With the day of the opening ceremony now upon us, it was time to grab all the gear, cameras, phones, schedules, Nexus 7 and head on over to what was called the “Main Void” for the official start to the 2013 SciFi Weekender.

The queue was huge with everyone getting to the “Main Void” early to grab themselves a seat or good area to stand, depending on their wrist band colours, we got in a little earlier than everyone else thanks to our Media Cards and Blue wrist bands, which allowed us access to everywhere during the weekend.

Once everyone was in and ready to go, it was time for what can only be described as totally amazing. With a superb opening sequence from Area 51 bring the atmosphere of the weekend to its point of feeling that the SciFi Weekender was indeed going to be something spectacular.

SciFi Weekenders – Cosplayer, Fans and the Stars

Following on from the amazing opening sequence, the announcements came on what was happening and where and who with. But while all this was happening, over in the Sci-Fi London Screening Area the days films had started with “The Faculty” and continuing through the day with other movies, including “The Road Warrior” with an introduction by Virginia Hey, “Manborg” (Which sadly I missed) and ending the evening with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.

Manu Intiraymi came on to the SciFi Weekender stage with an introduction to his new film “Fortress” which was screening on Saturday in the screening room, he had us all in fits and giggles as he talked about the film and the war, the crowd went wild and loved it, so funny when he announced a slight change in the Q&As and said “As far as the Q&As go, there will be a slight change, me and Chase will be today at” then a long pause and from the audience came “One”, in which Manu replied “One, thank you very much”. He also was signing autographs later 😉

Manu Intiraymi Signing Autographs at SciFi Weekender 2013 – Photo Credit @BlazingMinds

But I digress, The Main Void continued throughout the day with several events and one which I really wanted see and caught was “Just A Minute” which was the SciFi Weekenders take on the Radio 4 show.

The contestants included Emma Newman, Stacie Kane, Chris Brookmyre and Gareth L Powell, hosted by Paul Cornell, all I have to say is that I was in stitches, as each contestant had to talk about a given subject without reputation and hesitation and it was Emma that had me laughing the most, so much so I couldn’t hold my camera steady for laughing throughout.

Now I was hoping to catch Emma later on during the weekend for a photo shoot, but sadly our schedules kept clashing, so I couldn’t grab her, but I did get some quick words and introduce myself to her, “Nice to meet you in the flesh” she said as we popped in to the Mash & barrel for a drink.

By now everything was going extremely well and I do have to say that besides the slight changes the organisers of the SciFi Weekender had done us proud with getting us the shots etc that we were after.

Stay tuned for Part Three tomorrow, when I will start to bring you some amazing portrait shots of the SciFi Weekender Guests and more….

Photo Credit @BlazingMinds (Karen Woodham) and @RealLeeHoward (Celeb Exposed)

Karen Woodham

Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.

blazingminds.co.uk