This festival took place in the birthplace of the Lebowskifest, Louisville Kentucky. This year's fest was a special one. It is the 10th anniversary of the festival dedicated to all things Lebowski. Drinking, cursing, quoting, bowling and basic hanging out. This was my 6th fest. 4 in Louisville and 2 in Chicago. I enjoy the Louisville fests better as a whole. There seems to be a stronger base of hard core fans at the Louisville events.
After a long day of 90 degree temperatures and walking around Bardstown Road my special lady friend and I made our way to the parking lot of the bowling alley where these events take place. We met up with a couple that we met at the last Chicago fest. They made the 5 hour drive down from near Detroit for the weekend. They had some sweet Lebowski themed corn hole boxes and we indulged in a fevered game (both due to the competition and the temperature).
Once the sun had set and the ice had melted we made our way onto the lawn. We set up camp early in order to get good seats for the show. We pre-gamed for a couple of hours listening to a few different bands. None of them blew my socks off but all of them sounded pretty good. Louisville has a booming indy rock scene.
Around midnight the bands cleared off the stage and they raised a large screen to project a DVD copy of the film onto. I would guess that there were around 500 people in attendance. That would be the largest group of people that I have seen at the fest.
I feel that The Lebowskifest is benefiting greatly from the "hipster" craze that is sweeping college campus' around the nation. I saw a lot of plaid shorts, suspenders and straw fedoras this year. Another thing that I noticed right away was the quantity of females in attendance. 5 years ago when I attended my first fest (the 5th fest in Louisville) I would say that 85% of the people there were males 21-39, 10% were men 40 and up and 5% were women dragged by there idiot boyfriends. This year I would put the ratio at near 1:1 male to female. Many females were with their significant other, but there was a large percent that showed up on their own free will.
I of course spent the next two hours reciting nearly every word of dialogue. Breaking only to laugh out loud several times. Have I mentioned how wonderful my girlfriend is. Not only does she tolerate my addiction, she has found a way to enjoy it in her own way.
One of my favorite things about the evening was when a young couple sat down down beside us on the lawn. Both of them had their septum pierced and multiple visible tattoos. It was midnight and they arrived with their (I'm guessing) 3 year old daughter and 6 year old son. If you are unfamiliar with Lebowski, the F word is said 292 times withing the 90 minute running time. You are permitted if not encouraged to shout out lines to the movie whenever you feel like it. There is one scene where John Goodman as Walter is shouting (and I am as well) "Do you see what happens when you fu*k a stranger in the a$s!". I am sure the kids learned a life lesson that night.
Once the show was over I again was overwhelmed with nostalgia and an inner peace. As ridiculous and crude as the movie can, the Coen Brothers wrap it all up in a very touching and sincere way that gets me every time. Good news was there was still another evening of Lebowski fun to be had and God willing another 10 years of festivals to come.
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