Tower District felt the force on Friday night when Star Wars fans from all over came to celebrate the “May the fourth be with you” holiday with the inaugural Star Wars Pub Crawl.
A flash mob that opened the event near Livingstones Resturant & Pub, which included a marriage proposal, got national attention on the website Huffingtonpost.com.
A pub crawl is an event in which a group of people go to a bar or pub, then walk from bar to bar getting drinks from each place they go. Several bars along the route offered Star Wars themed drink specials. For instance, Starline Grill offered the “Jedi Mind Trick.”
Patrick Quiring, head of Fresno Zombie Society that sponsored the event, said that about 400-500 people attended. Fans filled the sidewalks and streets of the Tower District to show their Star Wars love and fandom to the world.
The participants were spilt up into groups of 25-50, and each group leader held a sign signifying which “squadron” they were in. Each squadron spent time at a specific bar, and when the groups were ready to migrate, the leader of each squadron took their group to the next bar. No two groups were at the same bar at the same time so as to not overcrowd any one place.
Brett Roosh saw the original Star Wars film in theaters 15 times. “I’m a trekkie at heart,” Roosh said. However, this is “an opportunity to meet new people.” Roosh was dressed up as an Imperial Officer and was a member of “Black Squadron.”
There were many activities and raffles going on. Treven Jones, one of the organizers of the pub crawl and an Iraqi War veteran, was teaching lightsaber combat training in the back room of The Landmark, and was dressed as Darth Revan. Revan is his favorite character because he “led the sacking of Coruscant which led to the Great Hyperspace War.”
Prior to this event, the Fresno Zombie Society hosted the Zombie Crawl. The Zombie Crawl started a couple of years ago and the next one is set for this October.
“The very first ‘Zombie Crawl’ had at least 600-700 people, and we were expecting at least that and more for a Star Wars event,” Jones said.
Bert Ramos, who was going by the alias “Treb Somar,” spent three straight days putting together his jedi costume. Ramos’ friend, who he hadn’t seen in four years, sent him a text message days before to invite him to the pub crawl.
“A lot of people are cheering us on,” Ramos said. “One of the first things they told us when we got together was that if there are any Star Trek fans out here, we don’t fight them.”
On May 4, 2013, Tower District will once again have the force flowing through it at its planned second annual Star Wars Pub Crawl, with the expectation of an even bigger turnout now that the first one was a hit. May the fourth be with you, always.
