Well what a fabulous day that was!
Proof that the best laid of mice and men often go awry, on the evening of the night before, attendees got a message from the organisers - the venue had double booked the Ghostbusters fans with a wedding. Not wanting (somewhat understandably) to kick out the wedding party, a new venue was found at speed for the Ghostbusters group and messages sent out.
On the morning of the vent, Ghostbusters were seen walking the streets of Glasgow, making their way to the nightclub that would stand in as the new venue - an event which in itself got onto TV -
https://ghostbustersnews.com/2022/05/07 ... interview/ Stepping into the dimly lit club, merchandise tables had already been set up. As eyes adjusted to the light, a compere shortly announced a discussion between Laura Summer (voice of the animated Janine) and Martin Griffiths who had contributed towards some of the comic book art in the past I believe. A later discussion involved Jennifer Runyon (electric shock girl from GB1) and Eldo Ray Estes (man with orange hair in the crowd in GB1). They, and Laura had great stories to tell about their short time on set and were warm in embracing the fans who asked questions and queued up for autographs and photos.
I was struck by the friendly and collegiate nature of everyone I met on that day. Having no costume or props to speak of (waiting on Magnoli and Haslab), people were happy to relay their experiences of the options on the market and point me in the right direction.
I managed to track down Dave of Proton Props and explore his premade 84 pack product - a seriously professional piece of kit. He took time to discuss the minutiae and explain all the musical and light up features of the pack, and I ordered one afterwards. Thank you Dave.
One of the highlights for me was getting a world exclusive of two segments from "Too Hot to Handle" - the documentary on Ghostbusters 2 and sequel to "Cleaning Up the Town" by Bueno. The audience were treated to a trailer - featuring seriously heavy hitters from the GB2 world including Harold Ramis - and a small section from the film. Both clips got rapturous applause and standing ovations, and I think also got the most focus from the audience all day!
Stalls included an impressive display from Ecto Crank who had lots of different stickers, badges and pins alongside other sellers.
In another room you could go and play Ghostbusters games going back to NES - something I hadn't done since the early 90s. In so many ways this day was a treat to the 10 year old me.
Once the Bueno film had been shown, attendees dispersed for a couple of hours before reconvening at the Arta club. The compere from the day (Des O’Gorman) presented his standup routine on his love for ghostbusters which invited howls of laughter from the audience. Laura Summer arrived at the party a little later into the evening (which was possibly well-timed).
Attendees drank and partied late into the night, arriving back at their hotels some 13 hours after starting their day.
Everyone I spoke to agreed that they'd enjoyed the day, some coming from quite some distance to attend possibly the UK's first Ghostbusters meetup, and perhaps only the world's second such occasion (?).
Thank you Scotland and all the organisers for making this so worthwhile. You did brilliantly.