It was ten years ago that Jedi News’ Caravan of the Force set out on an epic journey from London to Star Wars Celebration Europe II in Essen, Germany, with Jeremy and Maureen Bulloch joining us to raise money for Make-A-Wish.
The original blog posts from StarWars.com have since been removed, so we’ve gone back to our archives to pull our blog entries that were written (almost) daily by Mark Newbold and I whilst on the journey.
In addition to Jeremy and Maureen, the team on the Caravan of the Force included Matt Booker, James Burns, Mark Newbold and Dave Tree.
This entry covers day 6, July 24th, 2013.
After a restful night’s sleep in Utrecht, Holland, we awoke a little later than normal before we started our final day of travel to Star Wars Celebration Europe onboard the Caravan of the Force, in association with Toys”R”Us. We all enjoyed a good breakfast and the hotel management ensured we had provisions for our journey in the form of mini muffins. We loaded Boba Fett, a.k.a. Jeremy Bulloch, into the cargo hold and once the rest of us were ready and the satellite navigation systems were programmed with the address of Messe Essen, we started the drive. Along the route we found a great Italian restaurant where we all enjoyed rather large pizzas and big bowls of pasta.
The goal for day six was to arrive at Messe Essen, outside the Atlantic hotel, for 5:01 p.m. where we were met by a few members of the press along with members of the German Garrison. As we approached the area, we soon realized we were a few minutes early and waited nearby for a couple of minutes. At exactly 5:01 p.m. we drove around the corner, passed Messe Essen and arrived directly in front of the Atlantic hotel. What greeted us was approximately 200 people, including some 40 German Garrison members in costume and many folks from Lucasfilm without whom the Caravan would not have been possible — Mary Franklin, Barbara Gamlen and Lynne Hale. To say that we were overwhelmed would be an understatement and we were so grateful to all that turned out to welcome us. What followed was around 30 minutes of photos with Jeremy, the Caravan of the Force team, and two of the Celebration Europe stage hosts, David Collins and Pablo Hildago.
After the excitement of our arrival we were all able to finally check into our hotels knowing that we’d be staying in one place for the next five nights. Caravan of the Force isn’t finished yet as we have to make our journey home after Celebration Europe on Monday — more of that to come next week!
The goal of the Caravan of the Force was to raise the profile of Star Wars Celebration moving from London to Germany, whilst also raising money for Make-A-Wish. Our initial target was £5,000, and thanks to our sponsors we were able to raise over £20,000. Thanks to all those that supported our journey and gave to generous to help Make-A-Wish.
The trip was possible thanks to our sponsors — Holiday Inn, Hyundai, P&O Ferries, Toys ‘R’ Us and Vodafone.
