The second annual Great GeekFest is Saturday, Oct. 21 and organizers from the Delaware County District Library hope it’ll be even more popular than last year.
Mandy Henning, the teen librarian at the Delaware County District Library and the chair of the library’s comic con committee, said last year’s GeekFest was attended by around 1,700 people and said she wants to have at least 2,000 attendees this year.
“After last year we got a lot of positive feedback,” Henning said. “I think it’s a great event for the community. It really encourages people who aren’t library patrons usually to come it. The GeekFest really brings in people from all over the community. I really want to make this a big event for the community every year.”
Nicole Fowles, the library’s communications manager, said the event was held at the Orange Branch of the library last year, but will be held at the Delaware branch at 84 E. Winter St. this year.
“This year we’ve changed locations,” Fowles said. “We’ve partnered with downtown Delaware. One of the big things that factors into that is that we have a DATA bus stop outside this location, that makes accessibility really easy for just about everyone.”
Henning said numerous downtown businesses have partnered with the library for GeekFest and will be offering special promotions during the event. The participating businesses include The Arts Castle, Secret Identity Comics, Fresh Start Cafe & Bakery, The Greater Gouda, Whit’s Frozen Custard, J. Gumbo’s, Barley Hopsters, Roy’s Toys, Opa Grill and Tavern, and Honey & Abernathy.
Henning said she is most excited about GeekFest’s keynote speaker, Todd Robbins.
“Our keynote speaker, Todd Robbins, is amazing!” Henning said. “He’s a man of many talents. He’s been integral to preserving sideshow history in Coney Island, he is good friends with members of the magic community, including Penn and Teller. He also has an amazing show on Investigation Discovery called ‘True Nightmares.’ He’s the most interesting person and he gave me the description of what he’s doing for his presentation and I could not be more excited.”
Henning said GeekFest will also host a keynote from Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle, and Laurenn McCubbin, the Columbus team collaborating on the new comic “Moonstruck.”
The “Moonstruck” team keynote begins at 1 p.m. on the main stage in the library
Admission is free for the event, which begins at 10 a.m. and runs until 5 p.m.
“Most comic cons are hundreds of dollars to get into, so we are keeping it zero costs,” Henning said. Henning said the only thing attendees will have to pay for is food or products from all the vendors.
Additionally, there will be screenings of movies all day including “The Dark Crystal” and “Manos: The Hands of Fate.” There will be a different panel every hour until beginning at 10 a.m. with a panel titled “Stranger Things Season 2: Stranger Predictions.”
There will also be cosplay contests with prizes of $50 and $25 Amazon gift cards for winners and honorable mentions.
More information about GeekFest can be found at http://www.delawarelibrary.org/ggf.