Great Britain, England, Milton Keynes, stadium  (MK is situated north-west of London)

The Collectormania is what it says: A huge event for fans to collect signatures and/or photos of and with the people they admire. Here's a tiny part of the early morning queue for Leonard's autograph and photo sessions only, on an English rainy day at about 8 a.m.
Gates open 9 a.m. At 7 a.m. the first had arrived. It was by far the longest queue compared to all other guests.

Because of a delayed flight Leonard could not attend the Friday afternoon opening. He was there all Saturday and Sunday.

 

Each day 1.000 fans had a chance to have a photo taken of themselves together with Leonard Nimoy.
Some came from far, from South Africa for example. Some from Holland,
which all in all is about 8 hours traveling when you take a plane, train and bus.
North Germany is 9 hours when driving by car - if you do some
low flying going 200kms/h where possible (11 hours if you visit a friend on the way ;).
Most fans, an estimated 95%, came directly from Great Britain.
 

During the photo session Leonard said something different to each fan. He made each fan feel welcomed and value this special tiny moment talking to him. The photographer also cared for everybody to look his / her best. All the photos turned out to be excellent.

Everybody could get as many autographs as they wanted for £ 25.- each. It must have been exhausting for him looking up so often while writing thousands of times the own name, we wondered. And still there was a natural spontaneous smile even for the last one in the queue.

Thousands of people had come in anticipation of meeting Leonard in person. Seeing people coming out from either the autograph or the photo section, you could sense that they were very happy indeed.

Photos: Margitta and Bernd, one by the Collectormania photographer