Dawn of the Federation

As you know we love our Star Trek Conventions, but we don’t get to enough fan-only run events. As we knew the organisers and a lot of the groups involved in Dawn of The Federation we knew we had to give it a go. ‘Dawn’ as it got shortened too, was intended as a celebration of the 50 year pre-anniversary of first contact. And we swear by the name of the prophets we celebrated in a way that would make Troi and Zefram proud.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXN0WCEF1cM&w=320&h=266]
We had a three hour drive to Leicester (which is called ‘the midlands’ but is every bit ‘up North’ to us!) we arrived about midday. We had missed some of the group presentations which felt a bit like missing a mission briefing, you weren’t sure whether it was a good thing or not!? Fortunately we were able to catchup by meeting each table one by one, in our own time which suited us perfectly.
The Fabulous Misty as T’Pol
We were familiar with most groups there already including the LCARS47 Development group and Starfleet International Region 20. There were also various local meet up groups such as Starbase Leicester and role play ships. If you don’t have a lot of friends in to Star Trek, this is a perfect event for meeting likeminded people. Most attendees meet on Twitter, Facebook and Star Trek Online beforehand and it’s great fun trying to match faces to avatars!
But this side of fandom can take some getting used too, if you’re new to fan run events you can expect:
  • Raffles – nearly always for charity, chance to pick up a bargain for good causes
  • Unique traders, cottage shuttlepod industries like Space Stitches
  • Admirals – At signing style conventions, everyone dresses as Captains, at fan events everyone is promoted to Admiral. Takes some getting used too, suggest you embrace it.
Our favourite Stand had to be this man, Tony. He was dressed as a Romulan, had the intelligence of Sheldon Cooper and the grace of Jean-Luc Picard as he talked us through his Quantum Cubes, Pythagorean Triangles and Gravity Wells. It all leads to a kinetic, renewable, natural power source. In his 10 minute talk, he taught us more Math than our secondary school teacher ever managed! He also gave us some cute badges to help us remember how to calculate the hypotenuse of a triangle. Thanks Tony!
That night we all re-grouped at Varsity Bar to begin the real celebrations! Carole had been challenged to drink most of the guys under the table, to which she fought with honour, and was victorious (Still standing at the end of the night!).
Many Tequila shots were consumed (Thanks Misty!)
and many Jagerbombs were had (Thanks Wil!). The DJ, who was locally hired did a fantastic job playing appropriate tracks we’d all enjoy.
It felt very much like Star Trek 09 when the cadets are in the bar with the locals, but soon clear it out! – scared them off!
Surrounded by people in their Starfleet finest attire it got us thinking, how great it would be to be in Starfleet, fresh out the academy, knocking back some Romulan Ale before your first assignment. In that moment we started to see the attraction and fantasy of the role play ships, even if it does involve lengthy Admiral speeches.
Highlight: Being invited to the after-after party in a stretched Limo thanks to Eleanor of LCARS 47
Weird Bit: Quite a lot, but that’s another story!
Thanks to The USS Fortitude and particularly Wil, Trip and Raules for bringing fans together for First Contact.