(By Tim Ellis)
7.30am and the 23rd FISM World Championships of Magic has officially begun! We finished our breakfast in the very modern Rica Talk Hotel (the rooms can only be described as state-of-the-art Ikea) and headed next door to the Stockholm International Fairs - Magic HQ for the next week.
The first thing that struck us is how slick and professionally presented the venue looks with banners and signs everywhere. It made registration really easy and from there we headed over to the goody-bag collection centre. For those who get excited about this sort of thing (you know who you are) here's the guff:
We collected a wallet filled with tickets and our name badge from registration, and one of those tickets entitled us to collect our goody bags. The bags themselves are a very nice black, over the shoulder number with the FISM logo printed on the front. They have a secret zipper compartment at the back (empty), a zippered mobile phone section (also empty), and plastic holder where you can put your a card with your name on it that they provided (good idea to stop our bags getting mixed up) and, inside the main section of the bag:
- What's On Stockholm
- Stockholm Map
- El Duco Catalogue
- Jumbo Deck of FISM Playing Cards
- A Hanky Panky Magic Promotional Pack containing an embossed FISM Wallet
- The Spiral Bound FISM Programme
They were also handing out the first edition of the FISM Daily News which had the day's programme in summary, tips for the day's activities, last minute changes in the competition, and much more.
The venue has pretty much everything under the one roof. In addition to the various theatres, lecture rooms and dealers fair, they have a cafe/bar, a snack stand, a small shop, a business centre, press room, and a very central information desk.
A jazz band in the foyer kept everyone's energy high and by 8.30am there was a line of around 300 people waiting to get in to the Victoria Hall for the first day of competition. As soon as the door opened people jumped the queue and rushed from every direction to run into the theatre and get a good seat (the theatre holds 1900 people, and there are 2500 people attending the convention).
The theatre itself is not an ideal magic venue. It is very wide and has electric curtains that take forever to open and close. But, what it lacked in atmosphere was more than made up for by the energy of the the registrants as they sat in eager anticipation of the first contestant. (I'm still not 100% convinced starting with a contest instead of an opening show is such a good idea....)
Frank Wilson, a FISM favourite, entertained on the keyboard as the Hall filled up and the clock ticked on to 9.00am. As promised, the first event began right on time!
At the same time the Dealer Room opened and what a surprise that was! It was laid out with trade show booths that really added a professional air to the whole proceeding. 101 Dealers filled the room which was also equipped with a beautiful stage and projection screen (for Dealers Shows) and a cafe.
(From the Magic Unlimited Blog)
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