'Endor' Filming Location Plans Festival for 40th Anniversary of 'Star Wars: Return of the Jedi'

SFGate reports:A herculean effort is required to produce an event centered around the intellectual property of "Star Wars" (protected within the Disney galactic empire), but a film commissioner in Northern California was determined and got creative to solicit a response from the film franchise owners. "I offered to send my adult daughter, who's a chef, to Lucasfilm to make them meals if they let us do this," said Cassandra Hesseltine, commissioner for the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission. The plea caught the attention of the San Francisco-based company, and a "Star Wars" festival in the redwoods was born. After a decade of planning, following an extensive back-and-forth to comply with IP rights, the film commission has announced the Forest Moon Festival. The two-day event commemorates the 40th anniversary of "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" June 2 and 3 in Northern California. It includes four film screenings [outdoors and indoors] between the two counties and holiday-like fanfare, with costumes and parties in downtown Eureka and on Cal Poly Humboldt's campus in Arcata. The festival's vision is to gather community members and outsider fans of the series for a summer jubilee akin to the Fourth of July, where folks are encouraged to dress up to the theme and congregate under the redwood trees. The article also notes that in June the monthly street fair in the town of Eureka "is expected to feature a 20-person squadron of Stormtroopers marching down main street."

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