FanX: How To Get In To The Celebrity Spotlight You Want To See
So you’re all set for FanX. You bought your tickets months ago, and you’re dying to check out the cosplay, the vendors, and all of the exciting attractions coming to the Salt Palace. But more than anything, you’re going because you want to see one particular star. It might be Steven Yeun from “The Walking Dead,” or Princess Leia from “Star Wars” or it may be Jim Cummings, the voice of “Winnie The Pooh” and many other Disney favorites, but you really don’t want to miss their celebrity spotlight.
But how do you know you’ll get in?
The master schedule of events is online at saltlakecomiccon.com/panel_schedule/,
but if you’ve been to Comic Con before you know that these things are constantly subject to change. So once you get through registration and get your wrist band, the first thing you want to do is sit down and take a look at your program schedule. The celebrity spotlights are held in the ballrooms. So, looking through, you find that the one you want to go to is in the north ballroom at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. So all you need to do is be there ten minutes before it starts, right?
Wrong.
[one_fourth]
[/one_fourth][three_fourth_last]
Celebrity spotlight lines start way in advance, and if it’s one of the big names, the lines are going to be big (in 2014, Karen Gillan’s spotlight was so heavily attended that they had to postpone the event in the other ballroom and use it as an overflow where fans could watch on a video monitor.). So you are going to want to be there, ready to stand or sit in line, a minimum of one hour in advance.
But if you are really intent on getting in, and you are patient, here’s the best way to go: get in line a couple of hours early and go to the spotlight before your spotlight. When it ends, a large group will exit through while the the massive line outside is just itching to be let in, but if you’re staying for the next spotlight, you don’t have to leave the ballroom. In fact, chances are you can use that opportunity to move up to a seat closer to the stage.
If this seems like a lot of effort to go to, and you’re thinking “But I don’t want to sit through a spotlight for some guy from Power Rangers,” consider that you can be sitting in a chair for an hour listening to a celebrity that you don’t really care about but may very well end up with some interesting stories to tell, or you can be standing or sitting on the hard floor of the Salt Palace, feeling antsy and keeping your fingers crossed that you’re going to get in, and good luck finding a seat that’s anywhere near you wanted to be. If you want to ride Space Mountain, you have to wait in line. There are 50,000 other people at FanX, and literally thousands of them are just as excited to see this spotlight as you. If you’re not willing to go to that much trouble, well that’s understandable. But don’t blame those who are willing to put in the extra effort if they walk away with better memories of FanX than you do.
There’s no doubt about it: you get out of the experience what you are willing to put into it, and good things come to those who wait.
