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London Expo 2009 - Review

I attended this year's London Expo on the final May bank holiday weekend as a complete novice, and as such I didn't quite know what to expect. Would it be full of middle aged dealers and collectors? Perhaps it would be appropriated by an army of Star Wars groupies? Or - with a reputation that precedes them - would the giant ExCel arena at the heart of London's docklands be overrun by 'Furries'? The answer, quite refreshingly, is all of the above as well as people from every section of society - although the cosplayers stole most of the attention to be fair.

If anything the balance was outweighed by a young crowd, which was great to see. The huge influx of teenagers really went to show that sci-fi and fantasy continue to march on through the cultural ranks at an alarming pace. Perhaps the most significant surprise of all was the amount of girls in attendance. The cliché of sci-fi and comic book conventions has long been an image of spotty sixteen year old boys queuing up to have their homebuilt Starship Enterprise replica signed by an insignificant member of the archaic Star Trek cast. That couldn't have been further from the truth. This crowd was creative, inclusive, cool even. While other teens are off getting trashed on White Lightning down at the local park bench these guys are spending hours preparing the kind of meticulous costumes that will earn them the respect of their peers. One slightly disturbing trend amongst the young crowd was the multitude of signs and t-shirts displaying the slogan 'free hugs'. I have no idea when or how this fad began, and on the face of it it seems like a harmless way of bringing the community together, but there was a certain sinister element to it where you could see some people taking advantage of those free hugs.

Even Ghostbusters need to recharge their batteries sometime

Anyway, each to their own. The costumes themselves were fantastic. As well as hundreds, if not thousands of people dressed as their favourite gaming and anime characters there were some really cool cult film outfits. The best of these were perhaps the Ghostbusters and Aliens gangs who had clearly put a lot of time, effort, and presumably money into their costumes.

The cavernous main hall was a beehive of activity. The main focus was clearly on anime and gaming, but cult TV and film also had a significant presence. One of the highlights of the gaming section was a display of Eidos' multiplatform Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game, which sees Batman infiltrate said asylum, was drawing big crowds throughout the day. The playable levels showcased a resolutely dark atmosphere combined with some crisp, bone-crunching fist fights. Over in the Anime Village collectors were able to get their hands on all the latest UK mange output as well as hard to find, and expensive, Japanese import soundtracks. One of the stalls gaining the most amount of interest was the sword stand. The rate at which the steel flew off the shelf was actually quite alarming. I had visions of cosplayers boarding the DLR with four foot blades in their hands. London Transport Police must have had their work cut out for them.

During the afternoon I was really pleased to meet up with two of our scifi.co.uk bloggers. Tom Phillips was representing his website animation.co.uk for the weekend while Den Patrick was just along for the ride. Both seemed to be in high spirits but a little drained when I caught up with them, which summed up the whole event. It was tiring on the body and the senses pushing past so many people dressed in outrageous costumes, but at the same time the atmosphere was on a high all day.

Eureka's Joe Morten and Neil Grayston. Good guys.

The usual selection of stars of the small and big screen were in attendance to sign and pose for photographs - as long as you were prepared to pay the dosh of course. Tony Curtis, Linda Hamilton, Eureka's Joe Morton and Neil Grayston, the cast of Merlin and Craig Charles were all in attendance. Hand drawn signs stating 'No purchase no photo' seemed a bit much, but to be expected perhaps.

But for all the queues of people eager to meet the stars, it was the people themselves who were the real showstoppers. It wasn't only those who had come in costume who played their part, the entire crowd was welcoming and excitable all day long. Clearly still an occasion for the committed, but great to see a community having so much fun. The biggest laugh of the day came when leaving the event and seeing the looks the cosplayers received from the normals. But on this particular day the power was definitely with the Expo people.

To see the rest of our images from the London Expo lincluding the Aliens platoon, loads of cool manga artwork and me hanging out with Michael Garibaldi go to our Facebook page.

Written by Peter HolleyEditor

Pete is the community manager for scifi.co.uk. Favourite films include Blade Runner, Akira, The Thing, Videodrome and The Shining. Favourite guilty pleasure - Highlander 2.