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41st Annual Superman Celebration a Memorable One
by Neil Cole
This past week, the Superman Super Site once again had the opportunity to travel to Metropolis, IL for the 41st Annual Superman Celebration which featured four fun-filled days of festivities, entertainment, and all things Superman.
This year marked our 12th straight trip to the event which kicked off with an opening ceremony on Thursday, June 6th featuring a welcome speech by Metropolis Mayor Billy McDaniel and an official ribbon cutting by Metropolis' own Superman, Josh Boultinghouse.
Other first day activities included music under the main Metro Tent featuring the Tribute Gospel Quartet, carnival rides, a visit the world famous Super Museum, the annual Superman Road Race, and a George Reeves Tribute Film by Jim Nolt commemorating the 60th anniversary of Reeves' death.
Friday, June 7th was the first full day of the celebration and featured the always popular Artists Alley & Writers Way which was once again packed with extremely talented guests including animator and director Tom Cook ("Challenge of the "SuperFriends," "He-Man," "King of the Hill"), animator and storyboard artist Todd Aaron Smith ("The Adventures of Superman," "Batman: The Animated Series," "Spider-Man"), and comic book artist Cory Hamscher ("G.I. Joe vs. Transformers," "Marvel Adventures Spider-Man") just to name a few.
Festival attendees also came out once again in large numbers to attend our 10th Annual Superman Super Site Meet & Greet at the popular Metropolis restaurant, Fat Edd's Roadhouse. A great time was had by all with door prizes including DVD's & Blurays, movie posters, collectible statues, and various contributions from area merchants.
Quite a few new celebration events debuted on Friday including a live action Heroes and Villains Chess Challenge which saw costumed attendees doing battle on the chess board, a Super Sing Lip Sync karaoke party featuring festival attendees taking the stage to be a super star, and an Exclusive Super Fan VIP party at the Metropolis Chamber building which closed out the days festivities.
Saturday is always the biggest day of the celebration and this year was certainly no different. Fans lined up at various autograph session to meet Helen Slater (Supergirl/Kara Zor-El - "Supergirl: The Movie"), Erica Durance (Lois Lane - "Smallville"), and Katrina Law (Nyssa al Ghul - "Arrow").
Slater was making her second journey to the celebration while both Durance and Law were attending for the first time. All three actresses were an absolute joy to meet and, in addition to their autograph sessions, huge crowds turned out for a chance to take photos of the three at the world famous 15-foot-tall Superman Statue and to see them at two separate and highly entertaining Q&A events under the Metropolis Tent.
Other day-three events included the "Save the Massac Benefit Auction", a NASA and the Science of Superman presentation hosted by Dennis P. Stocker with the NASA Glenn Research Center, and "From Smallville to Metropolis: An Artist's Journey" featuring Todd Aaron Smith. Capping off the day's festivities was a screening of the 1984 film "Supergirl: The Movie".
Sunday was, sadly, the final day of the celebration and kicked off with the 33rd Annual Rotary Club Car Show at Fort Massac and a "Superfriends of Metropolis" group photo-op at the Superman statue. Next up was Superman Super Site contributing reporter Chris Brockow's popular "Stump the Superman Expert" contest at the main Metropolis Tent which offered the large crowd in attendance the opportunity to win various prizes by answering Superman trivia questions.
The contest was followed shortly thereafter by the always popular MSC Heroes & Villains Costume Contest which featured numerous fans dressing as their favorite comic book, movie, television, and sci-fi related characters. All contestants competed against each other instead of in separate categories with Jamie Kelley taking home the top prize for his portrayal of Deadpool.
The celebration officially ended with a closing ceremony under the Metro Tent including "thank-you's" to everyone who had attended the festival and an invitation to return next year.
So ends another wonderfully exciting year of the annual Superman Celebration and thus begins the official count down to next years 42nd festival which will take place June 11th - 14th, 2020. Two things are for certain, it will definitely be just as entertaining as all prior celebrations and the Superman Super Site will be there once again for our 13th straight year!
