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Fun For Fans Of All Kinds: Mandel Fanfest 2026 · Inside West Palm Beach

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Welcome to Inside West Palm
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Beach. I'm Gerry Marcelo.
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We're all fans for something, whether
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it's our favorite book,
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movie, or television show.
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Today we'll be talking about a West Palm
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Beach event that celebrates
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fans of just about anything.
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If you're any sort of fan, you're going
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to be a fan for Mandel Fan
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Fest. We'll talk about it next.
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[MUSIC]
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Joining us today is Eric Marquez,
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Associate Librarian for the Mandel Public
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Library here in West
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Palm Beach. Eric, welcome.
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Thank you. Good morning.
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Okay. Before we get started talking about
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this great event that we got coming up
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about fans and Fan Fest,
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I want to ask you, what was the first
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thing that you were a
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fan of as a little kid?
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The first thing I was a fan of was the
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first thing I drew was
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Snoopy and then Garfield.
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So you were a comics
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guy. You were a startup.
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Yeah, strong girl.
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You know, one of the very first books I
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ever got when I was a little kid was a
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couple of little peanuts,
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you know, paperbacks. I mean, I rubbed
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the ink off of him. I
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was reading him so much.
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I was a particular fan of Snoopy, but I
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was also like Schroeder.
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Oh.
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You know, he was just sort of really cool
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and he just nothing bothered me.
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Just kept playing through every crisis
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that they had on the show.
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Yeah. I thought about it. Yes.
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Okay. But you started in comics. I
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graduated from being in
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Peanuts and stuff like that.
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Then I moved on to Star Trek. I'm old
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enough that I actually saw the show, you
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know, in first run back in the 60s.
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So I'm very proud of that.
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But yeah, that was my first real step
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into fandom was comics
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and then moving on to TV.
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Was there a moment in your TV life that
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you suddenly discovered
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something that you were a fan of?
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I don't know. I was just always
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everything that came out, whether it was
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print, you know,
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publication on screen, whatever.
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Just the storytelling aspect. Always
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everybody's just wanting to crawl into
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people's brains and seeing what they
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imagine and what they bring to life.
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Yeah.
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It was always very, very exciting to me,
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which is why I love history and all that
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because I mean, given that's not fiction,
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but the fact that there's
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just so much story to tell.
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Sure.
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So I mean, I was always a fan of that
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mentality. So yes, like I would see the
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shows. I would see Saturday morning
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cartoons, you know, read the Sunday
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Funnies, the strips, and then got into
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comics and comic books themselves.
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And I remember one day I was at a store.
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It's called the Albertsons in Texas. And
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there was that rack, the comic rack, and
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there was a Spider-Man.
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It was the Spider-Man comic book. I
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remember picking that book up and I was
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like, comics exist. It
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just, that was it for me.
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Fantastic. Another way of telling stories
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and conveying adventures
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and, you know, creating heroes.
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Let's face it, when you're a young
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person, you have a tendency to want to
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seek out models. You know, you look, you
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know, perhaps your parents, but also
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Superman or Spider-Man or Captain Kirk.
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You know, those things become important
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to a young, developing person. And I'm
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mentioning male kind of places.
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Obviously, there's a whole group of other
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heroes that are
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important to all types of people.
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You know, and so it's important to
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include that as well. But, you know, so
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what we're seeing here is you can be a
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fan of, you know, of
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anything pretty much.
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You could be a sports fan. You could be,
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you know, have a hero in sports. Or you
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can have, you know, you could have it be
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something where it's a cultural thing.
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Without a doubt. Without a doubt.
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So all these things sort of roll together
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to form sort of a nucleus for what you
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guys do over there. Tell us a little bit
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about Mandel Fan Fest.
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Yeah. So basically exactly what you're
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saying. It culminates to this celebration
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of all things fandom. There are so many
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now, that's the beauty of now, the media
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now and all the tools we have is that it
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doesn't have to just be comics and it
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doesn't have to just be, you know, men.
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It's for everybody. There's a genre for
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everybody. There's a story for everybody.
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They're creators of all kinds now. And
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that's one thing to celebrate. And so we
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decided to celebrate the fandom, which is
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why it's called Fan Fest versus, you
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know, versus the name having, you know,
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con or comic in it, because it's still
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obviously that's very much invited.
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But we want everybody to feel like
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there's going to be something for us.
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See, so it's really great instead of it
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being, okay, it is a film fest or a comic
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fest or a music fest. Yeah, it is a fest
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about the people who celebrate the
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artistry, the communication,
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the story that's really neat.
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So what sort of people come to Fan Fest?
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So we've had a really fun group of
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eclectic people show up. I mean, that's
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what's expected. And that's what we love.
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Last year when we had it, we had a lot of
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people, yes, for the comics, a lot of
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people for a lot of anime and manga. I
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had a lot of people Dungeons and Dragons,
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very specific wanting that.
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A lot of people selling a lot of the
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vendors themselves as well, not just the
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fans coming in, but the stuff that they
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have, you know, whether it's Pokemon
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cards or their merchandise with like, you
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know, with Mickey and with all these
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different characters and stuff like that,
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whatever they're doing,
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it's all based around that.
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And it's just a really fun mix. Like you
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just the whole day, you just walk around
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meeting people constantly and everybody's
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really excited about this.
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And they have a story they want to share
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with you about this one. And they're a
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fan of this thing
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that you never heard of.
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So it's a full day of that kind of
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energy. That's really, really neat. You
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mentioned vendors. So there are folks who
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are maybe trading and selling books and
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figurines and things like that.
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Yeah, I think I have right now about 33
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vendors. Last year, I want to say we had
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about 18. So it's jumped a good amount.
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I'm going to have a lot of cosplayers, a
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lot of the nonprofits like 501st and the
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Delta Fleet from Star Trek. They're
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showing up at the horse.
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So that's going to be really cool.
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They're all of them. They're I've met
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them. And they're just they're really
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fun. And obviously, the photo ops that
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we're going to have there with them, a
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lot of the vendors themselves, like I
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said, they'll be selling a lot of like
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merch, anime, manga, stickers, backpacks,
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Disney specific stuff.
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There's like things like that. It ranges
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people who create their own stories and
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comic books, they'll be selling their
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books there. So you can kind of go and
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check out those stories, local, the idea
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of supporting local art is is an
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important focus for me to buy a large are
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the vendors you have
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South Florida or the.
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Yes, I think I think a lot of them are
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South Florida. I might have a couple
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coming in from North Florida. But for the
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most part, yes. And then they might
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travel maybe like Georgia or something,
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give or take. But yeah, now you mentioned
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cosplay. First of all, for the folks who
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may not know, tell us what cosplay is and
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why it's so important to this fandom.
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Yes, so cosplay is the word that is
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derived from costume play, right? People
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dressed up in costume to celebrate
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whatever it is that they're a fan of. And
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so we're going to be there with it's a
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very big genre. So a lot of a lot of
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groups have formed. And a lot of them are
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nonprofits. So for example, the 501st and
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Delta fleet and active force, they're
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nonprofits. So they'll go around. And
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they have different chapters throughout
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the country. So it's
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not like it's only here.
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They'll go to different parts, they have
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their different chapters, and they'll go
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and they'll do events, trying to raise
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money for kids for events here for
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organizations there. So it's this
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constant wanting to help the public out.
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It's really neat. So they turn it around
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and makes it make it a very beneficial
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thing for folks who otherwise wouldn't
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have a, you know, have a break. Yeah.
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Now, I remember seeing the very first
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time I saw someone in costume.
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It was a long, long time ago. I'm dating
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myself again. It was someone dressed in
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Star Trek toss. Okay. The original
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series, the tunic, the, you know, the
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Captain Kirk yellow command color and the
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braids and stuff. And it was fascinating
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to suddenly turn and see this character
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there. And I saw the people walking with
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a certain pride, like
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I'm in costume, you know.
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So let's, let's delve into that a little
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bit. What is it about wearing a costume
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and putting it on in? Is it just how good
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the costume is or is it just something
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else altogether? You become a character.
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Yeah, you become a character. You're
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again, it's that idea that I become a
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character that other people can recognize
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we're celebrating this together. You
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know, the unity of you find your group,
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you find your niche of people who are
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like, yeah, that's what we love.
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There's something, it's this subconscious
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kind of a feeling of celebration. And the
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fact that it's just so popular nowadays,
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like I said, that it's just been
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accepted, you know, to be able to do
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this. And it's not just that cons, you
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know, if there's a movie premiere, people
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will go to those events. If there's
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whatever people will dress up for that
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kind of stuff. And it's just, it's a
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really, really good thing because people
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get to kind of come out of their shells.
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Whereas normally, if we're different,
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living in some kind of different universe
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and, and that's not celebrated, they,
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they would still be the people just kind
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of secluded and hidden, but now they have
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groups to celebrate with. So it helps us
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all, I think, as a culture to kind of
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just be ourselves more.
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So what happens, say, if you're at a
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convention, maybe not, maybe not Mandel
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Fan Fest, but if you're at a convention
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and you're dressed up as your favorite
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character from a movie or a film or book,
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and you see someone else dressed in the
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same costume, what happens?
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What happens? Are you like wanting to go
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into battle or what happens on the genre?
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It depends on the character, right?
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That's what it's kind of like an unspoken
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understanding, you know, if whoever the
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characters are, if they're foes, they
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will play fight, you know what I mean? Or
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they'll kind of stare at
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each other or whatever.
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So there's that kind of fun interaction.
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That's again, that's just known. We just,
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you know, you're in that group so you
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know how to react to things like that.
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Sometimes I used to way back when I was
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going through in college, I used to be a
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manager at a movie theater.
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And we would have movie openings and
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people would show up dressed up. And
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these are just people. There wasn't paid
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actors. And maybe a family member wanted
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to take a picture. Hey, my kids here, can
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they take a picture? Right away, they
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snap into character and they take the
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picture, you know, so
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it's really, really fun.
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Just kind of like I said, this community
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based mentality of like, it's a
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celebration. It's a celebration of the
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artistry and the
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creativity of the original story.
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That's really, really nice. So is there a
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particular genre or a type of audience
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that sort of predominates? Is it all? Is
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it Lord of the Rings? What is it?
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I mean, it used to be a lot of Star Wars.
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I think Star Wars was just a big, big
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one. And it still is huge, of course. But
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a lot of them are growing. There are so
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many are growing. I mean, again, Ecto
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Force is a good example. You know, I
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hadn't seen them. I know they've been
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around a while, but I
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honestly hadn't seen them.
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And then now they're just popping up
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everywhere. And they have, I mean, the
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proton packs and they have Slimer and
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just their visuals are amazing and very,
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very, very different than Star Wars. The
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visuals, you know, both are very
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powerful, but they stand out easily. So
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yeah, I'm seeing a lot of that kind of
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stuff happening where it's more of a
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balance of things. Lord of the Rings and
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just smaller genres are
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coming up more and more.
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So basically, you have a room full of
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vendors and people walking and talking.
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What other things will be happening? Do
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you have any speakers or anything?
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Yes. So I'll have I have about four
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panelists right now doing different
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talks. If it's about like maybe you're a
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writer and you're trying to come up with
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a script or starting to
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get an idea off the ground.
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So they'll kind of assist with in those
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panel talks. They'll give you ideas,
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suggestions. There will be I think Disney
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will be there. She's very specific to
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like Disney, Disney trips, how to save
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money, how to like find this and that at
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the parks with a lot of
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that merch is really fun.
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And then we have also we have on top of
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that, there's a two other ones and then
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we have we're going to be
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doing a trivia this year.
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So the trivia will be kind of one of the
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panels as well. And then aside from that,
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we will be doing the whole
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day. We'll be doing giveaways.
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So it'll be probably on the hour or
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something similar where we'll be doing
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giveaways. And it's just really cool
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books, graphic novels,
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novels, toys, die pins.
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That'll be throughout the day. And then
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we'll be doing the oh, the live drawing.
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So typically, at the local cons here,
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I've been doing a lot of different cons,
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like with a pompcon
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Martin Piero does those.
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And so I started doing the live drawing
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kind of challenges with them. So another
11:15:54
artist and myself will get on stage and
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we'll kind of take
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suggestions from the audience.
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And then we kind of draw what they say.
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It's a really fun interactive thing. It
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really fun. And so we'll be doing that.
11:16:04
Yeah, it's really cool to do that.
11:16:04
So it's going to be a lot of that energy
11:16:06
all day and they will have all the
11:16:07
artists and vendors throughout the day.
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So there's going to be a lot to see.
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Well, let's jump back to some very basics
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because I don't want anybody to get
11:16:14
confused or to miss out. This is
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happening at the Mandel Public Library of
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Downtown West Palm Beach.
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It is Saturday, May 23. Correct. And it
11:16:23
begins at when? Ten to four. Ten to four.
11:16:26
It's ten to four. All day
11:16:27
Saturday. Yeah, May 23. Correct.
11:16:29
That's fantastic. So all right. But
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that's just the basics. I want to delve
11:16:33
it further. I mean, I love the idea that
11:16:35
you are especially the part where you
11:16:37
mentioned that there's going to be some
11:16:38
some guidance or some some advice coming
11:16:40
from people who write and create.
11:16:42
I think that is fantastic because I think
11:16:44
everybody would love to be able to
11:16:46
create, you know, fan fiction or, you
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know, create a movie or a
11:16:52
drawing of their favorites.
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And this opening that door, I think, is
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another level of, you know, satisfying
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the need to be a fan
11:17:01
to contribute to that.
11:17:03
You know, so that's really cool. We've
11:17:07
talked about how, you know, that we have
11:17:10
a very wide spectrum of
11:17:12
different types of fandom.
11:17:14
Most of it is going to be, if I correct
11:17:18
me, if I'm wrong, we're dealing with is
11:17:20
it generally fantasy or
11:17:21
is it extend beyond that?
11:17:22
Yeah, definitely extends beyond that
11:17:24
fantasy, of course, but beyond that.
11:17:27
Yeah. So is it safe if you have someone
11:17:29
who's a terrific fan of, say, an episodic
11:17:34
series on television?
11:17:36
Yeah. Yeah. The fan base will be there
11:17:37
for that. Yes. That's really good. Yes.
11:17:40
That's fantastic. So what other things
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can people who come to the event be
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looking forward to see?
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So there will be a lot of photo ops with
11:17:47
a lot of the cosplay groups actually and
11:17:51
with the photo ops will come. So we're
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going to be doing a whole lot of raffles.
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I say raffles, but it's really giveaways.
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So they'll get a raffle ticket, though,
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for a lot of different things they do
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just for taking a picture with the 501st.
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They'll get a raffle ticket. Yeah. Still
11:18:02
give away a giveaway ticket for that. For
11:18:05
doing the panel talks, they'll get one of
11:18:06
the tickets for just attending the event
11:18:08
you get to get those tickets eventually.
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I said we'll go into the giveaways. So
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it's just constant people winning things
11:18:16
throughout the day. I don't know how else
11:18:17
to say it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're
11:18:18
going to be giving away tons of stuff.
11:18:20
And so there's going to be a lot of that.
11:18:21
Fantastic. I'm telling you, it's last
11:18:23
year we had set up this really cool. We
11:18:24
found this old treasure chest, pirate's
11:18:26
chest at the library. And so we use that
11:18:29
to kind of put all the other giveaways
11:18:30
in. It was really cool
11:18:31
visual. It's on the stage.
11:18:32
We're going to use that again this year.
11:18:34
And we have all the gifts and all the
11:18:35
giveaways and trinkets and toys and
11:18:37
stuff. And then oh, and we're also going
11:18:38
to have this year a
11:18:39
cosplay contest, which is huge.
11:18:42
I will soon be releasing the kind of like
11:18:44
the work in progress. I've designed it. I
11:18:46
actually designed it on the second floor
11:18:47
in the library in the technology and
11:18:48
innovation center. I designed with the 3D
11:18:51
printer and the laser cutter.
11:18:53
I'm putting together the trophies for
11:18:54
first, second, third place. And it will
11:18:56
be adults and kids category. So it's
11:18:58
going to be an actual contest this year.
11:18:59
So that's going to be even more
11:19:01
participation and interaction. That's
11:19:03
really great. You mentioned kids. That
11:19:04
was my next question. Sometimes these
11:19:06
things are more suitable for teenagers or
11:19:09
young adults. Kids are welcome.
11:19:11
Oh yeah. Family friendly for sure.
11:19:12
Absolutely. Wow. Yeah. It's going to be a
11:19:15
lot of foot traffic because we want all
11:19:16
families, all ages to show up. That's
11:19:18
fantastic. Well, it sounds like it's just
11:19:20
wall to wall fun and
11:19:22
opportunities to win.
11:19:23
But most importantly, opportunities for
11:19:26
fans to meet other fans. Yes, that's
11:19:28
exactly the goal. And to explore genres
11:19:31
and subjects that will be of interest,
11:19:34
but they haven't been exposed to yet.
11:19:35
Correct. Exactly. Because there's a lot
11:19:37
of that and parallel to that is just meet
11:19:41
your local artists and
11:19:42
writers and creators.
11:19:44
People make friendships from that. People
11:19:46
start projects from that. All kinds of
11:19:48
things take off. So this is that kind of
11:19:51
nucleus of that. The local community, the
11:19:53
art community, the art scene just show up
11:19:56
and meet and interact with people.
11:19:58
So it's like a swirling cloud of
11:20:00
primordial gas that will turn into art.
11:20:03
It evolves into projects and creation.
11:20:06
Yes. That's exciting. And this is what
11:20:08
year? How many times have you been this?
11:20:10
Officially, this is the second year under
11:20:11
the name Fanfest. Two years prior, we had
11:20:15
done kind of like a test run of it, which
11:20:17
was really cool. The test run worked out
11:20:18
really well. So then last year's was the
11:20:20
first official one, knowing that it was
11:20:22
that it was accepted by the public well.
11:20:25
And then so this is officially the second
11:20:26
year of Fanfest. Cool. Cool. If someone
11:20:29
wants to see some information online
11:20:31
about what's happening and where it is
11:20:33
and catch up again, they
11:20:35
can go to the city library.
11:20:37
Yes, correct. Go to the city library
11:20:38
website and the website. Yes, correct.
11:20:40
And then from there, you'll have the link
11:20:41
to look at Fanfest or you can Google
11:20:43
Mandel Fanfest. You can search Mandel
11:20:45
Fanfest and that'll pop
11:20:46
up and go to the website.
11:20:48
It has a lot of stuff. When you go to the
11:20:49
city website, you find the library,
11:20:52
you're going to see the link there.
11:20:54
There's so much stuff at the library
11:20:56
anyway. You get lost with all the
11:20:57
different links there.
11:20:58
Sure. But you'll find a link. You'll find
11:21:00
information. And we're encouraging people
11:21:03
to go on out and take part in this
11:21:05
really, really cool
11:21:06
cultural, creative, exciting event.
11:21:10
Please. Yes.
11:21:10
That's fantastic. Eric Marquez, thank you
11:21:12
so much for your time today. The best of
11:21:14
luck with this
11:21:15
Fanfest and many, many more.
11:21:17
Thank you very much.
11:21:18
And thank you for joining us for Inside
11:21:20
West Palm Beach. We may have a new name,
11:21:23
but we're close to completing
11:21:24
our third year of production.
11:21:25
We've got many past podcasts available
11:21:27
for your listening pleasure. We're
11:21:29
available on all major podcast outlets.
11:21:32
Just look for The City of West Palm Beach
11:21:34
and you'll find our
11:21:35
shows both past and present.
11:21:38
If you have comments or ideas for other
11:21:40
topics, please feel free to write us at
11:21:42
podcast at wpb.org. This has been a
11:21:46
production of The City of West Palm Beach
11:21:48
Communications Department.
11:21:49
I'm Jerry Marcello.
11:21:51
We'll see you next time.