Sci-Fi Festival, Phoenix, Sat 10 May 2014.
I love science-fiction. I really love it but I’d never dream of going to a sci-fi film festival. I always thought it would be far too geeky, with people dressed up as daleks and stormtroopers. That’s not really my scene so it’s fair to say I didn’t know what to expect when I went along to the 4th Sci-Fi Fest 2014 at Phoenix Leicester.
The festival was a midday to midnight showing of five films and some other events including a quiz, book launch and gaming room. There were some really interesting ideas including making a sci-fi film and story in a day! The goodie bag was a nice touch with a packet of Space Raiders and some flying saucer sherbets!
The five films were a good sci-fi mix – Star Trek IV – The Voyage Home, 1950’s classic Forbidden Planet, British film The Machine, apocalyptic Children of Men and blockbuster Fifth Element. Plenty there for the thinking sci-fi fan but not much in the way of sci-fi action films like Predator or Judge Dredd that were shown last year.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed all of the films I saw and as a lone attendee, was made to very welcome by the Starbase Leicester team. Ironically, the only criticism of the day was the lack of daleks and stormtroopers! The Phoenix can be a little bland at times and although this wasn’t a ComiCon, there could have been display’s put up by the Phoenix to create a bit more of an atmosphere. From being worried that the whole experience might be too geeky, I came away wanting the day to be more geeky! Great day and I’ll certainly be going again next year!
Words by Matthew Bateman