Saturday was my first time at one of these events and for sure will be my last! Far too many people, questionnable organisation and a pretty unsuccesful day.
I had an early bird ticket and arrived at about 9:30 and got straight in, which was good. I was there for just one guest, Hayden Pannettiere. At about 10am I got to her autograph queue and got a ticket, number 589. At that time, tickets 1-100 were being accepted.
By the time I left at 4:30pm, tickets 1-420 were being accepted. In other words I had been there about seven hours and still wasn't even allowed to join the queue!!! Complete waste of time.
The photo shoot with her was quite well organised, but she was sat on a chair and being quite tall I towered over here so had to bend down for the shot - not a flattering angle I guess. I say guess because I didn't get to collect the picture on the day - half of her shoot seemed to come out after about three hours, mine was not among them. Despite being promised by staff that they would be out 'soon', four and half hours after the picture was taken I had to leave, so filled out a form and was charged another £2 for you to send me the pic.
Having travelled for two hours each way just to meet her, I arrived home having spent about 4 seconds with her at the photo shoot (during which time she and I just said 'hi') and without a photo or autograph.
Some of the photos I did see at the collection area of her with taller people in them showed just her head and shoulders at the bottom of the photo rather than a good professional well composed picture. But then the photographer was rushing to get the shoot done and people snapped as quickly as possible............
I spent £12 to get in, £20 for the photo, £2 for the postage and about £25 on travel to be able to say hi. An expensive waste of a day, let's hope the photo is a good one and actually arrives.................
