Flash Gordon stars cosmically aligned to propel Britain’s biggest sci-fi festival into a stellar new era with celestial service from Area 51.
The much-loved annual Sci-Fi & Fantasy Weekender launched its tenth anniversary celebrations in steel city Sheffield with a scintillating salvo of activities and big-name stars.
Sam Jones, star of the 1980 movie “Flash Gordon” and his beloved co-star Brian Blessed were among the main attractions at the opening half of the 2019 edition of the event.
Unlike in previous years when SFW was held at the Hafan Y Mor holiday camp in North Wales, the new-look festival is split into two parts with the first staged at the 02 Academy in Sheffield and the sold-out follow-up being held at the Vauxhall Holiday Park in Great Yarmouth later in the autumn.
Area 51 are intimately involved in the SFW experience and, as always, provided a large number of fantasy performance artists, stilt-walkers, dancers and characters to bolster proceedings while the company’s own Jim-credible was once again a popular host.
And the new format proved bigger, better and more successful than before. Star guests also featured Christopher Judge (Stargate, God of War), author Adrian Tchaikovsky, Dr. Who writer Paul Finch, Dr. & The Medics, The Dark Room, Simon Fisher-Becker (Dr. Who, Harry Potter), the Pop Up Puppet Cinema, MMORPG Live, Professor Elemental, author George Mann, Thana Niveau, Jollyboat, John Llewellyn Probert, Flesh Tetris, sci-fi editor Michael Rowley, Blues Harvest, Level-up Leroy and Hat’s Off Gentlemen, It’s Appropriate
Add into the mix star interviews, competitions, exclusive movie screenings, Q&A sessions, cosplay, video gaming, comic workshops, book readings, autograph and photo opportunities and geektastic quizzes, and it’s easy to see why the three-day event was such a rip-roaring success, giving sci-fi and fantasy diehards and virgins alike the perfect environment to be delightfully lost in leftfield space.
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