Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Starfury’s FUSION Event

A gathering of Buffy, Firefly and Angel

Blackpool is famous for many, many things such as its ’kiss-me-quick’ hats, sticks of sugary rock, its colorful illuminations that light up the length of the Golden Mile each year, the Pleasure Beach which houses one of the tallest and fastest roller coasters in the world and not forgetting of course its Tower! Yet for the fans of Joss Whedon and his throng of extraordinary television shows, Blackpool is becoming famous for something else entirely and that is playing host to the biggest Starfury Convention of the year! It had been just a little under a year since the Norbreck Castle Hotel had opened its doors to the streams of Angel fans attending the very successful End of Days event and this year it was the turn of the Buffy and Firefly elite to cross the castle’s threshold in readiness for the 2004 extravaganza - Starfury’s Fusion! The guest list boasted a popular cross selection of actors from both Buffy and Firefly with a couple Angel guest stars including Nicholas Brendon, Emma Caulfield, Juliet Landau, Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite and Summer Glau, in addition to special guest, Robert Patrick, there was Clare Kramer, Tom Lenk, Elizabeth Allen, James Leary, Sarah Hagan, and Nickalous Brown. As ever CityofAngel.com was there to witness and relive the event for those fans who attended and tell the tale for those who didn’t.

IT’S FAB BEFORE IT EVEN BEGINS

Following on the successful claws of last year’s Beast Brew Pub Craw, a gathering in Blackpool just wouldn’t be the same without a CoA bash. So, with Firefly, Angel and Buffy all being represented at Fusion, we thought what better way to bring them all together than FABfest. Our UK Staff - along with Andrea Binns and David Sexton - constructed one of the most difficult, yet fun and interactive quizzes of the Joss-verse ever to be experienced, complete with photo boards and audio files. A total of 80-questions would test the knowledge of any fan thinking he or she knew her apocalyptic history and then some. We consigned the main room at the lovely Regal Hotel in Cleveleys, and they provides us with a fabulous Buffy Buffet for folks to nibble away as we nibbled away at their brains. Do you know how many churches are in Sunnydale? How about the exact year in which the Master sired Darla? Or maybe you know what Jayne on Firefly calls his favorite gun? How about the name of the demons who came to Sunnydale to collect 7-hearts?

Okay, that was an easy one, but as you can see the fans had as much fun as we did. And their efforts were greatly rewarded, some of the prizes included: the Buffy series finale shooting script: "Chosen", Angel 100th episode shooting script: "You’re Welcome", Firefly original pilot shooting script: "Serenity", Angel 100th episode celebratory T-shirt, KANE music CD, autographed by Christian Kane, Joss Whedon’s graphic novel: "FRAY", and Joss Whedon’s 4-part comic series: "Tales of the Vampire". No one walked a way a loser, as almost every single person or team won something during the course of the evening that began at 8:00pm and last until midnight! But the top three winners with amazing scores, just for the record, were: 1st place with Kate Reedman, Adam James Reedman and Lynsey Nellis from Middlesbrough, 2nd place with the Milson Family from Hull, and 3rd with Stephen Deighton from Blackpool

The next day, we caught up with a few of the fans to get their thoughts on the event. Brett and Faye Walker from Walsall: "I had a great time last night and I won Band Candy," stated Brett, while Faye gave cheers, "to CoA because they had loads of food and the prizes were good too. The quiz was too hard but I won." Amanda Malt from Reading: "CityofAngel quiz was absolutely amazing, the staff made it really fun and really interesting. The prizes were out of this world and the food and the buffet that was put on for free, for normally a toll, was absolutely fantastic and we all had an amazing night. We got an opportunity to meet some really nice people and have built some really good relationships based on Buffy and Angel and can’t wait for the next one!" Annette from Scotland: "With regards to the CityofAngel event that held last night, it was an excellent evening, well presented and well gated. The quiz was fantastic even though I didn’t get very many correct answers. The food was fantastic, well presented and laded out and the staff couldn’t have done any more to help and present an evening. Everyone had a great night and lots of fun, hope to see them do more quizzes in the future."

Buffie from Belfast: "The FABfest quiz night that CoA put on was absolutely brilliant. As the name said it was absolutely fab! The quiz was great, the questions were a bit hard for someone who thought they knew more than they actually did. The prizes were absolutely fantastic. It was just a nice get-together, everybody enjoyed themselves, we met a whole lot of new friends, people that we’ve spoken to on the internet but really didn’t know who they were. It was very, very interesting and I’d like to see a lot more of them." Sam: "Really enjoyed the party yesterday, especially the male stripers and the knife throwing act. Really difficult to do the test but then I’ve never been really good at ’drunk driving’ tests anyway."

WELCOME TO THE FESTIVITIES

Clare Kramer is becoming as mandatory to a Starfury convention as the attendance of the hard to miss Jedi Chefs and just as she did 12 months ago, Clare happily took the mantle of host for Fusion’s opening ceremony on Friday night. Standing on a set decorated impressively as Giles’ library from Sunnydale High (although rumor has it that the opening of the main hall earlier in the day had been delayed due to the Starfury crew still painting the set!), Clare introduced the guests one by one to an eager and enthusiastic crowd. With 1800 people squeezed into a room all awaiting your arrival, it must be quite a daunting prospect for the guests to walk out on stage and to be met with a sea of adulating faces and to be hit with a wall of appreciative noise, yet each guest seemed to be genuinely appreciative of the reception they received from the fans gathered before them. First out on stage was Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s costume designer Nickalous Brown who immediately showed a ’professional interest’ in the designs of the fancy dress costumes the following evening, "Hi, thank you so much. It was so great to meet a lot of you today. Thank you so much for having me, I’m so grateful to be here and I can’t wait to see what everybody dresses up for in the Fancy Dress contest." Followed on stage by Firefly and Angel actress, Summer Glau, "Thank you, I’m so excited. I’m so happy to be here, I live England and I can’t wait to see you all tomorrow." James Leary, "It’s great to be here. I think I saw a lot of you today, and I’ll be seeing a lot of you the rest of the weekend and Whoa!" and Sarah Hagan, (who was not only attending her first ever convention but it was the first time she had ever left The States), "Hi! Wow, thank you. Thank you guys for having me out here, first time I’ve been out of the country so this is a great surprise and fun, and exciting. I had fun today and everyone’s really awesome, so I’ll see you tomorrow and the next day."

Buffy’s most famous rat Amy played by one of Starfury’s favorite guests Elizabeth Anne Allen not too far behind, "Hello England! Thanks so much for coming this weekend. I am so glad to be back in England and I am looking forward to spending this weekend with you. Spirit Fingers!" Fresh from her appearance at End of Days the year previously, the impeccable Juliet Landau knew exactly what to expect, "It’s great to be here for the second year in a row and we’re going to have a great time for the rest of the weekend, So, thank you all for coming. I really appreciate it." Buffy’s Tom Lenk, "What’s up Blackpool, what’s up!? Good to be here, you all drinking tonight? Alright, see you this weekend, I can’t wait to meet every single 1,801 of you. It will be amazing, have fun you guys." and Firefly’s Jewel Staite, "Thank you so much for having me, this is my first Firefly convention, I plan on having a really, really, really good time." Were up next before the introduction of a handsome and extremely charismatic man brought Nathan Fillion on stage who played to the crowd amazingly, "Thank you!" he says in response to the rapturous applause that greeted his presence, "I want to bring the room down just for a second to tell you all this is very special for me. This is my first time as a guest at a sci-fi convention, I gotta say, it’s pretty incredible. I also want to say I’ve never felt closer to 2,000 people at once. Ladies and gentleman let’s have a great time this weekend!" The one name who brought as much awe to the guests as is it did to the conventioneers was the man who was a late addition to the Fusion line-up.

"And if I don’t meet every single one of you I’m gonna get really pissed." Emma Caulfield Once event organizer Sean Harry was made aware of this remarkable actor’s availability, he knew there was no way he could turn down the opportunity of having such a guest at one of his cons and so it was with great pride that the name of Terminator II and X Files actor Robert Patrick was announced, "Thank you," he says of his reception, "Thank you Blackpool for letting me crash this Buffy/Firefly convention. I’m having a ball, nice to meet you all." The last two guests needed no introduction as Clare herself attested to. From the moment that the names of Nicholas Brendon and Emma Caulfield left Clare’s lips, the fans assembled went absolutely berserk cranking up the noise level to perhaps its highest point of the night. Visibly overwhelmed by the reaction, Nick and Emma patiently waited for the noise level to die down before showing their appreciation for the welcome, "We’re really, really, really happy that you all came out and I look forward to meeting every single one of you," Emma told the fans, "and if I don’t meet every single one of you I’m gonna get really pissed. Really, really angry." "And she turns green," Nick warns before warmly telling everyone, "We look forward to seeing you tomorrow and the next day." After all the guests appeared together one more time, the attendees began to get ready to party the night away school disco style.

However before anyone got the chance to dance the Prince Charming or strut their stuff to some cheesy eighties pop music, Sean Harry reappeared to tell everyone about a rare raffle prize that two of his guests had come up with. Rather than give the details himself, Sean invited Emma Caulfield and Tom Lenk back on stage to explain themselves. "We love you guys," Emma begins, "And we don’t really have a way to give much back to you other than coming here once a year and saying, ’Hi’ for like 2-seconds. So, what we thought we would do, Sunday night, after everything is done, after the closing ceremonies end, we want to hold a raffle and you guys could win an evening with Tom and I." "Like a date?" Tom asks, "A date," Emma confirms, "a threesome with me and Tom. One lucky, well we hope you consider lucky, we consider it lucky to have you so we’ll go and have a drink and hopefully not bore you to tears." At the cost of 5-pounds per first ticket and 1-pound for every other subsequent ticket, Emma and Tom were definitely not short of any takers and as the school disco began, many hoped that they would be the lucky one to be picked to have dinner with the vengeance demon and the geek.

PLEASE MAKE IT OUT TO... SMILE TIME!

Auto sessions are an integral part of the convention experience and are probably the one thing most responsible for the introduction of the convention queue!! Although the ’start the queue, own the queue, be the queue’ mantra which reverberated around the halls at End of Days was not needed so much at Fusion, getting 1800 people through the auto sessions was still a feat and a half. It seems that some lessons were learned from handling the large crowds from the previous year however, as it definitely seemed a less fraught affair. Clare Kramer and Nickalous Brown teamed up as one group, with the Firefly guests Nathan, Jewel and Summer forming another. The Buffy guests were separated into two further groups with Nick, Emma, James and Elizabeth in one and Juliet, Tom, Sarah and Robert in the other. Attendees were called to each auto session by ticket number clearly displayed on the large screen in the main hall as well as being posted on large flipchart pads situated outside each auto room. Fans who wanted autos from Nick Brendon, Emma Caulfield and Robert Patrick had to buy an official photo before being allowed to get a personal item signed and stewards were very vigilant only official pieces of merchandise were being taken through. Maybe it was just a case of being in the wrong session at the wrong time, but there did not seem to be the same kind of playful banter between the guests that you usually find when you have someone the likes of J August Richards or an Andy Hallett although Nick constantly asked about Emma’s well being and James had great fun drawing doodles of Clem complete with floppy ears on most autos he signed. The guests worked hard to try and make sure that no one left disappointed and it is doubtful that anyone actually did. Maybe it’s because there wasn’t an Andy to hold up proceedings that the sessions ran so smoothly so Heaven help Hyperion!

The photo sessions were once again left in the capable hands of Dave Sumner as well as a guest photographer. Both Dave and his colleague took up residence in a small section of the Dealer Room situated right next door to the Main Hall so you could easily cast your eye over some bargains while waiting to have your photo snapped with the star of your choice. Photo tickets for each guest went on sale up to 24 hours before the scheduled session took place and were once again numbered in an attempt to control the queues. These numbers were called on the screen in the main hall often leading to a mass exodus of people leaving Q&A sessions to meet their pictorial appointment. You kind of had to feel sorry for whichever poor soul was sitting on stage at the time because they must of wondered if it was something they had said that was making all these people leave or whether they had forgotten to take a shower that morning! Nathan Fillion looked particularly disturbed and told everyone in his Caleb drawl that ’they had better git back here now!" No one listened as Tom Lenk was waiting next door.

Friday held a number of photo sessions with solo pictures with most cast members available. Nick opened the sessions with his trademark humor and big heart. He made a point of shaking hands with everyone greeting them all with a ’howdy’ and a smile. The only strange thing to make a note of was the garishly loud appearance of bright pink nail varnish adorning Nick’s fingertips yet in a weird way it seemed to suit him. Nathan, attending his first ever event, couldn’t have been more relaxed as he waited for Dave to set up for his session. He walked the length of the queue asking people how far they had traveled for the event and focused in on one particular attendee Buffie. After he had discovered she had come from Belfast enquiring as to whether she had flown or taken the boat. Unfortunately poor Buffie was not prepared for the direct line of questioning this deceptively handsome man was throwing at her and feeling tongue-tied relied on some of her friends to complete her answers for her! Nathan, like Nick before him, made a point of shaking the hands of all those he met and held some people so close that when it came to the turn of CoA Staff Member Sue Grimshaw to have her one on one encounter, he hugged her so close she could actually hear his heartbeat!

Photo sessions over the remainder of the weekend gave fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with the ill-fated duo Xander and Anya aka Nick and Emma as well as a rare chance to have your photo taken with the entire crew of Serenity in attendance as Nathan, Jewel and Summer happily posed. There was a problem with one of Tom Lenk’s photo sessions on Sunday with one group of people being called back due to issues with one particular roll of film. Tom happily (although he seemed a little tired) interrupted his auto session to do a re-shoot to again make sure no one was left disappointed.