Some People Say TV Brings Us Together
(We’re Those People)

The Fan Fest Society began as an unintentional community we didn’t know how much we needed until we realized we couldn’t live without it, it sounds trite but it’s the truth. The realization that you can create sincere bonds, unlikely friendships, pipe dream communities and new understandings about the world that resolve from common threads over fictional characters, settings and storylines is something we could talk your ear off about.

The idea emerged from the thriving community that rallied behind the creators of the former “Gilmore Girls Fan Fest”. Gilmore Girls was simply the reason people began gathering in 2016, but it wasn’t the only thing everyone treasured from the event. The community was real, Stars Hollow didn’t exist but our parallel universe actually did. People were more than just characters, they became friends. Well-written story lines were fun to explore. Talking about TV provided joy. And we decided to live the mantra, “if it brings you joy, you keep it”.

Hence, The Fan Fest Society.

Now we’re here, Jennie & Marcus Whitaker, just two fans of TV fandoms making sense of the facets of a festival creating community around the world.

Once we fully understood what we all valued most from events, we realized there was an opportunity to create the nostalgia of other TV shows. After a year unlike any other (we’re talk to you 2020) we saw people come together from far corners of the Earth to support one another over social media and Zoom, but also through snail mail, actual phone calls where you pick up the phone and say “hello” and in the plans they made to see one another without finalizing any dates.

Connections through fandoms are strengthened by meeting in person. “Fan fest friends” have proved to be some of the most important relationships in our lives and we know that to be true for so many others. When the world was effectively shut down for a global pandemic, we connected virtually without skipping a beat. It was simple, because that’s how we talked to one another in between events. Something about bonding over the fictional stories you love makes you closer.

Over the course of a few months we decided to immortalize the idea of “fan fest societies”, where people from different fandoms could come together over common interests to support one another, celebrate the cast & crew of the shows they love and better understand their differences because of their shared interests.

The seismic shift, better known as the hiatus of 2020, that forced us to dig deeper, provided a chance to redefine things. So here we are, introducing an idea that we hope fosters intentional communities from unintended sources.

It may take us a beat to get there, but we hope to launch a 2nd fandom community and festival soon—and running the original one for as long as you show up!