StarCon 2006 (Moscow)

The following represents a personal review of the events of StarCon 2006 held in Moscow in the beginning of July

The Con was created and conducted by the Russian Star Wars fan club.

StarCon 2006 took place at the first weekend of July (as usual!) in Moscow. 280 fans from all over Russia came to the annual meeting. This time the con was dedicated to the expanded universe.

Day one

Friday July, 7 started with Return of the Jedi screening on the big screen. I always wanted to see it on a big screen, so I went. Unfortunately the screen wasn`t exactly big... but nevertheless, big enough to get into the right state of mind. Evening started traditionally with the opening ceremony and the dance. Unfortunately the light onstage was so bad, I couldn`t make any photos at all! Or rather.. the photos came out poorly. After we saw a few guys in costumes onstage and Lord Vader declared StarCon 7 open, a local dance group called "Exlibris" traditionally made a show. This time the show was called "Solo". The audience was in awe! They made a story about Han Solo`s life long before Ep 4 happened. That was a fanfiction in the shape of a dance.

Very shortly after we all were outside just talking and meeting old friends!

Opening Ceremony Dance group Exlibris I couldn`t take pictures during the show, but later the guys posed for me. The pictures you see below are the scenes from their dance called "Solo" Day two

Saturday was heavily packed with talks and RPG games, computer game championship and shooting championship and stuff like that.

In the evening we traditionally had stand-up comedy contest (which was VERY poor this year) and watched a few fanfilms! At last Russian fans started making fanfilms! We watched three that evening. Two of them are not worth noticing... just jokes, mostly about the fandom and so on, but one of them, called "Cold" was really wellmade! It had the right entourage and the fight was well conducted. Even though it had no story - just a fight - it had a little bit of philosophy in it and it was nice to see something so well made locally.

The fans from the Ukraine came here with an hour long rock opera. Not everyone managed to stay listening till the end, but the ones who did stay, did not regret their effort.

During the Con we also had costume contest. More and more people over here make costumes which is a joy. Jedi-Sith costumes are a must, but any other exclusive things are most welcome. So I must say, SW cosplay in Russia is getting stronger every year.

Cosplay Day three

The last day was mostly dedicated to sabrefighting (that`s a tradition too!) This year besides just exhibition of skills and schools (we have several light sabre fencing schools over here! Each has it`s own style) there was an open championship.

That`s one of the most spectacular show at the con.

First three different schools showed us their stills and style. The Korriban Siths were the first one. Their style is heavy packed with close range fight, besides light sabres they use also other fighting styles like fistfight or hand-to-hand combat. It`sa pretty heavy view, and I`m not sure if it actually has anything to do with the actual SW universe. I`m not into the EU.

Second school was the official SW fan club school with the pure SW fighting style - they use purely stage fencing and their main aim is to make their fight look like the fight we see at the SW movies. I must say, it`s a pleasure to view their fights because it reminds of the movies so strongly. The third school has the style they call "sabfight". I`m not sure exactly what it is and I wasn`t able to figure out a distinguished difference between them and the "official" style.

Then we had a proper light sabre fighting championship. I don`t know why the idea didn`t surface much earlier! It`s a great idea! And the championship was well conducted and performed. I mean that the rules took shape slowly and it was a real sport, not some catfight. Eight fighters showed their skills in attempt to become the first light sabre champion. I`m sure this will become a tradition, no doubt!

Light Sabre Fighting Show

Korriban Sith show and their leader Darth Morena (top center)
SW fan club fighting school and their leader Kyle Katarn (top left)

Light Sabre Fighting Championship

Then we came back indoors for the closing ceremony just to see another dance from "Exlibris" and to learn about contest winners, shooting champion and computer game champion this year.

And here Lord Vader announced StarCon 7 closed till next July. We all went outside for a photosession.

Almost all of us pictured at this panoramic picture (327Kb)