With GrandeCon kicking off at the end of the week, convention guests are gearing up to meet their fans, and for some the intimate nature of events is something they look forward to. The celebration of pop culture is being held at Bonnetts Energy Centre from July 14th to 16th, drawing several celebrity guests.
Actress Gigi Edgely is among the stars hitting the stage. Known for her roles in television hits like Farscape and Rescue: Special Ops, she says even after a quarter decade in the entertainment business, coming to smaller comic and pop culture conventions allows for more of a connection-building opportunity between convention guests and those coming to meet their favourite actors and creators.
“I love it because you can have a proper connection. At all the conventions you always have a lot of fun and everyone is to celebrate their idols in comic books and pop culture… but conventions of smaller size are fun because you get a proper time to converse with fans, and talk about shows we celebrate together. To have this opportunity to meet fans, and people who have watched our journeys amazes me.”
The Walking Dead and Band of Brothers star Michael Cudlitz will also be in Grande Prairie for the event. He echoes that sentiment, adding that it is truly eye-opening when meeting groups of fans who have been long-time followers of their career.
“I love interacting with families, [as] they can come out together, and there is a particular TV show that they all watch together, or multi-generational where the parents know you from one thing, and the kids know you from something else, but you get to spend a moment with them.”
“It’s not such a harried event,” Cudlitz adds. “There will be times, for instance, when The Walking Dead was at its peak, and people would be waiting two or three hours in line to say hi to you, and we don’t have that in the smaller cities. Time is much more quality; there isn’t as long as a wait, and you get to have a little more of a conversation and get to know each other, and I love that.”
Cudlitz and Edgely will be joined at GrandeCon by a laundry list of stars from the world of pop culture, including fellow stars of AMC’s The Walking Dead, Ryan Hurst, and Ross Marquand, as well as scream queen Rose McGowan, Canadian wrestling icon Bret “Hit Man” Hart, and actor and podcaster Ming Chen.