Sci-fi conventions are luring fewer fans
\nThursday, November 04, 2004
\nBy Ray Kelly for The Republican<\/b><\/p>\n
The technological advances once dreamt of by fantasy lovers are now killing science-fiction fan conventions. In today’s wired world, sci-fi fans e-mail each other and discuss their favorite shows on message boards, chat on-line with actors and authors, and buy autographed mementos on eBay. <\/p>\n
As a result, conventions, a sci-fi staple of the 1970s, have dwindled in number and attendance, said Paul Aldred, organizer of this weekend’s United Fan Con at the Springfield Marriott. “These used to be community events,” he said. “Now, you can do it all from your own home.” <\/p>\n
Aldred will continue to press on, even though attendance is not what it once was. Sci-fi conventions have been staged annually in downtown Springfield for 14 years, sometimes drawing almost 2,000 guests. Last year’s three-day gathering attracted 750. <\/p>\n
United Fan Con’s main celebrity guest is Gates McFadden, who co-starred as Dr. Beverly Crusher in the long-running television series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” and three subsequent movies. She will be joined by three cast members of “Stargate SG-1″ – Tony Amendola (Master Bra’Tac”), Gary Jones (“Sgt. Walter Harriman”) and John Novak (“Col. William Ronson”).<\/p>\n
“‘Stargate’ is the new ‘Star Trek’ essentially,” Aldred said. “People came from all over the country to see our ‘Stargate’ guests.” <\/p>\n
In addition to the popularity of “Stargate SG-1” over “Star Trek,” Aldred said he has seen a new breed of fan emerging – one interested solely in meeting celebrity guests and obtaining autographs. “The ‘new fan’ doesn’t want to get involved in the whole convention scene,” he added. <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.masslive.com\/living\/republican\/index.ssf?\/base\/living-2\/1099490605324210.xml<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sci-fi conventions are luring fewer fans Thursday, November 04, 2004 By Ray Kelly for The Republican The technological advances once dreamt of by fantasy lovers are now killing science-fiction fan conventions. In today’s wired world, sci-fi fans e-mail each other and discuss their favorite shows on message boards, chat on-line with actors and authors, and … Continue reading “SCI FI CONVENTIONS LURING FEWER FANS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}