Welcome to this week’s edition of Star Wars Thursday, a celebration of all things fun, wild, and wacky in the Star Wars universe!
This week’s edition is dedicated to the city that never sleeps – New York City. Any time I walk down the streets of the city, I can picture Leia walking beside me. There’s just something about her snapping, “Will someone get this walking carpet out of my way?” that shouts New York. The citizens of the Big Apple showed their love for Star Wars this week in an epic manner, with a huge lightsaber battle in Washington Square Park.
Before I go into that battle, though, I’d like to point out that this isn’t the city’s first foray into amazing fandom. Improv Everywhere staged an elaborate prank in July of 2010, recreating the scene with Leia and Vader from A New Hope on the subway. Check out the way real New Yorkers react!
If you want to see photos from the event itself (like the header image), or see a video describing what happened behind the scenes, check out the Improv Everywhere site here:
So this week, just for the fun of it, New York City had its very own lightsaber battle. According to the organizers, almost one thousand people showed up to duke it out with their fellow fans. There were even costumes! (Of course there were. Do Star Wars fans ever show up sans cosplay?) Check out this video of the battle I found via the Gothamist. (You can see more videos and fun photos here).
The event was organized by NewMindSpace (visit their website here), and they even gave attendees the option to reserve their own lightsabers. Nothing this cool ever happens where I live! The best I can hope for is a Halloween parade with some little kids dressed as Boba Fett or Padme.
Does this solidify New York City’s place as an ultimate fancity? Need another reason? They have their very own Jedi group that give lessons on lightsaber technique. If you are lucky enough to live there, you can schedule your times. http://www.newyorkjedi.com/
If not, check out this video they have on their site for some basic saber moves:
Have another city you think can top this? Let me know, and maybe they’ll be featured in another edition of Star Wars Thursday. Until next week – May the Force be with you!
