It’s a great treat when the things I have to cover for work end up being things I really like in my Tony Romeo personal life. The Lebowski Fest is one of those things. I covered it in 2009 when it came to Philly and I got to cover it again this year. This year was not quite as vast or varied in the costuming as it was in ’09, but it was still a great, great time of white russians, great music, better attitudes and what have you. I was also limited in the amount of people I could bring with this year. In ’09 I had a Lebowski posse of about a half dozen. This year? Only 1 other press credential was issued. ( I covered it with John Clements and will post his video soon.) I missed my Lebowski entourage of ’09 though and I poured some sarsaparilla out for my Lebowski homies that couldn’t be there…
Like I said, the Lebowski Fest itself was smaller in terms of the people dressed. You’d be shocked how many people are eager to pay $30 bucks to be around other Lebowski aficionados just in regular clothes. For those that did dress it was a lot of main characters– a lot of DUDES, MAUDES, WALTERS, etc… my favorite was a lady Walter and a Lady Dude. The latter chose to be dude with Donnie’s ashes in her face. Clever. All in all, I had a far out time, can’t wait til the next, and may travel to see one in another city. Will Russell that runs the Lebowski Fest is a gracious host and posted the stuff I shot for WPHL-TV on LebowskiFest.com. You can see all my images in the gallery I shot for WPHL-TV below. Catch ya later on down the trail… (cue tumbleweeds music)