May 6, 2013

Star Wars Day at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Storm Game


Once again the Tampa Bay Times Forum invited the 501st Legion to visit, for Star Wars Day, May the 4th. There were thirty members in costume, including C-3P0, R2-D2, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Stormtroopers and many others. In the third quarter we were on national television.

Chris Wyman of the Florida Grand Alliance took some of the pictures in this post, and there is also  an epic video of this amazing event, at the bottom of this blog post. UPDATE: The video has been yanked by YouTube  on copyright grounds, unfortunately, even though I feel it falls under a fair use exemption. It will be uploaded soon with different music. Oh well...

This was the biggest event I have organized for the Legion, and it went off flawlessly. 

LINK to the full gallery of photos by Chris Wyman

LINK to the Magnum Arts photos from this event



Below: members arrive at the Forum with their bins, milling around until it's time to get into costume





Left: the Chewbacca costume is laid out, ready to be put on


Right: C-3P0 parts in the bin, carefully packed away

















Below: The Forum had us go onto the field at the 3rd quarter of the Storm game to deliver the tickets to Star Wars Weekends to the lucky winners. We practice how we're going to go on and off the field before suiting up. This is also the area where the Zambonis are stored







Left: the Wookie "legs" are built on painter's stilts, and have to be taped on 

Right: Gordon in his awesome C3P0 costume and I before stepping out






Below Left: Tim in his hand-made Wookie outfit
Right: Putting on the C3P0 head is a team effort























In costume, ready to step out and wow the crowd


Below: the throngs of people gathered around us were huge. We definitely attracted a great deal of attention!





































































Getting ready to step out onto the field during the 3rd quarter of the game, and onto national television

Below: we are on the central monitors for the crowd to see. How cool is that?








Below: on the field on national television! Our finest hour yet












Here it is: the official video from this epic event. Enjoy!
UPDATE: The video has been yanked by YouTube  on copyright grounds, unfortunately, even though I feel it falls under a fair use exemption. It will be uploaded soon with different music.

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