to play a gay character on screen, who

would you want to play your love interest?’ This sparked the biggest laughs all night, as Peter and Kellen eyed each other up! I think Peter said Tom Cruise,

which hilariously left Kellen looking very upset! Haa!

What can I say though, they were all troopers, and were all so lovely, funny and friendly to the crowd.

7.30pm – I’m tired, hungry and no, I’m not crying!!!

It was definitely the best day ever for me, but by this point I had been up on my feet for over 13 hours, and it was going to be another 3 hours by the time I got home.

I was so tired, my tear ducts were going crazy and people on the train were looking at me weirdly with an, ‘why is she crying?’, expression on their faces.

8.40pm – I need food…ooooh, those chocolate covered strawberries look good!

As soon as I arrived in Euston station, I ran to our faithful British store, Marks and Spencers to grab something to eat. I hadn’t had anything since breakfast,

as id been so excited to be at the convention I forgot to eat! Chocolate was the only thing I wanted!

Anyway….

FINALLY, to bring this very long and probably boring story to its conclusion, I got home and back into bed by 11.30pm. I had to get up early-ish the next morning

for my university class, and I can honestly say I have NEVER been so tired in my entire life! It had been a busy week, let alone a busy weekend,

and now I’ve spent the week catching up on missed Uni work.

HOWEVER, if I had the chance to do it all over again, I would!

Love you Kallie and Kassie! Love Twilight and love your podcast! Speak to you soon!

Hannah. xxx