Putting this out here for anyone who wants to know what Starfury is really like. I attended Starfury Invasion in June and I can honestly say this is the worst convention I have ever attended in the 8 years that I have attended conventions. It had an A star guest list held in the style of a D star event. Let’s start from the beginning.This event runs over 3 days and usually only offers 3 day tickets however as sales were slipping single day tickets were offered. I went on Saturday with a single day ticket. The guests included Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Natasha Liu Bordizzo (stars of the Ahsoka series). Prices for guest were reasonable and going by what many had said about Starfury I believed I had found a new convention that could become a huge favourite of mine. Within minutes of joining the Facebook group alone I noticed how hostile and rude a lot of the members were to others. No kindness just "well duh obviously" and "what do you think?". It felt isolating to be a newbie to this event with so many trying to act like top dog on the page. Even the guy who runs the event was rude to people referring to their comments as "stupid".Nevertheless I held my head up high and waited until event day. I travelled 150 miles to be at this event which was held in the Hilton hotel at the NEC Birmingham. I walked into the main foyer of the hotel and nothing. No signage or cosplayers to be scene. I thought I was in the wrong place. A few others were very confused at this especially since we had been told signage would be clear. Eventually we all turned down a corridor and found a few cosplayers and assumed this was the right place. First thought was it was very small. It was held in an open corridor with guests of the hotel using the lifts nearby. Very odd. Besides a room that you went into to collect your tickets, a queue of people waiting to have photos taken with the guests and one table selling Wish.com merch there was nothing else there. I got my ticket at 10:00am and by 10:20 I had my photo taken with one of the guests. It was then a long time of nothing to do but stand around until the doors to the panel room were opened. The panels were very interesting. No recording of any kind (this next part is directly from their own website) "Any attempt to record the event is illegal and a breach of copyright. Any attendees caught recording the guest talks will have their equipment temporarily confiscated, and will also be ejected from the event without refund." I couldn't believe the strict rules in place. Again 8 years of doing cons and this was a first for me. Not a very welcoming event. I felt trapped and unable to enjoy the panels with staff glaring at us all, checking to see if anyone was trying to get a clip of one of their favourite guests on stage.I am being honest when I say besides the panels there was absolutely nothing to do from 11:30 until 3:00pm when autographs for the bigger stars were scheduled for. A few people I spoke to were not happy with the lack of things to do. I had 2 autographs to get and some weird reason even though autographs started at 3:00pm I was not even allowed to enter the autograph room until 4:45pm. I started talking to this one guy queuing for a guest who had said himself he had attended many Starfury events over the years, but this would be his last purely down to the strict rules and terrible hosting of the event. W were also told that anyone caught with their phone out in the autograph room even to look at the time would be warned very aggressively to put it away or face removal from the event (which did not sound like a bad option at this point). The whole day felt off and looking at other people’s reviews and queries this is a standard for Starfury events. I felt like I could not honestly give my review on the Facebook group as someone else who did was met with heavy backlash from followers of this event who would not have a single negative things said about Starfury.I have attended many cons over the years. Many big, small and some that are no longer running however I can honestly say this was the worst convention I have attended, and I would never return to it. It was not welcoming at all and very dull so if you are thinking about attending a Starfury even please read this and understand that if you do attend the above it that you can expect. A long day of doing nothing followed by prison style rules that could lead to removal from the event. Also looking at some of the other 1 star reviews here for Starfury I am fully preparing for a reply from the event. All I ask is that people look into this convention before throwing money at it. Know what to expect.
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