I have to be honest…I haven’t seen Warrior Nun and I’ve only seen two episodes of Motherland: Fort Salem. But Taylor Hickson was lovely to meet last year, at the final Survival event, and one of my friends was going to Witchbomb, so I went to meet her as well.

In any case, I booked my ticket quite late…although I wasn’t the last attendee number, at least to the best of my knowledge. I know the event was really close to selling out…and I was surprised it didn’t end up doing so, given that there were eight really good guests who all seemed really excited and happy about being there. At the opening ceremony, they all seemed to have this really great energy, which was awesome! And the cheering when Amalia Holm and then Taylor Hickson came up on the stage was deafening.

I hadn’t planned to get any photos with any of the guests, having only budgeted for autographs. However, I mentioned to my friend that it would have been nice to get a photo with Amalia, who plays Raelle’s (Taylor Hickson) love interest in Motherland: Fort Salem. And she kindly paid for most of the photo, so I ended up getting one…although not in my normal photo outfit, since I didn’t bring that with me.

When I have photos with actors, I always try and see how they are with other attendees. If they seem to be open to hugs, I’ll ask if I can hug them…and Amalia was incredibly sweet, as you can probably tell from the photo above. I’ve seen some of the double photos with Amalia and Taylor and they clearly had a lot of fun with doing the shoots.

Unfortunately, Kristina Tonteri-Young (Sister Beatrice in Warrior Nun) had to leave immediately after photos on the Sunday, so she very kindly signed for everyone on the Saturday night. I’m not sure how late she ended up staying for, but the cosplay competition ended up having a delayed start, so I think it must have been quite late! Anyway, despite having to get through about 500 attendees (and perhaps double that in autographs, since there was a maximum of three for each attendee and she was included for free), she still took the time to talk to attendees and it didn’t feel like she was rushing through the autographs…even though I wouldn’t have blamed her if she did!

I really enjoyed the cosplay competition, although it was very much Motherland: Fort Salem and Warrior Nun themed. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but there are normally a few other themes sprinkled in when I’ve seen the competitions in the past! All of the outfits were super awesome and it was also really good to see the reactions from the guests. Unfortunately, I missed some of the announcements about who had won due to reporting to a staff/steward about someone breaking the rules. It’s very disappointing to see peple persist in filming, even after all of the warnings given about it.

Lyne Renee (General Alder in Motherland: Fort Salem) also had to leave early, specifically after the autograph session on the Sunday. When me and my friend got into the room, I was shocked to see that her line was so short, since I was expecting it to be long. And just like Kristina, she wasn’t rushing through people. There was no sense of ‘she needs to leave soon,’ even though I knew that she actually did.

Diana Pavlovská and Emilie Leclerc (Willa Collar and Izadora in Motherland: Fort Salem respectively) were the two whose autographs I got next. As you can see from her autograph, Diana outlined the i in her name in a blue heart balloon…and she did that for every single autograph. It was such an awesome touch, but I couldn’t help feeling bad about how many autographs she probably ended up doing that to. And Emilie was awesome! She did stars on my autograph (as you can see) and while she was doing them, she told me she didn’t know why. I was just like, ‘I’m good with whatever you want to do!’

Amalia Holm (Scylla Ramshorn in Motherland: Fort Salem) and Olivia Delcán (Sister Camila on Warrior Nun) were the next two autographs I got. They were both lovely to meet, though I moved on quite quickly due to the long line building behind me.

Kandyse McClure (Nicte Batan in Motherland: Fort Salem, though I got a picture of her as Anastasia Dualla from Battlestar Galactica) was the final autograph I got. Her line was really long…and she was very chatty and easy to talk to. I had a good couple of minutes with her before I moved on!

Now, Starfury wouldn’t be Starfury without a few autographs included in the price…and I had six out of eight of the guests included in my ticket. I was very happy about this – I’ve always said and belive that Starfury is excellent value for money!

Another important aspect of Starfury for me is the access for disabled attendees, since I now have type 1 diabetes. The team has taken to having stewards who can be a stand-in for the attendee in an autograph queue…and for me, that turned out to be a good thing. Because I had two overloads, one on Saturday when we were waiting for an hour for Amalia photos, and one on Sunday, during the autographs. I actually didn’t realise that was coming on, but my friend with me realised and got one of the stewards to take my place. (I thought I was fine, right up until everyone around me started yelling and cheering at one of the guests when she was leaving). Another really good thing that the stewards were doing was going around offering attendees water. I didn’t feel too hot in the rooms, but I know quite a few other people did. Kandyse told me she thought her deodrant had stopped working!

I love Starfury. It’s 100% the best convention company out there, and the organiser does his best to keep the costs for attendees down. And the addition of helping with queues and offering water has really made a difference.

If you’re a fan of Motherland: Fort Salem, or Warrior Nun, or both, check out next year’s event. Heck, even if you’ve never heard of the shows but would like to be at an event that doesn’t oversell and is less stressful for both guests and attendees than signing events, Starfury definitely fits that bill!