Kiwanis Neuville & Star Force Events present

Report

Enjoy this report ont the Kiwanis Force Event.

(click here for more photos and the video)

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FRIDAY

The crew started early on Friday to prepare the venue. Lots of booths to be built for the dealers and other preparations to be made. The room was filled with spots and lasers, giving it an extra terrestrial look and feel. And of course, the guest stars had to be picked up from the Eurostar train station in Lille and brought back to the hotel, where they received a VIP treatment, courtesy of the hotel manager, who is a Star Wars fan herself – which helps a lot!

Press Conference

Later that day, we were all invited to a press conference (with a lovely walking dinner) at Town Hall, which was pretty impressive. Robert Watts charmed his way through the journalist’s questions by answering mostly in French, which impressed the hell out of them.

During this opening ceremony, the guest stars received a very special – and extremely rare – medallion from the Kiwanis service club in appreciation of their contribution to the event, as did Star Force Events representatives Mark and Nicolas, who were pleasantly surprised (please permit the understatement) to receive this high honor as well.

During the press conference, a representative of the Foundation Pierre Hourriez explained how the money, raised by this event, would be used. The foundation supports research into brain surgery for mentally ill children. He explained the progress they’ve made so far and where they want to go with their research. He also expressed his concern that no less than 1% of the population suffers from this kind of illness, so research is indeed very much needed. It’s not a rare disease and thus should be addressed as soon as possible.

SATURDAY

It was an early rise for the Kiwanis and Star Force crew. Some dealers still had to arrive, the tents outside had to be built, a banner needed to be hung and what not. It was busy, very much so. The clubs were getting all dressed up and ready to parade. The excitement rose. We were about to open the doors to the first edition of the Kiwanis-Force-Event.

It got off to a slow start, though. When the guest stars went to lunch, only 250 people had come through the door. So, admitted, we got a bit worried. Would this event be a success? Would we be able to raise the much-needed money for charity?

As usual, the Star Force Events crew (Nicolas, Niek, Ilse, Heiko, Stjepko, Michel and Mark) made sure everything went smoothly at the venue, while the Kiwanians kept close tabs on the press (radio, newspaper and even national television (France 3) came by) and took care of lunch for the clubs and the guest stars. They also took care of a lot of the running around for little things. They were tireless and enthusiastic, amazingly so.

Just after lunch, Nicolas, Mark and Cedric went to the hall where the charity dinner and show would take place that night, for the dress rehearsal with the members of the 501^st Garrison. They performed admirably! We knew we had a show that would be long remembered (if all went well…). It was a funny sight, though, to see them running around with make-belief weaponry and only their helmets on…

When we brought the actors back to the hotel – to freshen up for the charity dinner – 450 people had already visited the convention. Not a very dramatic number given the fact that we had hoped for 1200 people over the course of the weekend. But we were on track to get the 1000 people we secretly hoped for.

VIP Charity Dinner

Around 8pm, in the Salles Malraux – the hall was beautifully decorated – the 200 attendees were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the guest stars. After Kiwanis gave a short welcoming speech, Mark got on stage to introduce the guests one by one. Needless to say the music in the hall was hard to hear over the clicking of cameras and the applause. What a warm welcome!

The catering was exquisite! After the champagne we had a fantastic dinner, accompanied by some lovely French wines. Dessert was a delicious cake. Strangely enough, not a lot of coffee was served. Most people enjoyed the wine and champagne too much.

After the first dish, the show started. To kick it all off, Mark invited Jeremy Bulloch and Robert Watts to join him on stage as backing vocals for the by now infamous Cantina Song.

CHECK OUT THE
VIDEO HERE!!!

It was hilarious! Jeremy got the song next to word perfect, Robert was clueless, but enjoyed himself immensely. And so did the audience. The applause was deafening, we could see smiles throughout the room.

Next up was an exciting lightsaber duel by the FanWars club, with a choreography that amazed even the most arduous Jedi in the room. They concluded the show with a wonderful magician’s act.

After dessert, the guest stars went on stage to sign a specially designed limited edition photo for the Gold Pass holders, who were also able to get their picture taken with them.

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 PHOTOS HERE!!!

At the end of the evening, there was a raffle. We were very happy to sell out all the raffle tickets, thus raising even more money for the charity. We had over 100 prizes that were donated by the dealers, local benefactors and captains of industry. But the grand prize – a screen used skull from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – donated by producer Robert Watts,  got all the attention, for the obvious reason. And best of all? It was won by a teenager who just loved the movie series (although he admitted not yet having seen the fourth film). I hope he realizes it belongs in a museum and will treat it accordingly.

After a lengthy after-party (where more champagne flowed than I’ve seen in a while) we took the guest stars back to the hotel. By the time the crew got to bed, it was 4.30am (we unfortunately lost an hour due to summertime, that needed to be set that night), meaning only three hours of sleep. We were dead tired, but extremely happy. The VIP Charity Dinner was a huge success and will be spoken of for years to come.

SUNDAY

The final day of the event started off with a pleasant surprise. We were all over the radio news between 7am and 9am and featured prominently in several newspapers.

But again, we were off to a slow start. We have to admit we did get a bit worried then, even though we were already well past the break-even point. After all, the goal was to raise a lot of money for the Foundation. But the Kiwanis people ensured us that this was natural for an event in France. They ensured us that the crowds would come out after lunch. And how right they were! We needed no less than six crewmembers to take care of traffic alone! During the afternoon, almost 1400 people showed up and the room became increasingly like the Mos Eisley Cantina on a Tatooinian afternoon – hot and crowded.

People were flabbergasted by the props that Robert Watts had brought with him. We often feared for their safety, since Robert allowed the visitors to touch them and have their pictures taken with them. He had the blue crew vest from the Finse (Norway) shoot of the Battle of Hoth in Empire Strikes Back and the clapper of the last day of shooting (15^th January 1980) as well as the medallion from the Staff of Ra from Raiders of the Lost Ark. But he also brought a Sankara stone from Indiana Jones of Doom – and of course the aforementioned skull from Mola Ra’s temple that was the grand prize at the raffle. To top it off, he even brought Henry Jones’ diary from The Last Crusade, that was used by Indiana Jones to find the chalice of life.  And last – but certainly not least – he had an original production painting from Ralph McQuarrie with him, depicting the arrival of the Emperor on the Death Star, from Return of the Jedi. Value? $50.000,00. And our insurance wouldn’t cover theft, so you can see why were were pretty anxious and hence had a crewmember at the table at all time and took the painting in custody whenever Robert went to the bathroom or to lunch… or simply for one of his many strolls among the crowd.

At one point, Mark’s blood pressure reached a peak and his heart skipped several beats. When Robert took the Sankara stone out of his suitcase to put it on display… he dropped it and it broke into three large chunks. The crew in the vicinity (this happened before any visitors were allowed, it was still early) gasped collectively and quite a bit of white showed on several faces – as you can imagine. But Robert thought nothing of it, threw the pieces (literally) back in the suitcase, stating: ‘It’s no use putting it on display now, is it?’. Back at the hotel, Mark asked if he could have another look at it in hopes of putting it back together since it wasn’t completely splintered or anything. And luckily – or was that the Force? – the pieces fit back together perfectly, even without glue. It already had several seams, so to the untrained eye it was impossible to see that it had been broken. And guess what? Robert was so enchanted with Mark’s efforts – not just repairing the piece of movie memorabilia, but with the whole event in general – that he gave it to Mark as a souvenir (who pretended he couldn’t possibly accept it, but did so nonetheless, much to the (played) chagrin of his fellow crewmembers).  He also signed a photo from Indiana Jones on which he wrote ‘To Mark: there is only one person on the planet Earth to whom I would entrust the Sankara stone. It’s you! – Robert Watts’. Mark is currently recuperating from the shock, thank you for asking...

CLOSING REMARKS

It is weird to think that it took almost 11 months to prepare for this event, but so gratifying to see it all come together at last. Everybody was very happy with the result of this event, which acquired a little over 10.000,00 EUR for the Foundation Pierre Hourriez, so we can truly say it was a tremendous success.

We would like to extend our deepest thanks to all who were involved with the organisation: the Kiwanis service club of Tourcoing-Neuville (especially Cédric, Christian and Pierre           ), the Star Force Events crew (you know who you are!), the guest Stars, the clubs (501^st Garrison, 59^th Legion, FanWars, Rebel Legion, MintInBox, ...) and the city council of Neuville-en-Ferrain and it’s Mayor who believed in the event from the start. Also a big thank you to the dealers – some of which had to drive for several hours to get there. Last but not least, we want to thank the visitors who turned up in such large numbers to make this event into a successful one. Your generosity has become legendary in the Pas De Calais.

THANK YOU!

Be sure to check out the very extensive report with 200+ photos of the event on our partner's website Mint In Box, simply by clicking the image below.

 

 

(click here for more photos and the video)