Fans pay tribute to 'The Dude'

Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 10:45 AM Central

by John Couture

Star Wars has their thing. The Trekkies hold conventions every weekend. And now, The Dude has his annual meeting of slackers.

This past weekend, over 900 fans of The Big Lebowski descended upon Louisville, Kentucky for the 2nd Annual Lebowski Fest. More specifically, they gathered at the AMF Rose Bowl bowling alley to partake in a few frames of The Dude's favorite past time and to talk about the movie.

In The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges plays Jeff 'The Dude' Lebowski who is mistaken for billionaire Jeffrey Lebowski and unwittingly gets caught up in a kidnapping scheme. The film has enjoyed a cult following on home video after failing to live up to the box office expectations of filmmakers Joel and Ethan Cohen.

In addition to dressing up as their favorite characters from the film, attendees drank White Russians (The Dude's drink of choice), screened a midnight showing of the film, bid on autographed pictures of Bridges on the set of the film and hung out with Jeff Dowd, the Coens original inspiration for the character of The Dude.

A documentary crew filmed the proceedings and organizers hope that the event continues to grow each year. For more information about the event, please visit the official website.