‘OH, IT’S A GEEKY LITTLE THING’
It began as a small gathering for a handful of people. Next weekend they’ll host the masses. Chris Schulz meets the small team running Auckland’s biggest event.
Twenty-three years ago, Bill and Adele Geradts invited a group of like-minded fans over for a chat. “We’d argue about Dr Who,” says Bill. “It was lots of fun.” The meetups turned into a regular event, held every three months. Attendance grew, with up to 50 people cramming into the couple’s small Auckland home.
As numbers increased, so did the Geradts’ family. When their second child arrived, a boy called Duncan who they struggled to settle, the regular influx of Dr Who fans became an annoyance. “I went, ‘This is it,”’ says Adele. “‘These people are getting out of our house. We are not doing this any more.”’
But Bill didn’t want to give up. He persuaded Adele to help him organise something bigger. So, in December 1995, they booked the Freemans Bay Community Centre, passing around flyers for a one-day experience celebrating popular passions of the time: card games like Wizard and Magic: The Gathering, phone and sporting card trades, and — yes — arguments about Dr Who.
It was, say the Geradts, the first iteration of Armageddon, the annual pop culture juggernaut — some call it a “geekfest” — that has grown astronomically. Its four New Zealand events each year attract 130,000 people, the equivalent of three sold-out All Blacks test matches.
So how’d that first one go? “I think we lost about $5000,” says Bill, a small fortune for someone earning $20,000 a year as a retail assistant. “We were like, ‘I don’t know how the f*** we’re going to pay that.’ The wife said, ‘Look, well, we’re not doing that again. That’s just a giant waste of money.”’
“He convinced me that it wasn’t,” replies Adele. “And I’m very glad he did.”
THERE’S A Dalek in the garden, a black and ominous presence sitting amid trees flowering in spring. Inside, there’s a painting of an exploding Tardis on the wall, and Dr Who DVD box sets are stacked in neat orders on bookshelves. A samurai sword sits sheathed underneath the TV.
Pop culture collectables can be found throughout the Geradts’ large Halswall home in Christchurch, but most of it is crammed into one room, an office, where the five-strong Armageddon team is based. Bill’s just added a model Viper from Battlestar
Galactica,
cramming it between a Predator
figurine and one of wrestler
Rick Flair. “I’m reasonably particular about what we add in here because if I’m not, literally there’d be no room,” he says.
But on Monday mornings, when communications manager Courtney Collins, event manager Therese Costello and graphic designer Thomas Barrer arrive for work, they don’t head to the office. Instead, they meet Bill and Adele in the lounge and watch the latest episode of Dr Who together, while Camper, their ageing dog, snoozes on the floor.
It’s a laid-back atmosphere, mostly. When Weekend arrives, however, things are humming. A celebrity guest has pulled out of attending next weekend’s Auckland event, and they’ve secured Shannon Doherty to fill the place. There’s a website to update, and posters to change. The Beverly Hills 90210 star will be appearing alongside The Addams Family’s Christina Ricci and Stargate’s
Michael Shanks. Each guest charges $50 for an autograph, $60 for a fan photo. These days, Armageddon has fully outgrown its humble beginnings as a Dr Who fanclub. As well as TV and movies, it covers video games, wrestling, cosplay and comics. It attracts big names, like MacGyver’s Richard Dean Anderson and Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa. In Auckland, Armageddon covers four days over Labour Weekend. It is, claims Bill, the biggest celebration of pop culture in Australasia, and among the top 30 events worldwide.
The numbers are staggering: In Auckland, 70,000 fans will attend. Add in annual events in Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch and that takes Armageddon’s tally to 130,000. Bill credits the success of Marvel’s superhero movie franchises as part of their explosion in popularity over the last 10 years. “Star Wars doesn’t make a billion dollars if only geeks are going to see it,” he says.
You'd think their ongoing success would open a few doors. You'd be wrong. Bill says train services are often closed over Labour Weekend for maintenance, affecting access to Armageddon's Greenlane site. According to Auckland Transport's website, parts of the Southern, Western and Eastern Lines will be closed for maintenance and upgrades this year, with buses offered as replacements. “It’s weird because in every city that we do a show, we’re the biggest show in the city,” says Bill. “We’re the biggest public expo in Auckland, we’re the biggest one in Wellington, we’re the
biggest one in Tauranga, we’re the biggest one in Christchurch. We pull in more people, and yet we still have that stigma of people going, ‘What are you?’
Adele agrees: “[It’s seen as], ‘Oh, it’s a little geeky thing, not that many people would be interested.”’
That’s not the case. They cite fans that spend all year working on outfits to wear to the event. Armageddon is, they say, a chance to be around likeminded people, celebrate their favourite things, and, if they want to, let their freak flag fly. “Last year I saw a family dressed up: the mother was Rei, the dad was Finn, the daughter was also Rei, they had a baby Stormtrooper, it was just the sweetest thing. You see so many families swimming in the geek sphere in such a great way.”
All those events, attended by all those people. But the Geradts say they don’t always make the best business decisions. They’ve had more failures since that first event, but they’ve always decided to keep on going. “There’s a lot of times: ‘Holy crap — we’ve lost a lot of money. How do we make it back? We’d better do it bigger next year,”’ says Bill.
To attract the right talent, and to keep fans coming, they have to spend money they might not get back. “There’s this perception of, ‘Look at all the people coming to the show, they must be rolling in cash.’ The reality is, a lot of what we do, particularly in the regional shows, loses money. If we were a business, there’s a lot of things we shouldn’t be doing. Some things are just too good to say no to. But we should.”
BILL WAS once beaten up for liking a television show. “I’m an old-school nerd, and I grew up when this wasn’t a good thing,” he says. “I got beaten up by a Kiss fan because he was obsessive about Kiss and I was obsessive about Dr Who and he didn’t like it. I don’t think that was a unique experience.”
So, when he, Adele and the rest of the Armageddon team open the doors to thousands of people next weekend, they see themselves as among family. Literally: many of their family and friends work at the event. Their son Harrison is staff co-ordinator, while their closest friends, Trev and Natasha, look after the guests.
First and foremost, they remain fans of the things Armageddon is celebrating. “The fact that we’re living in an age when The Flash, Supergirl, The Arrow, Cloak + Dagger, Daredevil, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones are on TV now, it’s crazy,” says Bill. “I’m glad for it, it’s good stuff. It’s nice to see it so embraced.”
Despite Armageddon’s intimidating size, Bill hasn’t forgotten its roots. As that Dalek in the garden shows, he remains a massive Dr Who fan. Sometimes, he takes that fandom to extremes. When Peter Capaldi was announced as the new Doctor, he and Therese flew up to Auckland to see him on a flying promotional visit. They weren’t trying to persuade him to appear at Armageddon. They didn’t want photos or autographs. They just wanted to say “hi”.
“We stood outside for five hours,” admits Bill. That patience worked. They got to meet him when Capaldi stopped for a chat while leaving the venue. But as Bill knows better than most, fandom can take a little time to pay off.