Star Wars at Calgary Expo 2023

With it having been officially a week since I attended Calgary Expo 2023 I figured it was time to share with you my overall experience as a Star Wars Fan at Calgary Expo. Sharing what I saw, who I met and what I did over my day at Calgary's Largest Comic Book Convention !

Guest's

Me & Hayden Christianson

Me & Emily Swallow

My Hayden Autograph

My Dad's Emily Autograph

My Emily Autograph

The whole reason I found myself being attracted to attending Calgary Expo this year was because of their phenomenal guest line up including the likes of Hayden Christensen and Emily Swallow whom I found myself meeting at the convention.

The first guest I ended up meeting was none other than Hayden Christensen, who I was beyond nervous and excited to meet. Hayden is someone I have looked up to since childhood and I knew that meeting him would be a bucket list item for me. So I ended up purchasing both a photo op and autograph session with Hayden, so I could add his autograph to my collection and a photograph to remember the moment. My experience with Hayden was fantastic not only did he actually spend time chatting with me and letting me thank him for being such a big part of my childhood but he also was kind enough to personalize my autograph and I was not expecting that. During my photo op with Hayden I ended up getting to hug him in our photo and I was very happy with the results !

The next guest I ended up meeting was the lovely Emily Swallow whom I got a autograph for myself and an autograph for my father. I was also very lucky to get a photo with Emily at her booth ! Emily spent time with me talking about her role as the armorer and her amazing scenes through out season three of the series. I loved having this opportunity to talk to her about the series and see her passion and excitement about the character !

Event's

This year at Calgary expo there were lots of Star Wars events for the whole family ! Starting with the execute order 66 event where you were tasked to find 7 jedi hiding around the convention floor and take a selfie with them and report back to the family zone to be entered in for a Star Wars Prize Pack !

Another family fun event is the Star Wars puppet making workshop where you could go in and learn how to make your own DIY Star Wars Paper Puppet. There were also multiple Star Wars Game events through out the weekend including The Star Wars deck building tournament. With attending the convention there was also the opportunity to attend so many amazing fan panels as well such as MANDA-LAW-RIAN: LEGAL ISSUES IN PEDRO PASCAL'S OTHER HIT SERIES and the MANDALORE PODCAST LIVE!

The Star Wars costuming groups the 501st legion, Rebel Legion and Saberguild hosted a plethora of events this weekend such as Trivia, Photo ops with characters and Padwan Lightsaber training all well raising money for the make a wish foundation. There were also Star Wars Cosplay meet ups scheduled through out the weekend where cosplayers were given the opportunity to walk the red carpet and have photos taken by expo photographers showing off their amazing work.
But the biggest events happening over the weekend for Star Wars were panels from expo's guests Andy Serkis and Hayden Christensen ! With Andy's panel being a wildly popular event with him talking about his roles in Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes and more. Well Hayden's Panel was a celebration of his role in Star Wars along with talking about his other roles and celebrating the Toronto Maple Leafs Win in the playoffs. Sadly both of these events filled up quickly and I did not have the chance to attend either of them.

Cosplay

Cosplayer- @eillyboo

Mando- @nekozer0 Ahsoka (left)- @blaquewidowe

There was so much amazing Cosplay this year at Calgary Expo ! From the amazing people at the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion and Saberguild to the amazing costumes you could find all through out the convention floor. If you find yourself in the gallery of photos please let me know so I can credit you properly !

Merchandise

There were so many awesome finds through out the convention floor at Calgary expo this year with booths featuring Star wars Clothing and Costume items, Fan art and of course comics and collectables.
One of my absolute favourite items I came across on the floor was this amazing mandalorian dress from Kay Pop Art she also had the same artwork in multiple items such as canvas's, tote bags and skirts she also carried a wide variety of different fandom based items such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Pokemon. The next thing I came across was an amazing 3D printed prop maker Joel and props cosplay where he was selling amazing mandalorian helmets, spears and even had a really cool grogu on display ! We also had the opprotunity to meet with the Calgary Star Wars Fan Club (Tosche Station) at there booth where they were raffling off a Emily Swallow Signed Armorer Helmet and print with all proceeds benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society ! Along with all of Calgary's unique sellers we also came across some very neat collectables from statues to Funko pops and Loungefly bags !
Overall Calgary Expo was an amazing experience and there was so many amazing Star Wars Guests, Events, Merchandise and Cosplay and I cant wait to share with you all in my next post where I share my haul from Calgary Expo but until next time I am Chloe from Chloesfandomlife and you can find me on all of the following social media platforms below

Instagram- @chloesfandomlife
Youtube- @chloesfandomlife
Tiktok- @chloesfandomlife