As always, these reports are to the best of my recollection, and recollections may differ.
The 3rd Witchbomb convention took place on August 1 – 3 2025 at the Renaissance Hotel, Heathrow.
Some of us got there on the Thursday, so we could get the party started on the Friday.
There were cards to sign, freebies to give away, people to greet, newbies to welcome. This has become our traditional place, in the foyer near the front entrance to the Renaissance. It was delightful to meet so many old friends again, as well as getting to know people who were attending their first convention ever.
This led up to registration and the opening ceremony
There was a new banner for the weekend.
The opening ceremony is always arranged in tables, so the audience are further away from the stage, so it is not as easy to get good photos because we are further away.
Arlen was making their first appearance at a Starfury event, so were Cat and Ess. Some of us had been able to meet all of these guests previously at Switches Gathering events in Paris or Brussels.
However this was the first time that most of us had been able to meet Demetria. She had previously done a convention in Florida in 2022. She was well worth waiting for. It was a real delight to get to meet her for the first time.
And no Witchbomb convention would be complete without Amalia and Taylor. It is a joy to have them with us again for a special weekend.
We had three guests from Warrior Nun, Kristina Tonteri-Young, Lorena Andrea, Meena Rayann and an surprise addition to the event, Sarah Walker who was one of the directors of Warrior Nun.
After that, there was a Meet and Greet for the Gold ticket holders, with the guests.
No photos are allowed at that event. And no recording either. Some guests wanted to talk to the fans and ask questions about where we were from, favourite characters etc. But for some, we got to ask questions.
Cat said she was still in contact with Simon Barry. She had worked with him on the show Continuum, which is another of my all time favourite shows. She said she was watching Warrior Nun and was halfway through season 2 and loving it. She said she would have finished the whole thing that weekend. She asked people round the table which show they watched first, everyone said that they had watched Motherland and then gone on to watch Warrior Nun.
Taylor was asked about MAGIC, which is a short film that she stars in with Dom Provost-Chalkley. Dom is trying to get this made into a full length feature film, but is still showing this at festivals and trying to raise the money.
It was just bad timing that there was a Wynonna Earp convention happening in Glasgow the same weekend as Witchbomb. They had a screening of Magic there and it is something that many Taylor fans wanted to go to. Taylor said that she had recorded a message for the screening up in Glasgow, saying that she couldn’t be with them because she was doing the same thing ‘here’.
Taylor said that she only had 6 days to work on the British accent. She was trying for a Bristol accent, to match Dom’s. She thought her accent was dreadful and wanted to be able to work on it with a dialogue coach. I tried to reassure her that the accent was fine, clearly British and recognisably Southern British. Although I am sure there was a bit of Raelle in there a couple of times.
She was asked how fans could help get the feature length movie made. Taylor fell back on social media engagement, wanting fans to post about it. This was very like Jo, the character she plays in the film.
It emerged later that a website and fundraising campaign was launched in Glasgow, so we only found out about it later. You can access this from makingmagic.pictures and there is a newsletter that you can sign up for.
One of the very welcome innovations for Witchbomb this year was the cast and uniforms. There were photo ops with Taylor and Amalia in their Motherland uniforms. So naturally we wanted to know which uniforms they would be wearing. For some people it was to help them come up with an idea for a suitable pose, but for others, it was so we could wear the right uniform to match them.
As soon as Amalia sat down at our table, she was asked what uniform she and Taylor would be wearing? She said that it would be the Season 1 uniform, but not the actual boots. She was using her own boots. She said she wouldn’t be wearing the spats, but would wear the hood that she was finally given in the last episode. In point of fact, she didn’t wear the hood in the photos. This was the uniform she had worn the most. She didn’t explicitly say so, but she clearly seemed to relate to this one as ‘Scylla’s uniform’.
She had no idea what uniform Taylor would wear – she didn’t think Taylor knew. Someone suggested that she and Taylor should wear the same uniform. Amalia’s response was – ‘You try and organise her’. She was asked whose idea the uniforms were and she said that it was Sean’s idea. Well done Sean for that.
Talking to other fans afterwards, Amalia and Taylor had not been very forthcoming about what uniforms they would wear. But this was the last table for Amalia and perhaps she got fed up with not answering the question. It certainly helped me to get ready for the Sunday photoshoot.
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