Star Wars Day!

[urbpan]

Franklin Park Zoo held a special event on May the Fourth, as many places did. The zoo invited two cosplay groups to come and greet the guests. I don't work on Sundays, but you can bet that I was there just to meet all the characters!





Here's a little behind the scenes action, as the event coordinator makes sure that everything is going to be in place for when the gates open. Darth Vader and some stormtroopers wait to get their position assignments.



I'm very happy I watched some of the Clone Wars cartoons the night before, or else I'd have had no idea who Plo Koon was.



I wonder what the little kids thought of this experience. The Tusken Raider scene in the first movie scared the hell out of me when I was seven.



Most of the stormtroopers had electronic amplifiers to make their voices sound like they did in the movies. Even from this distance I could hear this one say to the little kid in the costume, "I like your uniform!"



The zookeepers made Star Wars themed enrichment items, like this R2 unit cap in the Grevy's Zebra yard.



A local bakery made a unique cake, with zoo animals dressed as Star Wars characters.



Darth Gorilla.



The real gorillas got other stuff: Joe here is snacking on the innards of a crashed Tie Fighter.



Jockamo the anteater got cups of chow decorated like a kid's birthday party.



There was a lot of excitement around Boba Fett.



But this guy was the most sought-after.



On facebook I said that these Jawas were haggling over the price of this human youngling, and no one "liked" it.



Welcome to the dark side. As you may have heard, we have cookies.



Here's our head of security learning from the experts.



Can't hurt to make friends in high places.



I think this kid has a better team, honestly.



BLAM our horticulture manager takes one on the chin from a Sandperson!



Just getting over a childhood fear here.



My picture of the day.



Make way for his dark lordship!



This prairie dog was barkingly vigilant against this Imperial Walker.



Say what you want about Imperial Troops, they DO take prisoners.



And some of them are delighted about it!