Question for anyone who went to Starfury... by chronicthehedgehog

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Question for anyone who went to Starfury...

POSTED BY: CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 20:39
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Saturday, May 7, 2005 2:15 PM

Could you give me an estimate of how much the weekend cost you, I'm trying to work out whether I can afford Serenity2. Thanks!

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Saturday, May 7, 2005 10:16 PM

WREN

The cost depends on what you want to spend:

Tickets are £75 each, if you pay by credit card you have to pay charge of about £3.00.

Radisson Hotel costs are about (per night, per room, usually including breakfast) £70 for a single, £85 for a double, £120 for a triple. It is cheaper to share and there is a thread to advertise for a roomie. There are cheaper hotels nearby, but Starfury gets fined for every room it doesn't sell which puts future cons in jeopardy.

Food - this is your choice. Eating at the hotel is very expensive. Most people fill up on breakfast and go without during the day, or take a lot of snacks with them.

Drinks - once again your choice, but the hotel charges are expensive (lager is about £3.00 per pint).

Autograph pictures - you can get one item signed for free, plus a furter three autographs per guest which you have to pay for. You can buy a picture of the guest for £10 or a 'badger' (which allows you to get another personnal item signed) for around £8.00. The amount you spend will depend on the number of autographs you want.

Photo with guests - these are £10 per guest, or you can get a group photo which works out cheaper than individual shots (I would advise accounting for £60 for the group shot). Once again it depends how many pictures you want. The pictures are usually signed.

Petrol/train fare - depends on where you live.

Guest talks and the parties are included in the price of the ticket.

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Sunday, May 8, 2005 2:48 AM

EMMA

Ok, there are dozens of ways to attend a con. I do it cheaply:

I buy a ticket (£75), get a twin room for me and my sis (Radisson £89pn b&b).

I never buy autographs or photos as that isn't my bag - obviously this costs nothing.

I get the cheapest travel I can find but stay for three nights - this is a must!

I bend the rules at the hotel:

I take a bag into breakfast and pinch rolls and fruit for lunch

I take lots of bananas and pot noodley type things for munchies (the rooms have tea-making facilities)

I take my own booze, but buy the occasional bottle from the bar - if people stop buying the bar closes. (At Serenity nearly everything ran out early sunday - very annoying for us but great for the hotel and future cons).

Dinner varies between McD's (my principles go out of the window at cons), the hotel and any pubs in the area. Dinner depends on what you need - my sister and I have bad tummies and need as many proper meals as possible but if you can survive on pot noodles for three days you will have a cheap time.

I have a few friends that do it VERY cheap. I do not advise this because they can do it because of how long they have been going and who they are/know, plus it is bad for the convention and the hotel but it is possible:

Don't buy a ticket (hard but not impossible to get into guest-talks without it, impossible to get autographs without it, easy to go to parties without it)

Don't pay for a room - crash with people you meet at the con

Take your own food and drinks, befriend/flirt with/shag as many people as you can to buy you stuff.

Blag your way into breakfast

I do not support any of these actions but I have seen many people do them and have friends that have done all of them so it can be done - remember though this can come at a price (ie the hotel kicks people out and the convention never goes back)

Of course it is possible to only do one or two of these naughty things...

Basically how much you spend depends on what type of convention you want - I go for the parties so it is cheaper, if you want the photos and stuff it costs a fortune. Even I spent £300 over the course of the weekend (including travel - I came from the Netherlands though) although £150 of this was months before the convention when I bought my tickets and flight.

Sorry this is long-winded but I think this covers all the options.

Hope it helps

extremely dimensionally transcendental

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Sunday, May 8, 2005 12:29 PM

KISSTHESTRAWBERRYLOVERMRTAM

I have previously stayed at b&bs down the road because they are half the price of the hotel (about £20 - £30 per night when there is 2 people sharing).

I also bring cereal bars and fruit to last the weekend with a few trips to McDonalds. Eating out is too expensive for me.

I also tried every different route i could think of to get the cheapest train ticket.

My rough spending guide:

£75 ticket

£40 cheap hotel ( i stayed 2 nights bt would recomend 3, will be staying 3 nights this time)

£60 autographs (wanted everyones)

£20 a couple of photos

£40 train ticket

£10 for food

Hope this helps

Sarah

I usually go not intending to buy too much but the sight of our BDH makes me buy more autographs and photos

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Sunday, May 8, 2005 12:36 PM

RELFEXIVE

I put out quite a bit on photos for autographing and for the photo ops, but then I ain't never seen those folks before so I wanted to get all the geeky picture stuff I could

Plus you get the chance to meet them and maybe chat a bit. Then again, I got a bit of that in the bar Saturday night, so it wasn't all bad.

Good times

"My God - you're like a trained ape. Without the training."

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Sunday, May 8, 2005 3:01 PM

SHAUNG

I allocated a total budget of about £500 to the Con.

£90 went on travel expenses
£70 tickets
£150 on autographs and sundries
With the remainder for the hotel.

It's also worth noting that hotels here have started to debit accounts twice if you use a card. Once when you check in which remains as 'pending' on your account and then again when you check out which is the actual payment, the payment in the pending state is then supposed to be cancelled by the hotel once you've checked out.

I stayed at the Sheraton and they put a pending status on an amount that was far more than I actually ended up paying for the whole stay and it remained pending on my account for a full 7 days after I left.

I'm really annoyed that they've been holding around £400 of my money in limbo for that long for no reason, it's caused me some *major* headaches (not to mention heartburn) and I've had to make several changes to what I was planning to do this month because of it, including this week, I was planning on having a few days out which I had to cancel because I didn't have the money available.

Shaun

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Sunday, May 8, 2005 9:28 PM

PSYCHICRIVER

Quote:
Originally posted by Emma:
(hard but not impossible to get into guest-talks without it, impossible to get autographs without it, easy to go to parties without it)

I realised that too. And you can get photos with the guests without having a ticket too?

PsychicRiver

"Two by two, hands of blue."

"We can take care of each other. I'll knit!"

Summer Glau to me - "You are so photogenic."

Me -

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Monday, May 9, 2005 12:11 AM

SIMONWHO

You can go without buying a ticket but if you do, it's normally best to wear a badge that says "SUCKERS! I'm enjoying my free ride while you stupid punks pay for the guests to come over and all this organisation."

I then recommend you pirate a copy of Serenity and distribute it all over the Internet.

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Monday, May 9, 2005 12:38 AM

FRAY101

Obviously this is something that can work out pretty darned expensive but I'm just looking at it as a holiday! (OK, it helps that I've managed to get someone to foot the hotel bill for me!).

But the prices for photos, autographs etc don't sound too bad. Look at some of those conventions out there charging £20.00 or so for relative non-entities.

Anyhow, we've all got 6 long months to start saving...

"Why would I want to leave Serenity?"
"Can't think of a reason."

Over 100 Serenity screencaps now available at http://disneypix.tripod.com/destiny

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Monday, May 9, 2005 1:44 AM

SLAYERFEST

I agree with the whole pricing thing being good value.

If you attended Serenity you would have got 8 signatures for free on an item provided by yourself. Let's work out how much they would cost elsewhere:

Nathan Fillion £20
Summer Glau £20
Alan Tudyk £20
Morena Baccarin £20
Jewel Staite £20
Ron Glass £20
Mark Sheppard £15
Chris Buchanan £15

That's £150 just for an auto on your own item by each of the guests. Your ticket entitled you to a free auto from each. The ticket costs £75.

To see a whole cast panel would probably cost a minimum of £15 possibly £20.

Smaller Q&A panels would be possibly £10 - £20.

Party tickets each night £15 x 3

So by comparison, the whole event would cost WAY more to do if it was done the way other signing events are run.

I really don't think its a good idea to look for ways to reduce cost at a Starfury event by not buying a ticket. If I find anyone without a ticket at the event I will ask security to throw them out. I imgine they will be banned from all future Starfury events and will not be welcome at other organisers' events either as their name will be passed on to other organisers.

People, if the organiser doesn't turn a profit, he/she will not be able to run another event. There are enough rip off merchants out there who will steal money and NOT provide an event for the people who paid. If people like Sean at Starfury quits running events because of the mindless behaviour of greedy fans you will be left to the mercies of rip-off merchants. We have seen it happen with Buffy and Angel events even this year.

By all means look for ways to reduce costs wherever possible but do not do it at the organisers' expense. If I have paid full whack to attend I resent someone taking the p*** and avoiding payment where due and I WILL report people.

Sorry to get aggressive but I know what it takes and costs to organise an event and I resent the idea of ripping off an event in the extreme.

Would people please stop advising people of ways to do it or you will also be reported to Starfury and that alone could result in a ban from future events.
Andy

Visit http://www.summerglau.co.uk - the OFFICIAL Summer Glau website

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Monday, May 9, 2005 2:40 AM

SQUIGS

Quote:
Originally posted by SimonWho:
You can go without buying a ticket but if you do, it's normally best to wear a badge that says "SUCKERS! I'm enjoying my free ride while you stupid punks pay for the guests to come over and all this organisation."

But you only get the right to hang round outside and chat to people. All well and good, but there are other ways to meet other fans. I've known one person do this at other conventions. I don't see it as a huge problem since they're not getting a lot, and aren't costing anyone anything.

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Monday, May 9, 2005 3:02 AM

SLAYERFEST

If the event wasn't on they wouldn't be hanging out there. The organiser has to hire the venue. Anybody hanging out at the venue really owes the organiser an attendance fee.

If they try to engage the guests in conversation at the bar or even in the car park again they are capitalising on the fact that the organiser has paid for them to fly over and attend the event.

If I were the organiser I would ensure that nobody who enters the bar area does so without a pass. I know on previous occassions there have been badge checks on the external doors rather than the internal doors. I had the job of stopping people without badges coming in.

I repeat, if the organiser has paid to organise the event and bring guests over then those who attempt to benefit from the guests or the event are expected to pay for their entry. I will report anyone who doesn't pay their way in.

Andy

Visit http://www.summerglau.co.uk - the OFFICIAL Summer Glau website

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Monday, May 9, 2005 4:11 AM

SQUIGS

I'm not talking about talking to the guests. Just the other fans. I agree that benefitting from the appearance of the guests would be unfair.

As for the bar, it all depends on whether the bar area is part of the convention. Usually the reason for not checking badges on the external doors is simply because that area has not been hired for exclusive use of the convention.

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Monday, May 9, 2005 4:25 AM

SLAYERFEST

I realise that sometimes the bar area is open to the public and other times it is not, but would your friends CHOOSE to hang out at the bar of the Thistle Hotel for example if the event was not on? I suspect not. Many of us don't wanna hang out at the Thistle period but its difficult to attend the con and avoid the hotel.

My opinion remains the same though. As I said, if I were running the event there I would ensure that nobody entered the conference centre (which has been hired for the convention), unless they had a badge on.

I don't have a problem with non-attendees hanging out at the hotel per se (there are other bars or even local pubs hey could meet friends at) but as we can see from the posts above people have already considered ways to cheat the organiser out of their entry fees and some know of people who have done so. That is to be condemned not applauded. There are enough people condemning the piracy of the BDM after all on other threads.

I want to keep going to events and that can only happen if everyone pays their way in and stops advising or recommending ways to avoid payment. I know the organiser of Starfury will take a really dim view of anyone who does this.

Andy

Visit http://www.summerglau.co.uk - the OFFICIAL Summer Glau website

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Tuesday, May 10, 2005 8:39 PM

EMMA

Quote:
Would people please stop advising people of ways to do it or you will also be reported to Starfury and that alone could result in a ban from future events.

Andy, there isn't a single person giving advice like that here, in fact as I am the one that mentioned it in the first-place I explicitly said the things you did but in a slightly less threatening fashion.

I am sorry if my comments upset you but I was trying to give other people all of the information I have.

Everybody who posted on this thread bought a ticket and went out of their way to ensure its success. Even I, who didn't buy any photos, spent money at the hotel for the sole reason of supporting the con for future events. The people on here are also posting on this thread to encourage other people to go, and I am pretty sure most, if not all of us, have got at least one other person to attend Starfury who normally wouldn't do so (I alone have got 2 extra friends to buy tickets. 1 is now a regular, and I am working on 2 more). I think this is pretty damn cool and makes us all BDH.

Now, no more squabbling, lets all be friends

extremely dimensionally transcendental

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