Heroes & Villains Fan Fest

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After debating on whether or not to even go to this event, I decided to just go for it. Waking up at 5 AM after having only 2 hours of sleep (from too much excitement), I ate breakfast, chugged a much needed cup of coffee, and started my 2 1/2 hour trek to Nashville Music City Center (NMCC) in Nashville. The first half of my journey started out with heavy fog with a gorgeous view of the large full moon that would peek through the fog every so often. As I neared Nashville, I grabbed food and another cup of coffee from McDonald's, as well as gassed up so I wouldn't have to deal with it when it was time to head home.

I arrived at NMCC and ended up just parking at the venue for $15. I had contemplated making reservations for cheaper parking via Parking Panda, but I honestly didn't want to walk around the city and get lost. Completely forgetting that Nashville is 1 hour behind Knoxville time, I had arrived around 8 AM, nearly 2 1/2 hours before doors would be open for General Admission. I was able to find a parking spot right at the entrance to the NMCC and headed to the General Admissions table, where I was able to receive free admission for being an EMT (According to the website: "Former and active military, police, and first responders can get a free General Admission Day Pass to our show simply by showing an ID at ticketing! Military dependents can ALSO get a free General Admission Day Pass with a valid military ID! These tickets can only be picked up the day you attend, but do not sell out. We have never turned away someone who serves!"). As an Air Force brat and a former EMT, this was really appreciated! I was directed to the General Admissions line, which at that time only had about 15 people in it, and sat down with everyone else, biding my time until it was ready for us to go in. (Side note: I bought a portable charger for the event, which I highly recommend doing, but I forgot to bring something to keep me preoccupied for the waiting times. Some people brought their Nintendo DS, others brought books, others used their cell phones, and others who didn't come solo just chatted with each other. If I have to go solo again, I will definitely bring a book!) I wasn't sure if food was allowed, so I had left my McDonald's in the car; food was allowed in the lobby, which I will also not make the same mistake of doing next time. At 9 AM, doors opened to VIP and Gold Pass members. The only other convention I had been to was Otakon, and compared to their lines, the lines for this event were minimal. Doors for General Admission were supposed to open at 1030 AM, but since it wasn't as crowded as Saturday (I'm assuming), they opened doors to us around 1010 AM.

I debated between standing in line for the 1045 AM Arrow cast panel or getting in line for autographs with Caity Lotz (the one person I had to meet if I couldn't meet anyone else). I decided to get in line for Caity Lotz, which only had 3 other people. Caity was supposed to be there at 9 AM, but she, along with most of the other celebrities, hadn't made it to their tables. In fact, the only other celebrity I saw at their table was Madison McLaughlin. One of the volunteers at the table had so much energy and did her best to engage those of us in line. Around 1030 AM, just as the volunteers started writing out tickets for us to be able to use the VIP line for Caity's autograph times later on in the day, Caity walks up to the table! I was starstruck as I couldn't believe I was meeting one of my favorite comic book actresses! Autographs were $50, Selfies were $30, and Combos were $70. I ended up going with the combo. When it was my turn to get her autograph, I tried to form words...

Me: How are you?

Caity: Great, how are you?

Me: Great! Thank you for coming out and doing this!

Caity: Thank you for coming out also. (As she signs her autograph) Is it "Sheh-REE (pronounced like the French cherie)?"

Me: It's actually pronounced "Sherry." My parents decided that they wanted to confuse everyone when they spelled my name that way.

Caity (laughs): My parents did the same with my name.

Then it was time for the selfie. The volunteer had asked if I wanted Caity to hold my

camera for a true selfie, or if I wanted her to take the picture. I just had the volunteer take the picture. I got behind the table, Caity put her arm around me, and I put my arm around her, and we took our picture. I thanked her again, and then went on my merry way. (Side note: Caity Lotz has really pretty, piercing blue eyes!)

I headed to the Arrow panel (sans Stephen Amell and John Barrowman, who had their own panels on Saturday), which had already started seating people. (On my way over, I caught a glimpse of Stephen Amell at his booth. )I ended up in the very last row, but I was able to still hear everything. The cast was hilarious as they joked around with each other the whole time. When asked what was their favorite part about playing their character, Katrina Law teased, "Getting to make out with Caity Lotz!" Caity said she was proud to be able to represent the LGBT community in a positive way.

After the panel, I headed over to Katrina Law's autograph line. There were about 15 people ahead of me in the General Admissions line, but it took a little longer to get through her line because 1) VIP/Gold Pass members kept jumping ahead of those of us in the General Admissions line and 2) Katrina is VERY personable and takes time to actually meet with every fan (she shook every fan's hand, asked everyone's name, talked for a little bit with each fan, and gave everyone a hug). It still wasn't a bad wait (~15-20 min), but I didn't mind because it gave me the chance to watch her interact with everyone else. One of my favorite interactions that I saw was when a young couple was doing a selfie with her. She says, "Ok so we're going to make him (the girl's boyfriend) jealous." The girl misunderstood her and thought she was saying that she was going to make her jealous by doing a certain pose with her boyfriend. When Katrina realizes the miscommunication, she says, "No, you and I are going to make HIM jealous with our pose haha." Katrina does a prom-type hug pose with the girl, while her boyfriend is off to the side pretending to be jealous. Such a funny picture! You can tell Katrina loves meeting with everyone, and she has a very sweet and infectious personality (completely opposite from the more stern Nyssa al Ghul in Arrow). I was originally just going to get a selfie ($30), but after seeing how amazing she was with everybody, I decided to also get an autograph ($40).

Katrina (as she shakes my hand): Hi, I like your shirt!

Me: Thank you!

Katrina (as she signs her autograph): Is it "Sherry?"




Me: Yes! You're one of the few people who actually pronounce it correctly on their first try!

Katrina: Well, I figured if I said it slow enough it would come out somewhat right.

Me: No, you said it perfectly!

At this point, there was an awkward pause as I get starstruck yet again.

Me: I'm so glad I came to this. I'm moving to North Carolina next week, so I decided I'd come out before I move.

Katrina: Are you moving for a job?

Me: Yes. I just graduated PA school.

Katrina: Congratulations! New job, new house...how exciting!

Me: Yes it is!

At this point, it's time for the selfie. As she does with every fan, she gets out from behind the table and goes to the side of her booth where there is more room. She puts her arm around me as we take the first photo, so I put my arm around her as well. She usually does at least 2 different poses with everyone who gets a selfie, so she then told me to make a silly face. Stunned, I had no idea what face to do (and should've looked at her to see what face she made), so I ended up making the dumbest face ever, which probably more accurately reflected how much I was freaking out internally lol. She then gave me the biggest hug and patted my back.

Me: Thank you so much for coming out and doing this!

Katrina: Thank you too for coming out!

Next, I made my way over to stand in line for Michael Rooker's Panel. I was able to get a decent seat near the front. As we were waiting for him to come on stage, they announced that he had a tendency of getting off stage and interacting with the audience. When he came on stage, he almost immediately goes to the edge and lays on his stomach. He's watching a young girl who I assume was lost in her cell phone. He teases her and asks what she's doing. When she finally realizes he's talking to her, she tells him she's on social media. He then teases, "Oh social media. You gotta be careful with that social media." The whole panel, he was ornery yet hilarious, which made it a very fun panel to be at. The fans kept trying to get him to say, "I'm Mary Poppins, y'all," but he wouldn't ("What am I, you're puppet?" haha). About halfway through, the moderators tried speeding up the questions, so he jumped into the crowd and went down the line of people asking questions. Since I was near the front, I have to turn around to watch what's going on. (The couple behind me cracked me up. The wife was holding her husband's artwork very carefully, but at one point during the panel, the top picture falls onto the floor. The husband has a mini freak out, picks up the picture, carefully examines it, then decides he wants to hold the pictures instead for their safekeeping.) One guy asked if he would sing Happy Birthday to his wife, to which he initially refused and instead had the husband sing to his wife. The poor guy looked embarrassed, but then Michael chimed in and sang with him, singing just the line, "Happy Birthday to you," repeatedly for about a minute straight. He gave us a hilarious rendition of Yondu's whistle (mostly him blowing raspberries). One girl asked him how she could pick up a guy, to which he told her, "Just say, 'Come over here,'" as he had her practice it a few times for him. One girl did a pick up line to him, which I sadly didn't hear, but it must have been a good one judging by the crowd's reaction and a miraculously speechless Michael. He would tease the fans and even the little kids, but he was also very sweet on the little kids. One kid gave him one of his drawings, which got the biggest smile and praises from Michael. At the end of the panel, he was told there was no more time for questions. He wasn't having that, so he randomly selected people in the crowd to ask him a question. One woman couldn't think of anything, so he moved onto a little kid and says, "These women man, they drive me crazy! Can you think of a question for her to ask me?" This was by far the funniest panel of the day!

Stephen Amell's booth line was long, but since I had plenty of spare time before the next panel, I decided to hop in line. His booth was different from the other celebrity booths. Here you paid before you got in line, and they would hand you a ticket for a selfie and/or an autograph (whichever you decided to get). His booth was also unique in that he didn't offer a selfie only option - you either had to get an autograph ($60) or a combination autograph and selfie ($100). I had only planned on getting a selfie, but since that wasn't an option, I opted for the combo. (Thank God I'll be starting my new job in a couple of weeks and that it pays well!) His line was definitely one of the longest ones, but even so everyone was able to get through it fairly quickly. When it was my turn, he made out the autograph to me and my husband.

Stephen: Who's Aaron?

Me: He's my husband. Sadly, he wasn't able to make it today, but hopefully he'll be able to attend one of these with me in the future.

Stephen: Awesome. Thank you so much for coming out today.

At this point, he doesn't realize that I'm also getting a selfie, so he gets up and goes to the other end of the table to speak with one of the volunteers. The volunteer holding my camera yells out, "Um...Stephen? She's supposed to get a selfie also.

Stephen: I'm so sorry! Hold on a second, I just have to take care of this real quickly.

After about a minute, he finishes up with the other volunteer, comes out in front of the table, puts his arm around me as I put my arm around him, and we take our selfie. He thanks me again, and I thank him as well.

At this point, my starstruck-ness finally subsides and my stomach reminds me that I haven't eaten in almost 9 hours! I look at the food choices, decided I wasn't in the mood for BBQ or hot dogs, and opt for a strawberry smoothie. I then head over to the Gotham Panel. I must confess, I've never seen the show, but it's on my list of shows to watch, so I figured I'd snap pics of the celebrities so I don't kick myself for not doing so when I end up watching the show later down the road. They were funny as well. All I could think the whole time was Wow, Drew Powell has an amazing voice! In the middle of the panel, Drew decides he absolutely has to go to the bathroom, so he steps backstage with his mike in hand, instructing people to keep asking questions since he will continue to answer as he takes a potty break. At another point during the panel, we hear a group across the convention center singing Happy Birthday to someone. The cast (and then us in the crowd) decides to join in and sing along. The show sounds interesting, so I'll definitely have to check it out in the future when I catch up on my other shows.

Finally, it was time for the last panel of the fest, the Guardians of the Galaxy Panel with Sean Gunn and Chris Sullivan. I wouldn't have stayed for the panel, but I wanted to see Chris Sullivan since I love him as Toby in This Is Us. This was another fun panel. At the start of the panel, the DJ at the other end of the convention center turned up the music really high, so Chris teased, "Hey man, we're trying to do a panel here!" The DJ must have heard them, so he turned the music down, to which Chris laughed and said, "Hey, it actually worked!" (Later on when a fan was asking a question, the DJ again turned the music up to the point where no one could here her and the actors were trying so hard to hear what she was asking them. You could tell they weren't as amused this time, and I can't say that I blamed them because it was pretty annoying the second time around. Thankfully, they turned it back down so the fan could be heard.) Chris was just as funny as his character Toby. He talked about the craziness of playing Taserface (I had no idea it was him under all that makeup until this fest). Sean talked about how intense it was being in Gilmore Girls - they would shoot 10 pages of script a day (as a point of reference, Chris said most shows usually do 3-4 pages a day). Chris was asked if he could reveal anything about Season 2 of This Is Us. (Spoiler alert: if you haven't seen the first season yet, skip the rest of this paragraph.) Chris says, "Jack dies. Sorry, that's all I know/can say." Which, if you've seen the first season, you already know Jack dies.

Since there were no more panels, I decided to do a quick peek at the vendors so I could quickly leave and try to beat any evening traffic. As I make my way towards the vendors, I notice that all the celebrities except for David Ramsey (Arrow's Diggle) and Katrina Law had left for the day. As I see them sticking around to chat with the few remaining fans, my admiration for Katrina Law grows even more.

Overall, this convention was amazing! I wish I could've made it to the Saturday events as well. I had read online that compared to other conventions, this is a more intimate setting where you really get to interact with the celebrities. I wholeheartedly agree - I was shocked at how quickly I was able to get through the lines to meet the celebrities. Even though I will be a lot further away in NC soon, I will definitely be attending this again in the future - it's totally worth the drive! In closing, I'll list some pros, cons, and general advice.

GENERAL ADVICE/WHAT I WOULD'VE DONE DIFFERENTLY:


• If you plan on doing General Admission and want to get in line before doors open, bring something for entertainment (a book, Nintendo DS, a friend, etc).
• Had I known that Caity Lotz (and the rest of the celebrities) would've been easy to access since lines weren't bad, I would've stayed in line for the Arrow panel to get a better view and waited to get Caity Lotz's autograph after the panel.
• If you getting an autographed picture, bring something to put it in so you don't damage or bend your picture. Katrina Law actually handed out clear plastic sheet protectors to go along with the pics (which she personally put the pics in herself), so I used this to put my Caity Lotz and Stephen Amell pics in as well. Next time, I'll bring my own plastic sheet protectors and a binder or a sturdy folder.
• Personally, I didn't see the need to purchase a VIP or Gold Pass since the lines weren't crazy on Sunday.
• If you're on a budget and had to choose between a professional photo op vs autograph/selfie, I would personally do the autograph and/or selfie booth. During the professional photo ops, they just try to get you in and out quickly, so you're not able to interact with the celebrities. At the autograph/selfie booths, you're able to actually have a conversation with the stars, which to me meant so much more than getting a professional picture.
• Bring cash!!!!! You have to pay for autographs and selfies with cash. They have ATMs on site, but I hear they charge a high fee for using them.


CONS (very minor):


• Ming Na Wen was only able to make it Saturday BUT this was pre-announced on the website so people could plan accordingly.
• Once a panel finished, everyone had to leave their seats and get back in line for the next panel.
• There weren't very many vendors or food options compared to Otakon and other Comic Cons, which didn't bother me but others may be disappointed by this. (And on the plus side, they allow you to bring in water and snacks for those who don't like their food options.)


PROS:


• Parking at the venue was relatively cheap, close to the entrance, and not crowded.
• Free General Admission to military and first responders
• The price for autographs and selfies were relatively cheaper than other comic cons and celebrity prices (or so I've heard).
• Some may disagree with me, but I actually liked the convention layout. The panel stage was set up so if you were in line for an autograph or eating or checking out the venues etc, you could still hear the panel. If you aren't able to get a seat, you can still stand to the side to see and hear the panels (at Otakon, panels were done in rooms, so once the room was filled to capacity, everyone else in line was SOL).
• I read somewhere that the Sunday panels are longer than the Saturday panels (45 min vs 30 min), but I can only confirm that the Sunday panels did run 45+ min.
• If the panels started late, they did their best to accommodate for it and allow it to run a little later to make up for it.
• Lines were short and moved fairly quickly.
• The best thing (in my opinion) - intimate, close interactions with the stars 😊



This was a weekend that I will never forget. I will definitely come to one of these again and am inspired to go to other cons/fests as well. If you can go to one, do it! I

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Photos

Entrance

Caity Lotz
Sara Lance/White Canary in Arrow and DC's Legends of Tomorrow

Katrina Law
Nyssa al Ghul in Arrow and Mira in Spartacus

When Katrina Law tells you make a silly face, but you're so starstruck you make a stupid face lol.

Michael Rooker Panel
Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy and Merle Dixon in The Walking Dead

Stephen Amell
Oliver Queen/Green Arrow in Arrow and Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Gotham Panel
David Mazouz (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Sean Pertwee (Alfred), Drew Powell (Butch), Maggie Geha (Poison Ivy)

Guardians of the Galaxy Panel
Chris Sullivan (Taserface in Guardians of the Galaxy and Toby in This Is Us), Sean Gunn (Kraglin in Guardians of the Galaxy and Kirk in Gilmore Girls)