G-Fest
G-Fest is an annual convention devoted to the kaiju film genre and sponsored by Daikaiju Enterprises, Ltd. It regularly features panels, contests, and screenings of giant monster movies at the 1,000-seat Pickwick Theatre. G-Fest is presently held in Rosemont, Illinois, formerly at the Crowne Plaza O’Hare Hotel, and currently at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel.
Actors, directors, and special effects technicians who worked on kaiju films in Japan are frequent guests at G-Fest. Since 1999, one guest per year has been honored with the "Mangled Skyscraper Award," sculpted by Gene Rizzardi, for their lasting contributions to the kaiju genre. Consistent features of G-Fest are a Dealers' Room full of kaiju memorabilia, video game tournaments, a 24/7 broadcast of kaiju and tokusatsu content on hotel room television sets, and contests in art, film, modeling, and cosplay. In recent years, it has also introduced a large Artists' Alley and film festival for independent kaiju productions.
G-Fest was founded by G-FAN magazine editor and publisher J. D. Lees, a Canadian high school teacher. Persons assisting Lees in organizing G-Fest include Jeff Horne, Brett Homenick, Armand Vaquer, Stan Hyde, and Dawn McKechnie. Actor Robert Scott Field regularly attends G-Fest as a celebrity guest and translator.
Conventions
Convention | Location | Guests
|
Screenings | Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | ||||
Friends of G-FAN[note 1] (September 3-4, 1994) |
Howard Johnson Addison O'Hare Airport, Addison, Illinois |
N/A | Small gathering of G-FAN's publisher, editors, and contributors, along with Chicago-area kaiju fans. | ||||
G-Con '95[note 2] (August 18-20, 1995) |
Radisson Hotel, Arlington Heights, Illinois |
N/A | N/A | First formal kaiju convention outside of Japan. Opened to the public on the 20th. | |||
G-Con '96[note 3] (August 16-18, 1996) |
Radisson Hotel, Arlington Heights, Illinois |
|
|||||
G-Fest '97 (August 1-3, 1997) |
Wyndham Hotel, Chicago, Illinois |
|
|||||
G-Fest '98 (July 31-August 8, 1998) |
Wyndham Hotel, Chicago, Illinois |
|
Collaboration with The Prehistoric Times, a dinosaur magazine. Four additional movies played on August 1, but their titles are unknown. | ||||
G-Fest '99 (July 23-25, 1999) |
Hilton Hotel, Burbank, California |
|
First G-Fest to book a film in a theater, with Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris playing at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. | ||||
G-Fest 2000 (July 14–16, 2000) |
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Los Angeles, California |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest '01 (July 13–15, 2001) |
Radisson Hotel, Arlington Heights, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest '02 (July 12–14, 2002) |
Radisson Hotel, Arlington Heights, Illinois |
|
N/A | N/A | |||
G-Fest X (July 18–20, 2003) |
Radisson Hotel, Arlington Heights, Illinois |
|
N/A | N/A | |||
G-Fest XI (July 9–11, 2004) |
Holiday Inn O’Hare International Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | N/A | |||
G-Fest XII (July 8–10, 2005) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | N/A | |||
G-Fest XIII (July 7–9, 2006) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | N/A | |||
G-Fest XIV (July 6–8, 2007) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | N/A | |||
Saturday performance by:
| |||||||
G-Fest XV (July 4–6, 2008) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XVI (July 3–5, 2009) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XVII (July 9–11, 2010) |
Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XVIII (July 15–17, 2011) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
|
N/A | |||
G-Fest XIX (July 13-15, 2012) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XX (July 12-14, 2013) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XXI (July 11-13, 2014) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XXII (July 10-12, 2015) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XXIII (July 15-17, 2016) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XXIV: Shin G-Fest (July 14-16, 2017) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XXV (July 13-15, 2018) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XXVI (July 12-14, 2019) |
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | ||||
G-Fest XXVII (July 15-17, 2022) |
Hyatt Regency O'Hare Chicago, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
N/A | Hiroyuki Kawase and Brian Rogers were announced as guests in 2020 before the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled for July 10-12, 2020, at the Crowne Plaza, then July 9-11, 2021, at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare. Don Frye was also booked as a guest, but forced to cancel his appearance less than a week before the convention due to injury.[1] | |||
G-Fest XXVIII (July 14-16, 2023) |
Hyatt Regency O'Hare Chicago, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla | Godzilla (2014) | N/A | ||
G-Fest XXIX (July 12-14, 2024) |
Hyatt Regency O'Hare Chicago, Rosemont, Illinois |
|
Godzilla Final Wars | Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire | N/A | Ayako Fujitani was initially announced as a guest, but had to drop out of the convention due to "unexpected work requirements."[3] |
Gallery
External links
- Official site for G-FAN and G-Fest
- Official site for the G-Fest convention
- Offcial Facebook page
- Offcial Twitter page
- Mania Movies coverage of G-Fest 2005
- Photo coverage of the G-Fest 2006 model show
- A fan's coverage of the 1996 G-Con (before the name was changed to G-Fest)
- A fan's coverage of the 1997 G-Con (before the name was changed to G-Fest)
- Titanosaurus Society of North America Yahoo Groups G-FEST Photo Archives
Notes
References
This is a list of references for G-Fest. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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