Galacticon IV, the fourth annual celebration of all things Battlestar, hits Seattle, Washington this weekend, but yesterday, the convention’s organizers shocked their attendees by halving the guest list. The original guest line-up boasted prominent actors from the original Battlestar Galactica series, the 2004 reboot, and also the upcoming third reboot slated for the silver screen. Canceled guests include Edward James Olmos, Michael Hogan, Kate Vernon, Grace Park, Aaron Douglas, Tahmoh Penikett, Kandyse McClure, Luciana Carro, Rehka Sharma, Richard Hatch and Noel Guglielmi. Shortly after these cancellations were announced, however, Richard Hatch’s invite was reinstated.
The remaining cancellations, such as Edward James Olmos, will have an effect on the con’s major events. In the silent auction, for example, dinner with Olmos and Mary McDonnell was one of the top prizes. Auction participants can still bid on the dinner, but it “will take place in either LA or at the next convention location at which Eddie and Mary are appearing together. Dates are TBD. Travel expenses are not included.” The auction event is “exclusively for G4 attendees,” so anyone who bids on this dinner would need to be prepared to pay for travel to a second convention in order to claim their prize.
Galacticon staffer Daniel Allan took full responsibility for the cancellations, citing issues with the hotel room reservations as the reason. Yesterday evening, Allan issued his official resignation from the con staff. Operations staffer Michael DeVault has been keeping the Galacticon Facebook page updated throughout this confusing dust-up, although it’s still not entirely clear what led to the cancellations. Financial problems seem to be the most likely explanation, although DeVault does not confirm this, instead citing “insurmountable obstacles for executing the convention under increasingly challenging circumstances.” We’ve reached out to Galacticon for comment and will update this post with further details should they emerge.
This morning, Sarah Rush — one of the original Battlestar cast members, and also one of the lucky guests who did not have her appearance canceled — updated her Facebook page to reflect her excitement that Richard Hatch would be attending after all. She went on to say,
I know that there are folks who are working hard to pull this convention together, make amends, and continue to get some of the actors back, and I really appreciate it and you are all in my prayers.
We hope her reference to the other actors’ cancellations indicates that other guests in addition to Hatch may be reinstated.
(via The Daily Dot, image via Giphy)
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Published: Jul 30, 2015 11:39 am