I had a crazy, busy, extremely random and completely awesome time at YALC and London Film & Comic Con on Saturday.
It was my first time at the event and as you can probably imagine I got extremely overexcited and snap-happy. I spent the majority of my day in the Young Adult Lit Con section but found the time to head into the main LFCC floors.
The queues:
When I came out of the station I wasn't expecting the already HUGE queues outside the Olympia (I was there by 8am), but thankfully the #YALC line was a lot shorter. Once the doors opened for early entry at 9am it didn't take long to get inside. Plus there are always lots of people to chat to whilst you're waiting (Katniss, Moaning Myrtle and the Avengers were all very friendly).
I went into the 'talk area' early (thanks to Helen for showing be around) and managed to get front row seats for the Young Authors talk, and for the #Shadowhunters talk with Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees-Brennan. Both talks were great and I especially appreciated Cassie and Sarah handing out lots of set pics and concept art from location in Toronto.
The book signings were extremely busy and because I was front row for Cassandra Clare's talk, I managed to miss that there was a ticket system for her queue. I joined the LONG line without one, only to be send to the back again for a ticket. This meant I'd queued for a long time without a ticket and ended up waiting off and on for over 3 hours & I only had one book signed by Cassandra in the end.
BUT Cassandra and Sarah both stayed on WELL BEYOND their two hour signing slots to make sure everybody got a book signed. I'm extremely grateful to them for doing this as they really didn't have to and were both super nice!!
My only complaint would be that the ticket system should have been implemented clearly from the start when we entered the building. I did manage to get my other books and tote-bag signed whilst waiting for my CC number to be called - I even snuck upstairs to see Luke Pasqualino aka d'Artagnan from The Musketeers and had a #Shadowhunter Rune temp tattoo done - so tbh it wasn't all waiting around (and although it was a bit of a scramble, it was my fault for missing the queue/ticket system).
I spent time in the main #LFCC areas off and on all day. Where I befriended a friendly alien who had a spare ticket for a certain time travelling BTTF talk. I'm not sure how we blagged our way past the lines, but we managed to see the entire cast on stage!
#LFCC itself was insanely busy and hot so some people were getting stressed. I have to admit it was difficult to move around the rooms/floors, but most people seemed to take it in their stride and were uber friendly to the short girl in the zombie dress!
I missed the beginning of The Hunger Games Quiz as I was sidetracked by a guy dressed as The Flash handing out free comics and 'Meade'. But the man running the quiz was a perfect Caesar Flickerman.
The publishers and organisers had lots of goodies to give out on the day, ranging from Penguin Platform's #FindingAudrey free coffee selfie pics, to the Lady Midnight samplers and many tote bags and badges.
I have lots of swag which I'll be giving away soon...
Will I go again? MOST DEFINITELY! But next time I'm going for the entire weekend and I'll be wearing full cosplay!!
Thanks to the organisers for arranging such a fun event!
To look at all my pics from the event then head over to my Pinterest Events board & my Instagram account.
What was your YALC or London Film and Comic Con experience like?!
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