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2008 saw Dreadknux, ArchangelUK and a whole heap of others help, organise and set-up the first Sonic the Hedgehog convention. The venue was the Covent Garden Dragon Hall Trust in central London; a 200 person capacity venue that instantly filled up at 10:30am one Saturday morning on August 9th.
The convention saw some amazing guests, features and stage shows happen throughout the day. Sonic music pumped from speakers all day, live tournaments on Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle ensued, prize-draws and give-aways kept everyone’s spirits high. Despite being stressful on the staff members, the atmosphere was amazingly positive with Sonic fans happily approaching each other to share their stories and show off their merchandise. T-Bird during his DJ set One particular highlight of the day was T-Bird’s T-Time Quiz which saw 4 Sonic fans battle it out with their use of Sonic knowledge to gain a Nintendo DS. The 2 finalists came to be Helenbaby and Peteb with Helenbaby’s superior knowledge gaining her the grand prize. However, the big surprise came when Helen gave her prize to runner-up Peteb who couldn’t have been any happier about the situation. Emotions ran high and lots of hugging happened. It truly was one of the best moments of the day. It only got better when Helenbaby won the grand prize in the spin-bola; a true example of how a good deed can really pay off. But what was I up to all day might you ask? Well apart from supplying the Sonic Cage Dome boys with a Mega Drive and a copy of Sonic 2 to do speed-runs on, I took on a fantastic metamorphosis to become… Sonic the Hedgehog! That’s right, I was asked (forced) to don SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog costume by ArchangelUK to do some photo sessions with Sonic fans and appear on stage to bring some Sonic love to some of the stage shows. During my escapades in the Sonic suit and even managed to score a photo with the legend that is Lee ‘Bentley Jones’ Brotherton, score! Me (AKA Sonic) with Lee Brotherton Speaking of Sonic-based musical personalities, there were a fair few at the Summer of Sonic. Not only that, they all performed! We were treated to group and individual performances from Richard Jaques, TJ Davis and of course, Lee Brotherton. For me, the performances were the absolute pinnacle of the day. Watching Richard Jaques perform Magical Sound Shower from Outrun will go down in history as one of the best moments of my life. Me, T-Bird and Turbo watching the on-stage performances Another highlight the Summer of Sonic attendees were treated to was free-for-all art contest presented by Violet and Roarey Raccoon. A huge amount of entries were handed in to be judged, with fans drawing their pieces in the art corner itself as well as on the floor by the stage area! Roarey’s presentation of his favourite pieces was brilliant entertainment with some really touching pieces going on display. The final stage-show of the day saw me present Louis of Sonic Cage Dome, the Guinness World Record for achieving the fastest finish time for the first act of Emerald Hill Zone in Sonic 2 with an outstanding 20 seconds. Me presenting Louis with his World Record certificate After my presentation, I (I mean, Sonic) stayed on stage to greet the spin-bola winners and then help present none-other than Mr Roareye Black with a very special birthday gift as August 9th was also his 22nd birthday! Dreadknux and Jo gave Roareye a brilliant cake designed to look like Green Hill Zone and he was absolutely ecstatic and I’m pretty sure we even saw some tears of happiness. The day closed on an amazing high that may not ever be matched again. The crowd response throughout the day was too good to be true. It seemed like everyone was enjoying themselves. None of this could have happened thanks to the brilliant work of Dreadknux, ArchangelUK, Turbo, T-Bird, Urtheart, Vger, Roarey Raccoon, Violet, B’Man, FastFeet and the spectacular Darkspeeds who I offered accommodation to for a few nights as he had travelled from Perth in Australia to attend the event. Now that’s dedication. To anyone I may have forgotten about, I apologise because there were just too many people to thank who made my day an amazing one. Get a load of this! |