Bitten 3 – UK True Blood Convention

This past weekend was my mum’s big 5-0 and, as she’s a big fan of the television show True Blood. I decided to surprise her with tickets to Massive Events 3rd True Blood convention: Bitten 3. Although I did end up having to tell her we were going so she could book the time off work. But I did manage to keep her ticket type –  Standard, Silver or Gold – a secret.

For those that aren’t familiar with Massive Events, they specialise in 3-day fandom conventions and have put on other events for TV shows such as Stargate (Chevron), and Joss Whedon related (Hallowhedon). We always have a great time at their events and I’d highly recommend them.

Bitten 3 – True Blood Convention

Friday – travelling, checking in and a night at Merlotte’s’.

Mum picked me up after work and we started the 2-hour journey to Northampton to start are fun-packed convention weekend. We made good time and arrived at the hotel car park a little after 18.30 pm, which was good, considering we hit rush hour traffic. After a long stressful day at work, we were both looking forward to our weekend away.

Once we parked up, we rushed over to the convention hotel (deciding to book into our hotel later on), picked up our tickets – both silver – which means we had all our autographs and photoshoots included in the ticket price, and headed to the opening ceremony. Which is where the guests are greeted on stage by the organisers and say a quick hello. All guests except one that is! Nelsan Ellis (who plays Lafayette Reynolds) managed to miss not one but two flights to the UK! So he’d be arriving the following morning.

After the closing ceremony gold ticket holders went on to the gold pass drinks reception, I attended one of these at last year’s Hallowhedon 3 convention (for fans of Joss Whedon) and got… a little, drunk. As my mum and I had silver tickets we went to unpack the car, check in to our hotel and have some food before getting ready for the Friday night party – a “Merlotte’s’ Halloween Party” – where I wore a Merlotte’s uniform and vampire fangs.

We danced, drank “True Blood” cocktails, i.e. Bacardi, orange juice and cranberry juice and got to bed around 2:00 Saturday morning – photo-shoots were due to start at 10:00!

Saturday – Mum’s Birthday!

We started the day with a present opening session and a full English breakfast, which was delicious. But by the time we arrived at the True Blood convention hotel, we found we’d missed our first photo-shoot! Due to an uninformed schedule change. We were supposed to have all 4 photo-shoots today, along with the group shoot. So, we were quite annoyed.

Due to time management and the schedule overrunning most of the silver and standard photoshoot sessions were rescheduled for Sunday. Except for Lauren Bowles (who plays Holly Clearly), which we missed, Nelsan and the group shoot (which we also had). Mum’s group photo is great – all the guests pointed at her 50th banner. 🙂 And she managed to sneak a kiss on the cheek from Nelsan.

After our photo-shoots we got our 1st autographs with Nelsan – mum had her photoshoot signed and I had an 8×10 picture of Lafayette (his character). We also missed lunch before the talks!

The talks were in the afternoon, I can’t remember many specifics – sorry! Followed by the auction, I won one of the guests signed directors chairs they used for the weekend and mum won me a mug.

After the day’s events were over, I took mum for a Birthday meal at a pub in Northampton then we went to get ready for Saturday’s party at “Fangtasia” – which featured co-ed pole dancers, a live band and a “fangbanger” cocktail (Vodka, orange juice, and cranberry juice – Mmm!). Mum wore a short black dress and I wore an outfit similar to Jessica from True Blood from season 1 when she’s brought to Bill by Eric and Pam (complete with fangs). We danced the night away. It was a great night!

Sunday…

Was, a bit of a blur. Our morning went a little like this… photo-shoot, autograph, photo-shoot, autograph, photo-shoot – you get the idea. Thankfully we managed to get all our autographs and photo-shoots done, but it was a bit of a rush!I’m happy my Bitten 1 True Blood convention poster is now complete with autographs from Bitten 1, 2 and 3.

After our busy morning, we had some lunch in the convention hotel, handed in our ‘quiz’ – basically a word search and quote/guess the character game where you could win a goody bag. Sadly we didn’t win but it was a great way to pass the time at lunch and during the intermissions in the talks.

Later that afternoon was the True Blood quiz, which included a  buzzer round, Pictionary round and acting round – the guests and one attendee from each side of the hall took part. It had everyone cracking up! Especially the acting round.

The final talk is always full of random “life and the universe” questions which always get a great response out of the guests and audience. Think questions like “If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead who would it be and why?”, “Do you have a party trick and if so, can you show us” etc. It’s also usually the smuttiest talk.

The closing ceremony follows after and we all exit to the True Blood theme tune – there’s also a party later on but we didn’t stay for it (it was a “Fellowship of the Sun lock-in” pyjama party).

It was another fantastic convention and mum says one of her best Birthdays ever. 🙂

What I bought…

At every convention, I’ve been to there’s a dealer’s room, and the Bitten 3 – True Blood convention was no different. I came away with a green Merlotte’s glass and two PH Balanced folders – for my autographs. They’re museum quality, so the autograph keeps over time and doesn’t spoil – yes, OK I’m obsessed. Mum also bought a Birthday card for her friend and got it signed by Nelsan. 🙂

Sadly due to dwindling attendance numbers Bitten 3 will be the last True Blood convention for Massive Events. Which is such a shame as they’re always a lot of fun! 🙁

Have you ever been to a True Blood convention?