Avonlea Convention 2009 - The Last Hurrah

AvCon2009 logo AvCon 2009 (Avonlea Convention 2009) was a conference by fans for the fans, and was held on July 24-26, 2009 at Black Creek Pioneer Village, Toronto, Canada for the fourth and final time.

Programs during AvCon

Friday

Our first day was the traditional filming sites tour. Sullivan Entertainment was kind enough to give us Dan Matthews location manager and Mark Reitsma for guiding us on the tour and they rented us a school bus too which helped in the transportation a lot. We met in the BCPV parking lot at 9 AM, then first we visited the stunt bridge was used for example in the scene when Hetty fell down from it into a creek after meeting Romney Penhallow. Afterwards we visited LMM's Leaskdale house, then Pine Grove Church came and a wood called Junior Ranger Camp used as a basis for the crew. Then we visited the King Farm and we finished the day at Anne's kissing bridge (where she and Gilbert were kissing) and Diana Barry's house.

Saturday

On the second day of AvCon we had the following guests: James O’Regan (Constable Jeffries), John Welsman (composer), Mag Ruffman (Olivia King Dale), Ian Clark (Simon Tremayne), he just jumped in for 2 minutes, David Fox (Clive Pettibone) and Michael Mahonen (Gus Pike).

Saturday was closed by another traditional event, the AvCon groupdinner. Some of our guests, John Welsman, Mickey Mahonen and David Fox were also participated in the dinner. AvCon attendees could talk to each other and to the guests during and after the dinner. It was so much fun. :)

Sunday

In the morning of the third and last day of AvCon our guest speaker was Martha Mann costume designer. Then another traditional event came, the AvCon auction. Our auctioneer was Mike Matthews as usual, his son, Dan helped him. AvCon attendees could bid on Avonlea relic, photos, props, gifts donated by fans and Sullivan Entertainment. We gathered $5010 for our charity Good Shepherd. Our closing guest was Marilyn Lightstone.

Other activites

AvCon attendees could attend other events during their Toronto staying. One of them was a gig of Zach Bennett's band called Tin Star Orphans on July 18 at Axis Gallery and Grill. And enquirers could also visit actress Marilyn Lightstone's exhibition.

Why this was the last AvCon?

Because the current group of organizers do not want to become repetitive with this event. We want to keep it fresh and exciting for the fans, which is sometimes hard to do as a show becomes older, even though a new generation of fans has been introduced to the series. The actors have moved on to other projects and so have some of the committee members. All of us hope this final one will be the Coolest AvCon ever, so it will be a wonderful memory for those that participated. Who knows? Maybe the next generation of fans will be inspired to carry the torch and do their own Avonlea Convention someday.

Gallery

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Warning! The King farm is a private property, trespassing is prohibited, we agreed our visit before with. the owner, the McDougall family.

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