A WRITE UP OF JIB 11 ('JIBWEEK')
I thought Iβd write an account from the perspective of someone who is NOT a regular of JIB (though I apologise because I struggle to write down my thoughts/feelings effectively)
*For notes and irrelevant details
Firstly, my friend and I booked JIB11 way back in late 2019 and we got our tickets during the handover. This probably should have been our first red flag when I almost got banned, because the guy I was buying my ticket from filled out something incorrectly in the handover email and we werenβt allowed to ask what the mistake was, because that would also lead to us being banned lmao.
*JIB is the only convention where Iβve had to give them my social media @βs when βpurchasingβ a ticket so they can monitor if you are talking badly about the convention. This rule pretty much makes everyone scared to death of going against Daniela before/during the convention, because then she can just straight up ban you on a whim.
Of course we couldnβt have predicted a global freaking pandemic so the con got postponed a good 4-5 times over the next 3 years.
Something important about the last time it was postponed, which was late 2022, is there was a ton of speculation:
1. If the event didnβt happen before July 2023 Daniela was legally obligated to refund everyone due to a certain law put in place in Italy during Covid (Events, even those paid for by βdonationsβ, couldnβt be postponed any longer under the guise of βcovidβ)
2. The reason it was postponed was due to certain actors not being able to attend due to βfilming schedulesβ (Presumably Karl urban and/or Jensen)
Iβm not a lawyer so I canβt tell you if Daniela had to obey that law or not (though at the time she admittedly said it did not apply to her)
And to go further about why I have added point 2. to the list, is because Daniela promised us that the date she chose in 2023 was the only date/weekend that ALL guests could attend. Jib5 also got shortened by one day because of this reason.
Keep in mind, she then went on to do another round of handovers and many people I know personally got tickets because of Karl Urban. Everything was silent until less than 2 weeks before the convention when it was announced that FOUR of the guests would be unable to attend.
LIST OF CANCELLED GUESTS: Tom Ellis, Karl Urban, Richard Speight Jr and Reeve Carney.
REPLACEMENTS: David Ramsey, Alexander Vlahos, Drake Rodger and Jojo Fleites.
Many people were upset that the replacements were not βwell knownβ Daniela went on a long rant about how other conventions wouldnβt get replacements at the last minute (Every other convention Iβve been to actually has gotten replacements or offered a refund but okay?) No Refunds were offered at this point either for photo ops or autos, only swaps.
Iβd like to add that itβs most likely that Daniela knew Karl Urban, Tom Ellis, Reeve and Richard werenβt going to be attending when she chose the new 2023 date, because itβs not like actors get given their filming schedule last minute? (correct me if Iβm wrong) For example Tom and Reeve were already booked for other events before their cancellations were announced.
* Another note but Daniela mass deletes/bans people on the facebook group for posting anything negative or questioning her, hence if you are looking to attend the con you won't see anything negative about it lol.
JIB is very different from the UK SPN conventions I have attended. The biggest difference is PRICE.Β
For me and my friend, JIB was a βonce in a lifetimeβ convention. For full transparency I will share that we both paid around β¬800 for angel passes and the hotel was something like β¬600 + flights and other expenses. Basically 2k each.
It was probably a bad sign when we turned up and were given pieces of ribbon as lanyards (even starfury in the UK sometimes offers ACTUAL lanyards, youβd think for the price we paid, especially as angel passes, that they could have included something)
*I will also admit this is not the convention's fault, but the hotel is extremely outdated IMO. Why itβs held there I donβt know, but I donβt blame the actors for not staying there anymore lol.Β
Like I said above, we paid for angel passes but we were good 15ish rows right at the back. At any starfury event I could have sat closer to the stage for free lmao. Not to mention there was a spotlight directly in our eyes for the entire convention during the panels/karaoke which blinded me. When posting about this on facebook I was told this would be solved by them dimming the lights, which didnβt seem to happen at all. The sound was also at full blast and put my teeth on edge every time someone spoke, my friend ended up with ringing ears. Due to these issues we ended up not attending many of the panels.
Another note, on our first night we saw Daniella walking around outside in a full designer outfit, followed by 3 people carrying designer bags to her private car. It definitely set an image of where our money actually went. (Not the mention the gucci jackets she gifted to J2M)
During autos, Jensen seemed to be in an off mood. He didnβt look up or talk to most people, including me and my friend. This kinda was our final βwow this entire convention is shitβ moment. Weβve spent all that money just to be ignored. I donβt care about all the people on facebook or twitter that said we βbuilt up the momentβ or βyour expectations were too highβ (Sorry but eye contact or a hi/bye is too high?) because thatβs just wrong to say. Also less than 2 weeks later at crossroads 6 we had a great interaction with Jensen for Β£150 lmao. Maybe having a soul-sucking homophobic woman following you around all day is just draining?
Also our one and only photo op, which was included with our pass during handover was justβ¦. Strange. We both planned to just do a normal standing pose but the actor basically forced us to touch him up during the photo op. Now I know people go to the rome con because they allow more touchy romantic poses, but it was just weird af because we werenβt looking for that kind of interaction at all.
Not to mention there was a women dressed as the impala who had excitedly told us her plan to ask Jensen during her photo op to βride her like babyβ (if she went through with it I donβt know, but I feel bad for the man) Said women has been banned from starfury, but apparently Daniela doesnβt give a shit if crazy people like her attend the convention and harass the actors. (Itβs all about the money right? Sorry βdonationsβ)
The con was also not well organised, they use the excuse of "jib time" or "italian time" (meaning everything is late) Nearly all the panels started late, which just slides in ops/autos running late. We also never knew where the heck we were meant to be going or what room we were meant to be in, there wasn't any clear signs. Again, for the price we paid.... This isn't going great.
Also most of the security and workers were personal friends/family of Daniela. The money just seems to be being funneled back towards her or people she deems worthy to hang out with her.
This all happened almost a month ago and this is just kinda a vent post, but if you are thinking about going to a JIB con I'd discourage it.
No offense, but the regulars of JIB seemed to largely be people putting themselves into debt to be there, I overheard so many people talking about maxing out their credit cards, not only to be there but to attend to the next event and to get touchy photo ops with the actors. The entire con is just taking advantage of maybe some people who, are perhaps, not in the best state of mind. (ofc this isn't everyone who attends, but it seems to be their main audience)
There's so many other things I could add, but I feel the list is long enough and I think I'll already get alot of backlash so I'll leave it as this.
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