It’s been a few days since San Diego Comic-Con International (SDCC) wrapped up for another year. But even with time to recover since SDCC ended for another year, Preview Night, Thursday and Friday still remain a blur.
Preview Night did start with lunch and drinks this time in Liberty Station instead of downtown as I was hoping to be able to get to the Wynonna Earp Fan Meetup that was happening that evening at the San Diego Comic Arts Gallery. We walked over to the gallery as the event was to start only to see there was a good size line already and a decision had to be made… stay for the Wynonna Earp event and skip Preview Night or get Lyft to downtown and head in for Preview Night which for us is traditionally the time we make the rounds to say hi to the friends we have made over the years.
Preview Night won out as it has become traditional to make the social rounds of the booths we have friends at simply to say hi and see how everybody is doing. It makes it easier that some of these booths have been in the same spots for the last few years making it much easier to navigate the floor. As always we start down one end with the first stop being at to see Jim Balent and Holly Golightly and the last stop being down the other end of the hall at Monte M Moore’s booth.
Side note: for those that were wondering, the RFID badges weren’t an issue (at least for us) and the tapping in and out was less of a bottleneck than we feared. It may have helped that we avoided arriving as the doors opened each day, so who knows if it would have been more of an issue if we had been trying to get through at that point.
Even with doing our social round, there were some people that I still did not manage to catch at all this year. That shows how busy this show is, even with 4 1/2 days you aren’t guaranteed to see everybody and everything that you want to see, though we did manage to end Preview Night with a stop at the Fox Sports Grill at the Hilton Bayfront (this is becoming a bit of a tradition as well.)
SDCC Thursday and Friday are less clear than Preview Night. As I have been wondering what happened to the hours that weren’t consumed with panels and interviews the only thing that has become clear is the high heat and humidity most definitely had an impact. Won’t even mention the number of people that had their eyes glued to their cell phones making the crowds more interesting to navigate.
There are some hours that are clear as day. Such as Thursday’s CW3PR’s Behind The Music: Crime, Death, and Resurrection panel. There was the Dark Matter panel and running into friends that had been there as well though I didn’t see them until we were leaving the panel. Friday there was the “I Love That Song” panel from BMI and White Bear PR with Dynamic Music Partners.
For the first time in all the years I have been attending SDCC, I made my way over into the Gaslamp after the show to go to dinner. While the crowds to get across Harbor were huge, once you get into the Gaslamp it was a huge party. Several blocks of Fifth Avenue were shut down making it easier to get around as you simply walked down the middle of the road. Every restaurant was packed but fortunately we got seats at The Field and were able to have dinner and drinks and simply relaxing. A word of caution, The Field does not have A/C so on a HOT summer evening it can get a bit toasty. On the plus side, they did have good service.
Both days also included a few hours meeting with and interviewing some composers and actors. It would be a bit of a spoiler if I were to tell you who before I share the photos and interviews so you will just have to watch for them.
But enough of my babbling, how about some photos, at least those that aren’t tied to panels or interviews from those two days.
