Leakycon General Programming Recap: Part One

So I've already posted my recap of the lit track events from Leakycon London, and in this post I'm hoping to recap everything else I went to over the course of the two days. It was such an incredible con with a huge variety of discussion panels, meet ups and entertainment. Let's hope I can cram it all in!

Day One

The first thing to do was register! Supposedly registration started at 9am, but my friend and I arrived a while after that and they still hadn't started. Which led to spending a lot of time in this queue:

But it was pretty cool because I got to meet some nice people! We were stood with the girls from HarryPotterPodcast.com who were super lovely. My friend was supposed to be attending the volunteer orientation which took place at 12, so she got whisked out of the queue early along with the other volunteers. Eventually I got myself in and registered, and I met back up with my friend at the Tumblr meet up!

This was a pretty fun, informal meet up moderated by Colin Mueller. The room was pretty packed when I got there but people scooched forwards and I found a seat at the back with my friend. We spent pretty much the whole meet up calling out fandoms, and then people would cheer if they followed that fandom. I learnt that there is a fandom for pretty much everything (Pointless has a fandom?! I am there!) and I loved the discussion on social activism on Tumblr.

Later that day I checked out the vendor room for the first time. Obviously everyone else had the same idea because we had to queue just to get in! I handed in my book at the Harry Potter Alliance stand as part of their Apparating Library and picked up my book from the Books With Bite stand. Then it was time for the welcome ceremony which was a little bit chaotic! The venue was quite cramped, and basically everyone was squished into the lobby to queue for the welcome ceremony. Those of us at the back struggled a bit because we couldn't hear the announcements they were making at the top of the stairs, and it was SO HOT. Eventually we got in though and the ceremony got underway. 

There were presentations from the Harry Potter Alliance and Lumos, plus a few wizard rockers came on and played some songs. It was a bit disjointed because there were gaps in between each speech/song/presentation so people kept sitting down and standing up again. A few of the actors came on to speak to the crowd which was awesome. 

After the welcome ceremony we headed to the Disney Singalong! We ended up starting early because the room was already full before the start time of 7pm. And guys, it was so much fun! I realised how bad I am at Disney films because I in no way knew all of the songs, but that just meant I got even more excited when the ones I did know came on. Highlight of the singalong was singing Circle of Life from The Lion King, and somebody holding up a Harry doll at the back of the room Simba style:

After that, it was back down to the Grand Hall for the first rock concert! Tonight's acts were Siriusly Hazza P, Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons, Solitary Snape, Alex Carpenter and Hank Green. It was awesome!

And that concludes day one! Back to the hostel for a good night's sleep, ready to be up bright and early for the first day of panels in the morning.

Day Two

This was the first full day of lit programming, and you can see my full recap of the lit events from today in my post here. Today was the first day you could queue up to get wristbands for the autograph sessions that were taking place throughout the day. I decided to skip the queues and have some extra time in bed! Most of the autograph sessions clashed with my schedule anyway. My super awesome friend Gemma on the other hand braved the queues, and ended up with a wristband for Hank Green. Only she'd already met Hank Green so she oh so kindly gave me the wristband, yay!

After popping to the Waterstones stand after the first lit panel, I headed to the Grand Hall for the Potter Movie Actor Panel. It was quite full so people were sitting in the aisles. The panel featured Ellie Darcey-Alden, Ryan Tyrner, Alfie Enoch, Robbie Jarvis, Rohan Gotobed, Helena Barlow, Benedict Clarke, Scarlett Byrne and Evanna Lynch. The group discussed their auditions, favourite quotes, worst moments on set, best moments on set and what their future plans are. Rohan spoke about wanting to be an author (and later turned up at one of the lit panels!).

In the afternoon it was back to lit events, then I rushed down from the I Was a Teenage Author lit panel and joined the queue for Hank Green autographs. And man was it a queue. It sort of looped from the middle of the room gradually outwards:

But the great thing about Leakycon is that you can just sit on the floor and nobody cares. I spent most of the time waiting trying to eat the cereal bar that had got completely destroyed at the bottom of my bag. Anyway, eventually made it up to the front!

And Hank Green signed my badge! 

After that it was time for a quick trip back to the youth hostel where we were staying to grab some food, then back to the conference centre for the second rock concert! Acts performing tonight were The Blibbering Humdingers, Lauren Fairweather, The Whomping Willows and Harry and the Potters. This was by far the best night because Harry and the Potters absolutely killed it! And for the finale they were joined by Hank Green. Check out the video I took below and have your mind blown:

Phew! What a day. Definitely one of the most insane nights of the conference. We all left just feeling like we'd witnessed something really special. But it wasn't over yet! Check back soon for part two of my general programming recap!