Travels | LeakyCon 2013 Round Up | Part 2

*warning* photo heavy post! Read Part 1 here!

After the excitement and fangirling of Day 1 of LeakyCon and my voice now a little strained from singing along to Team Starkid’s Get Back To Hogwarts a little too enthusiastically, you can imagine I was a little tired for a full day of programming on the Friday of the Convention.
Hank Green
Wrock night 2
– Hank Green’s ‘Hanker-fish’! – Lauren Lauren Fairweather and The Whomping Willows – Joe DeGeorge – Paul DeGeorge – The Potters during Luna – 
It was an early start to try and get tickets for the signings that day – I only got one of the three but go to meet Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers later on in the afternoon – before heading to Hank’s Nerdfighter meet up to talk politics, Youtube and fart jokes…yep :P
The rest of the day was a blur of fandom panels, queuing and making new friends from all over the world. As part of our LitTrack pass we also got to meet a group of YA authors at a book signing, all of whom were awesome, as well as attending panels on writing and literature. (I’ll be doing a proper LitTrack round up for Blogger’s Bookshelf soon so keep an eye out ; D).

Wrock Night number two started off a little more chill, I wasn’t too fussed about getting to the front as I was the first night so chilled with some of our new friends in the Great Hall. After a quick pizza we ended up back at the venue just as Lauren Fairweather and The Whomping Willows finished their set with ‘When The Lights Go Out‘. The crowd were still chanting ‘We’re wizards, we’ll party forever…’ just as the founding fathers of the Wrock movement, Harry & the Potters, bounded on stage and blew the roof right off the Grand Connaught with fandom famous songs like Save Ginny Weasley, I Am A Wizard and Dumbledore. The last of which ended in the crowd with their arms around each other in a huge circle singing out the last chorus! #awesome They even managed to coax Hank Green out for another rendition of Accio Deathly Hallows, before a final sing-a-long to Luna Luna (sans Evanna sadly, she fell asleep in her hotel room by accident apparently!)

Saturday-programme
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HP cast autographs Evannah Lynch
– Harry Potter actors panel l-r Benedict Clarke (young Snape), Ellie Darcy-Alden (young Lily Potter), Ryan Turner (Hugo Weasley), Scarlet Byrne (Pansy Parkinson) and Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley) – autographs from Rohan Gotobed (young Sirius Black) – Robbie Jarvis (James Potter) – Ryan – Ellie – Benedict – Chris – Scarlet – AND EVANNA LYNCH! – 
Day 3 also started with queuing – LineCon 2013! woop! – and a special trivia quiz with the guest Harry Potter actors. But it also came with the lovely surprise of getting into the signing with actors from the Harry Potter films! Where, yes, I did meet Evanna Lynch, had a rather amusing conversation with Benedict Clarke about Peter Capaldi and blushed far too much in front of Robbie Jarvis.

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– MinaLima, the graphic designers for the Harry Potter films – Dawn O’Porter and James Dawson discuss ‘Who Has It Worse?’ boy vs girls – Team Starkid – 

There were more panels, including talks on education and creative writing, and a talk from the two head Graphic Designers of the Harry Potter films. Plus the event I was beyond excited for, and had been wanting to see live for the past four years, Team Starkid’s live show!

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Sunday-programme
– Esther Earl Ball in full swing – LeakyCon staff and the crowd rocking out to Total Eclipse of the Heart – Last page of the programme – 
Saturday night of LeakyCon also only meant one thing…the Esther Earl Rocking Charity Ball, which was a whole night full of dancing, conga lines and really bad singing. For me this was the highlight of the whole Convention, with the entire room belting our the unofficial LeakyCon anthem Total Eclipse of the Heart to end the ball.
Sunday hangovers and another final queue for the Leaving Feast Breakfast ended my experience at the Convention. Saying goodbye to everyone was so hard and I felt like I was literally being dragged away from the Grand Connaught.

I left LeakyCon with so many memories and so many friends, that I’m sure I’ll be first in line to buy a ticket to the next Convention in Orlando, Florida next year! For anyone dubious about attending anything like this, whether it be something smaller like LeakyCon or a huge convention like ComicCon, I’d definitely recommend it. They’re opportunities of a lifetime!


R.xoxo
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