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01/22/2024 04:18 PMFans of TV's Gilmore Girls are following the show where it leads, and this year, the Fan Fest Society's Firelight Event is leading them to Guilford.
Organizers of the Gilmore Girls-themed festival announced plans to hold their annual event in Guilford this coming October.
The series, which ran from 2000-'07, was set in the fictional Connecticut town of Stars Hollow, inspired by the real Connecticut town, Washington Depot. A cultural touchstone at the time, Gilmore Girls was hailed by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest television shows of all time. Netflix revived the show in 2016 for a four-part miniseries, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
Now, a touch of Stars Hollow is heading to Guilford.
The Firelight Event organizers are longtime fans Jennie Whitaker and her husband, Marcus Whitaker, who began hosting the Gilmore Girls-themed weekends in 2016 in Washington Depot. According to Jennie Whitaker, the pair have since organized retreats in other New England towns, such as Kent and Ogunquit, Maine.
“We really are just fans of the show. I didn’t watch it when it was originally on the air, but after I became an adult, I was home one day, and I was watching some kind of news station, and then Gilmore Girls came on after that, and I thought, ‘This show is pretty funny,’” Whitaker said. “We ended up watching the whole series. My husband and I just thought it was so funny, and when the show was over, we bought the box set and watched it all over again. It has such great writing and such interesting characters and a great storyline. It really just felt good to watch.”
According to Whitaker, she and her husband wanted to bring the event back to Connecticut to honor its fictional roots and searched the shoreline during a road trip last year. Whitaker said numerous towns sparked the couple’s interest, but when she visited Guilford, the choice was easy.
"I came up in October of last year, right after our last festival and drove the whole shoreline from Mystic and literally drove the whole shoreline all the way to the New York border. I saw a lot of beautiful towns, but Guilford just really sticks out," Whitaker said. "It is such a beautiful place and it really reminds me of the show, a big town green with a bustling town around it. There were so many towns on the southern coast of Connecticut, and they all are just gorgeous, but Guilford just seemed right."
Bringing the festival to town turned out to be easy. Whitaker and her all-volunteer staff connected with First Selectman Matt Hoey who was eager to help make the festival work.
"They couldn’t have been nicer. They have been really collaborative, and they said, ‘How can we make this work? The town would really like it.’ Everyone has been so helpful, and we don’t have any reason to believe this won’t be the best event we’ve ever thrown.”
According to Whitaker, attendees will be able to meet cast members and participate in activities inspired by the show, which centers around the relationship between a single mother and her teen daughter. The Whitakers say the festival has attracted attendees from all 50 states and 23 countries, testimony to how beloved the series is for fans.
“In 2016, we thought it would be a fun way for fans to get together and celebrate the show. We actually never started out thinking that cast members would even be interested,” Whitaker said. “We just thought we’ll gather fans from all over and get together and I think at one of our last meetings before the first event, someone said, ‘Hey, do you think we could get a cast member to come?’ And low and behold, I think we got 19 cast members to come. They were jumping at the chance. In fact, even some members who didn’t call, their managers were reaching out saying, 'Can my talent come?’ And we were like, ‘Sure! The more, the merrier.'”
A final list of cast and crew members is expected to be announced in July, and Whitaker said she expects 10 to 12 cast members to be in attendance.
Named after the show’s Firelight Festival, which celebrated the founding of Stars Hollow, the Fan Fest Society's Firelight Event will include a number of fan-centric activities, including meet and greets, a stress tap dancing class, trivia challenges, a town hall debate, moving showings, and a costume contest. And, of course, plenty of coffee (but maybe not in an IV).
"There will be meet and greets for every cast member who comes. There will be everything from costume contests to trivia contests, tastings, free coffee, and probably a fun run at the fairgrounds," Whitaker said. "We do all sorts of things; folks can check in with the website to find out the full details."
Tickets go on sale Wednesday, Jan. 24, and are sold as a three-day package only; no single-day tickets will be available. The Firelight Event will take place in Guilford, chiefly at the Guilford Fairgrounds, 111 Lovers Lane, but numerous events will also be held across town from Oct. 18 through 20.
“We start registration on the Friday at 9 a.m. and usually wrap up on Sunday by 2 p.m.,” said Whitaker. “This is an immersive event and community-driven. We are really excited for this year."
For more information about the Firelight Event, visit www.thefanfestsociety.com/the-firelight-event.