UK PonyCon: Tabitha St. Germain out, Kelly Sheridan in

As reported by the official UKPC blog recently, there has been a significant development in terms of this year's convention guests. Bad news first: because of work commitments, Tabitha St. Germain has had to pull out of attending. Good news second: the con has been able to welcome Kelly Sheridan instead. She was originally announced for the cancelled 2020 UKPC and then had to pull out in 2022, so this will certainly be good news for those who really wanted to meet her!

This kind of thing does happen with conventions, since quite understandably when there's a clash, professional VAs have to prioritise their actual day jobs over travelling to see fans. Daniel Ingram, for example, was originally announced for BUCK 2016 but had to pull out for similar reasons to Tabitha St. Germain. He never did make it to any UK MLP convention (he did get to GalaCon, but that really isn't the same!) so let's hope that Tabitha can make it over to UKPC in the future.

I won't lie, among people I know Tabitha St. Germain's original announcement was a huge deal and there is a lot of disappointment at this turn of events. It's not really fair on Kelly Sheridan and a shame, really: had she been announced as a guest of honour in the first place, I think everyone would have been delighted. But even now in 2023, there is something extra special about a Mane Six guest, as we saw last year when Andrea Libman graced UKPC with her presence.

Still, up until very recently UK PonyCon didn't have show guests at all, and it was still a great convention. I hope the 2023 edition will be that too. I'm increasingly unlikely to be able to attend myself this year for a variety of reasons (some involve other people, so I have to remain vague) but if you are going then with Kelly Sheridan (and of course the irrepressible Elley-Ray!) and everything else that comes with UKPC, I'm sure you'll have a truly brilliant time.

Kelly Sheridan no longer able to attend UK PonyCon

A hugely disappointing announcement from UK PonyCon earlier today: owing to continuing problems with international travel, guest of honour Kelly Sheridan can no longer attend. She was originally hoping to come to UKPC 2020, but that was cancelled for obvious reasons, so everyone was delighted when she was announced this time – she was (in 2020, and still now) the first show guest UK PonyCon had ever announced.

The official statement is pretty terse, so we don't know exactly what "disruption" refers to. Canada has generally maintained a harder line on Covid restrictions than most of Europe, so that could be an issue; or it could be related to the more general problems that have hit airports like Heathrow. There's little point in speculating further, since it's not really any of our business beyond the simple fact of a big-name guest not attending.

UK PonyCon's statement does say the con is "exploring alternative special guests", and I'm sure they'll do their very best as they've always worked extremely hard to put on a great convention (and succeeded in that). Still, Kelly Sheridan having to cancel barely 11 weeks from the con is not something I can sugar-coat as anything but a major disappointment. Here's hoping the next time I write about UKPC it will be to report some much more pleasant news!

Edit: I have been reminded that Anneli Heed, aka "Swedish Spitfire" (although she's done plenty more) is still coming as far as any of us know. So that's definitely something to look forward to. :)

UK PonyCon 2022 announces Kelly Sheridan

Exciting news from UK PonyCon yesterday: this October, the convention will welcome Kelly Sheridan as a special in-person guest! As many readers will recall, she was hoping to visit for UKPC 2020, but of course we all know what happened then, and circumstances including Canada's remaining Covid-related travel requirements did not allow her to come over for UKPC 2021. It's therefore really good to find out that that Ms Sheridan will be able to make it over this autumn.

This will be the first time ever that UKPC will have had an official MLP voice actor as an in-person guest. They've had other guests, such as musicians, authors and artists, but Kelly Sheridan is a first. Personally, I think she's an excellent choice, even apart from her thwarted intention to attend two years ago. By all accounts she's a very nice person, and – ideally for this multi-gen con – she has voiced characters in G1 (Melody in Tales), G3 (Cheerilee) and of course G4 (Starlight). I hope she finds UK PonyCon a really welcoming place to be.

I'd very much like to make it to Nottingham myself this year, especially as UKPC last October was a roaring success in ways that went beyond the understandable exultation at finally being able to go to a convention in person again. For various reasons attending UKPC isn't something I'm going to be able to commit to just yet, but the news about Kelly Sheridan's attendance is a real plus. It may be nearly six months off, but UK PonyCon is on its way – and at a rate of knots!