Tickets are now on sale.  Go get them while they’re still available!

Ok, it might be a bit early to assume we’re going to sell out like last year, but if we do then don’t say we didn’t warn you!  Our least favourite part of organising last year’s event was taking phone calls and answering emails from people looking for tickets after we’d sold out.  We even started to offer refunds (something we’ve never done before) so we could resell those tickets but only a handful of people took us up on the offer.  Our plans for this year’s event are much more ambitious.  Everything will be bigger and better with lots more to see and do and when our promotional efforts kick into high gear we expect ticket sales to increase significantly (remember the Dalek on the mountain last year?).  The only way to guarantee your ticket is to go get one now.

In other news, we’ll be running a Meet & Greet again this year.  Alas, Ianto is no longer with us but his Coffee Club lives on and tickets are currently on sale.  We’ve increased the number of tickets available to 50 and increased the time for the Meet & Greet to 1 hour so we can accommodate more people.  But, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the coffee club tickets sold out last year too so if you want one then go get it now.

Three bits of news this weekend.

First up, a date for the event. Vortex II will take place on Sunday 2nd May 2010. That’s the same bank holiday weekend as last year so with the Monday off work and school you can all party with us late into the night.

Next, a venue. It’s been on the site for a few days but our venue this year is the same as last year. Belfast’s Europa hotel was perfect for Vortex so we’re returning there for Vortex II.

Finally, the question you’ve all been asking. When do tickets go on sale? Tickets for Vortex II go on sale Monday 25th January at 9am. They will be priced at £10 and available though this website. A ticket will give you entry to the event and include access to the dealers area, the exhibition area, everything that happens on stage throughout the day (guest Q&As, game shows, auction, etc.), the evening party, disco and much more. Please read and follow the instructions on the booking page.  This will make things easier for us to process tickets.

We are working diligently on preparations for Vortex II and have already heard from many people about how glad they are that we have Kai Owen coming as our first guest. Expect more guest announcements in the weeks ahead.

UT Events are proud to announce that our first guest for Vortex II is Kai Owen.

Kai Owen - IMDB

Kai has been a series regular on Torchwood since “Day One” (which, ironically, is the second episode of the first season) and has appeared in 22 episodes of the show.  During that time, his character “Rhys Williams” has gone from strength to strength and in the latest Children Of Earth mini-series he played a pivotal role working along side the remaining members of Torchwood.

Kai has been the highlight of many UK conventions but this will be his first convention appearance in Ireland and he is looking forward to meeting a whole new group of fans.  He will be taking part in all the usual activities during the day (guest Q&A, autographs, photographs, etc.) and may have a few surprises in store for attendees.

More event information and website updates will be coming this week and tickets will go on sale before the end of the month.

Proof that Vortex Highlights DVD is in progress

We’ve had a few inquires about the Vortex Highlights DVD from people looking to buy it and from people who pre-ordered it at the event in May.  We’ve replied to all inquires directly but to those who haven’t emailed us and are wondering where their DVD is then we want to apologise for the delay.  After some hold-ups getting approval from all guests to be featured on the DVD, a series of delays including having to completely dismantle and rebuild my video editing computer (which took a lot longer than expected), being out of the country on three occasions for several weeks and injuries that prevented me from sitting at a computer for several more weeks, production is finally under way.

But enough about the excuses, most of you just want to know when it will be available.  At the rate things are going I expect to have it finished by the end of January, but allow and extra week or two for the unforeseen as preparation for Vortex II may have to take priority now and again to keep things on-track for May.

With nearly nine months passed since Vortex, I’m going to contact everyone who pre-ordered to make sure your postal address is still the same before any DVDs are sent.  Once all pre-orders have been fulfilled it will be made available to buy through the website.

More updates and information about Vortex II will be made soon.

Get ready to take another trip through the Time Vortex when the Tardis once again materialises in Belfast for Vortex II in May 2010.  Come and see all the wonders from the hit television series including guest actors from both Doctor Who and Torchwood.  Meet stars from the shows, get autographs and photos, take part in our audience participation segments, enter the fancy dress competition, win prizes in our raffle draws and bid for signed items in the charity auction in aid of the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice.

All the sets, props and live characters from our previous events will be making a return with the addition of Weavils, Weaping Angels and a host of new live characters to interact with.  2009’s sold out event was a resounding success and we are hoping to match if not beat it with Vortex II.  So come along and join us for an amazing adventure through time and space.

Full event details with dates, venue and our first set of guest announcements will be coming in January.  Stay tuned.

We have taken our trip through the Time Vortex into the world of Doctor Who, Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures and returned with so many wonderful memories and stories to tell!

Vortex was an amazing day and we would like to say thank you to everyone who came along to see the props, displays and most of all our fantastic guest stars Gareth David Lloyd, Paul Mark Davis and Chipo Chung.  You made them feel so welcome during the Q&A, autograph session, photo session and Ianto’s Coffee Club Meet & Greet.  They enjoyed every minute they spent with you, the fans.

It has taken many months to prepare this event and we are delighted that all our hard work paid off.  The Daleks, Tardis, Empty Child, K-9 and Lady Cassandra went down a storm and we saw so many people having their photos taken with them.  Our Ood and Clockwork Droid spent the day walking around the event meeting all the children and families.  We hope you liked having the chance to experience what its like to be at the controls of the Tardis on our stage set and thank you to everyone who came up to take a photo and gave a donation to the Children’s Hospice to do so.

The Weakest Link and Fancy Dress were hilarious and we hope you enjoyed the entries as much as we did and congratulations to the Fancy Dress winners for all the hard work they put in to their costumes.  The Dalek and mini Cyberman where so cute!  And well done to the winners of our Weakest link games.

Post a blog comment to tell us about your memories of the event and email us your photos (or a link to where they’re posted) so we can compile a photo gallery on the website as we rarely get to take pictures of our own.

We look forward to seeing you all again at the next UT Event!

Are you interested in helping out at Vortex?  We’re looking for volunteers to spend one or two hours of the day helping us run the event.  You could be asked to do anything form checking badges at the door to selling raffle tickets or controlling queues.

They may not sound like glamorous jobs but they are essential and you’ll get to see how an event like this is run from behind the scenes.  We guarantee you won’t miss out on anything during the day, we’ll accommodate you if you have specific times you prefer not to work and at the end of the day there’ll be a special presentation to thank all our stewards.

Email us at info@utevents.co.uk with the subject line “Volunteer Steward” and include the following information

• Name
• Registration number
• Telephone number
• Let us know if you are under or over 25 years old
• Tell us if you have any experience stewarding events or if you have attended events like this before
• If you are not planning on spending the full day at the event then let us know what times you will be there and if there are any specific times you will not be available to help

We will contact you before the event by email so make sure you check it regularly.

You must be over 16 to steward and take your responsibilities seriously.  Please note that this is only open to those who already have tickets for Vortex.  This is not a way to gain entry now that the event is sold out.

We opened up to refunds 7 days ago and, to be honest, we haven’t had much of a response.  We were hoping to have a bunch more tickets to pass on to people who have been emailing and phoning us but it looks like we’ll only have around 10 tickets in total.

Refunds are still available up to 6pm Wednesday evening.  Then our final batch of tickets will be made available at 9pm Wednesday night.  I’m afraid it will be a first-come-first-served deal so you need to be ready to go at 9pm.  To make it fair, we won’t require you to enter names when booking.  Just book the tickets and email us the names after you receive confirmation that you have them.

We can only apologise to those who are unable to get tickets.  We can honestly say we were unprepared for the response we’ve got to this event, especially after the poor response we had to Genesis, our first Doctor Who event.  Genesis was our worst selling full day event ever so we didn’t expect Vortex to be our best selling.

Citybeat will be giving away 5 pairs of Vortex tickets this week.  The competition will run on the Robin Elliott show every day from 7pm.

Only a small number of people took us up on our refund offer (more on how to get those tickets later) so if you missed out on a ticket then this could be your last chance to get one.

Since tickets went on sale in February we have had a couple of requests for refunds.  Some people bought tickets but due to a chance in circumstances they are no longer able to make it to the event.  Unfortunately we had to turn them down.  We have a policy of no refunds in place so that we don’t receive ticket money, spend it on preparing the event and then have to give it back to anyone who wants a refund.  It’s simply not possible to run an event when you can’t guarantee the money you have in the bank will still be there in a few weeks!

However, since Vortex has now sold out we have decided to open up to refund requests.  There’s no point in having unused tickets out there when there are still people looking to attend.  Here’s how it’s going to work.  Anyone who wants a refund can email us at info@utevents.co.uk and request one.  We will put all requests in a queue, refund about 5 tickets at a time and make them available to book on-line.  When those tickets sell we’ll refund another 5 and continue until all refunds have been processed.

This refund process will only stay in place until April 30th.  After that date we’ll be too busy preparing for the event to be dealing with refunds so get your requests in now.  The only restriction is that we can only refund a complete transaction.  That is, if you bought 5 tickets we can only refund the whole 5 tickets.  We cannot refund 3 of them.  Also, we cannot guarantee everyone who wants a refund will get one.  If, for some reason, there is a larger demand for refunds than for new ticket sales then I’m afraid we’ll have to decline some requests.  It’s not likely, but we just have to make that clear to everyone.

If and when any tickets become available to purchase through this process we’ll tweet about it so follow us on twitter to be the first to know.

Any questions?