ELF 2006: Saturday Report
Xoanon @ 2:14 pm EST

TORN Staffer Garfeimao writes: Saturday had Sean Astin as the main guest, replacing Elijah Wood as the headliner. It was announced that Elijah might be able to do a webcam conference call sometime on Saturday, but the technical bugs never quite worked out. So Sean did his appearance, handled the autograph line like the champ he is, and then we were hit by another missing guest.

Our musical scholar, Doug Adams, had been unable to fly out of Chicago on Friday due to bad weather. He had suggested doing a webcam appearance as well, and with the set up for Elijah, this was a more than acceptable solution. And then there was silence from Doug all day on Saturday. Turns out that the power went out in his area and he was without cellphone and computer to communicate this.

Luckily, Lynnette Porter was able to step in and dig up one of her past presentations and fill in Doug's panel time. Who says Professors can't be heroic? Daniel Reeve also gave a nice talk, and I believe he freaked a few people out by showing a picture of a bunch of Weta bugs. I've seen one in person, and ICK is all I have to say on that matter.

Saturday evening's entertainment then kicked off with a costume contest and talent contest. There were some fabulous costumes, especially the three Elegant Elves that won, and some really fun talent performances. I have to say the rousing singalong of "I would be a Wood Elf" was the clear winner, but everyone else who competed in the talent portion did an excellent job.

After the awards were given, Emerald Rose jumped on stage and the party was GO. We had a conga line that must have been at least 50 people long, and the jumping and dancing didn't stop until well after Midnight. With everyone's energy levels up, several groups clustered in the lobby, and I saw the Pizza delivery people show up several times, including our group. This hotel has lots of lobby space, so hanging out was easy and fun and the hotel was casual about it all. A really great ending to the middle day of the con. Sunday's report coming soon.