Easter weekend and any unsuspecting passer-by to City West in Dublin could have been forgiven for thinking they were suffering delusions or hallucinations. Every path led to INVASION and the roads were filled with stormtroopers, Jedi knights, imperial guards and even the odd alien or two, in every shape and size imaginable. All were making their way to the Star Wars Expo.

As a massive fan myself I was eager to attend. My wife was interested but could probably have thought of a few other ways to spend a Saturday morning. My nine year old godson was so excited he hardly slept the night before and my own three year old daughter was only really concerned with ensuring Daddy didn’t embarrass her by dressing up in costume. The expo itself consisted of a number of standards that make up this type of event. The Models of the spaceships and weaponry were the main contingent and were spread throughout the hall encouraging the visitor to have a good meander around all of the exhibits. Each model was cordoned off by crash barriers to keep the visitors at a respectable distance and protect the carefully created models.

You were allowed to get reasonably close however and the opportunities for photos were grasped by almost everyone. The models were manned by numerous emerald garrison (the hosts) members dressed in Star Wars costumes. Very impressive costumes of everything state of clone Trooper through to storm trooper and Jedi knights galore were manning the models and wandering freely around the exhibit. Every one of them was fully in character and a nice touch in the programme was a page for the younger fans to get these characters signatures. The most popular of these characters of course was Vader and the opportunity to have a photo taken with a Vader costumed actor was grasped by fans of all ages.

The meet and greet had a number of the original movie stars signing autographs. Some were obviously more popular than others and the queues were significant for the likes of Kenny Baker (R2D2). I wonder how disheartening it must be for the less popular stars that look compare their queue of fans with someone like Mr Bakers.

One fault I found with the event was around the signing by the stars. It is normal practice for these events to have autograph opportunities for fans that will pay for the chance to get a signed photo or poster from their heroes. However I felt the hand written price lists on an A4 sheet pinned behind the stars was a little unfair on parents. The signs weren’t readable until you were actually at the desk beside the star and what parent is going to bring their star struck child through the queuing process and then snatch away the pen before the autograph is made, once they see the cost! I don’t argue totally with the idea of the charge but I do think the sign needed to be clearer and at the start of the queue instead of the end.

Also, there was no mention of any charity element to this so I can only assume there wasn’t one. If there was that should have been made clear. Finally there were the stalls with sci-fi merchandise aimed at either the kids or else the serious collector. You could get a full stormtrooper outfit for €700. Sadly this idea was crushed by my wife! All in all a very enjoyable morning, with plenty there especially for the younger fans. The facilities in City West are perfect for this type of event and the Emerald Garrison did themselves proud with the event. Keep an eye out for the next invasion.