About half of you guys coming to Summer of Sonic are visiting for the first time this year, but did you know that SoS – not counting the website in 2006 – is now in its third year?
At the start of 2008, a London convention was just a twinkle in the eye of freelance game journalist Svend Joscelyne and recently employed Sega community manager Kevin Eva. Imagine, if you will, an event financed by people with not a lot of money to their name, and organised and run by a ragtag group of fan site members who, almost without exception, had no experience at doing it!
When Svend put the feelers out in February, there was no shortage of enthusiasm from Sonic fans around the UK dreaming of a return to the social Sonic heyday of the mid-90s. At the same time though, there were plenty of pessimists of the opinion that it’d never take off, and the general feeling was that people really wanted it to happen, but weren’t really sure it would. Even the staff themselves worried about this new Summer of Sonic becoming a flop never seen before in the Sonic community.
Enter Sega UK, stage left. Kevin somehow convinced his bosses at Sega that this little shindig at somewhere called the Dragon Hall would be something good, and they gave him the resources to support SoS in a way we couldn’t have imagined. The Sonic Chronicles pod, masses of prizes for competitions throughout the day, hundreds of goodie bags that took a solid day to fill up at Sega HQ, let alone transport to Covent Garden.
On top of that, we got legends like Richard Jacques, TJ Davis and Nigel Kitching, as well as recent star Bentley Jones to offer their talents for the cause, and got Guinness World Records in to oversee a new world record time for Emerald Hill Zone Act 1.
On the day, we took a 200-person Dragon Hall venue, packed the place (and then some) to the tune of over 300 visitors over the day, and thoroughly rocked the place, for a more successful début Summer of Sonic than I think anyone could have dreamed at the beginning.
In the lead up to this year’s event on Saturday, the Sonic Stadium’s Sister Site the Sonic Show has posted their own look back at the highlights of the original Summer of Sonic. Check it out, and see how far we’ve come in two years…
shame I didn’t go that year…started going in 2009
I remember this. Been attending every RL SoS convention since the first. Really did get packed in there, though in ’08. xD
Also… for the 2008 event, we got goody bags… Who would like to see what you got in them?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPB–9QALBw
This will be the first time I’ll be attending a Summer of Sonic event – I’m excited but nervous, as I live half way across the country and will need to travel through the night to get to London; but it’s going to be a blast, I know it! Looking forward to the 7th – big red mark on the calendar!
@Deadly920: Now you have it marked on your calendar?!
@Superdanielmon I don’t blame him! I’ve spent the last month counting down, and I think it’s marked on four calendars in this house! (And my phone calendar, but that hardly counts)
Man, I think I’m turning into a sentimental sap in my old age. Watching that retrospective brought a tear to my eye. The first year was honestly one of the best experiences I’d ever had in the Sonic community, even if, back then the convention started as ‘cosy’ (Read: Summer of Sweatswap 2008) It was still an amazing experience. I got to be with friends, I’ve made some new friends who I know will be friends for life, and generally SoS is the kind of convention I’d always wanted to see happen, but always believed would never come to fruition. The following year seemed to prove this further with the sheer volume of people who showed up. With this year proving to be even bigger than the last~ Man, I have NO idea how proud all of you guys must be feeling right now, because it’s my heart a world of good to see it. It’s come so far in such a short time and to be honest I don’t think they aren’t enough thank-yous I could provide to show my gratitude for such an event. Hell, even my 44 year old uncle (who started the bloody obsession for me) is pleased. It’s another story as to whether I’ll ever be able to get him to go, though. XD;
Ahhh, joyous memories! Here’s to more Summer of Sonic!
Haha the last frame of the Essex Boiz!
2008 was an incredible year
Hmm, bottom right, I swear that’s FTA and Torch from FTCR!
@ShadowTG yeah I think they went….well….they were there at 2009 with Sonicmovies
Yeah, I saw their Bentley Jones interview.
Oh god yes, SoS 08 was epic win. Better than 09′s, but I don’t think even SoS 08 will be able to hold a candle to this year…
ahh i seriously can’t wait for this years event! ‹3 er i wasn’t sure how to contact anyone properly about tickets, but I registered for four tickets, two of which I received, but haven’t got the other two yet. I’m not sure if they got refused maybe, because I wanted them both to be sent to the same email address, would that have been a problem?
@obsessedshadowfan: Please contact Josh at shadow_urtheart@hotmail.com