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38th TrekFest draws fans from far and wide
RIVERSIDE — Sci Fi enthusiasts dressed as Starfleet officers, Bajorans and futuristic baseball players gathered in Riverside Friday and Saturday for the 38th iteration of TrekFest.
While a slowly approaching storm front had some attendees worried, TrekFest 38 Chair Travis Riggan said few were deterred from the annual town festival in the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk.
“The park has been really full for both days,” he said. “We have a lot of activities for kids, we have the food trucks, we have the vendors. We have a lot of really, really good stuff that’s bringing people to the park.”
Dressed as a member of in-universe baseball team “The Niners,” Pam McLaughlin traveled to Riverside from the Chicago area. She said she’d been attending the Star Trek themed gatherings for years.
“It’s fun, it’s relaxing,” she said. “You’ve got a lot of people running around who share your same hobby, which is nice.”
Making the much shorter drive from Iowa City, Shawn Williams and Gail Scullin said it was their first time at the annual event. Williams said they had been excited about the idea since moving to Iowa City, but were held back from attending by COVID-19 in previous years.
“I’m excited,” he said. “We just got here and started walking around.”
Chris Neuendorf, was back in Riverside for his second year, winning the Starfleet category of the costume contest with friends Brian Gorman and Ardell Ochsner.
“We had decided at the last minute, because it was storming last year, that we’d do it anyways,” Neuendorf said. “So we came out here, we had a blast, and we said, ‘Well, next year we’ve got to go in costume.’”
Over the course of Friday and Saturday, eventgoers flocked to the Kirk birthplace marker for photos, Hall Park for a steady stream of live entertainment, and eventually, the packed Riverside Fire Station for a question-and-answer session with this year’s celebrity guest stars.
Lolita Fatjo, a production coordinator and associate for several Star Trek series and the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact, said it was good to see the camaraderie on display over the weekend.
“Normally we do a standard convention, and this is definitely not a convention,” she said. “It’s a festival, so it’s a lot of fun, and I’d love to come back again.”
Headliner guest Chase Masterson was the actor who played Leeta, a popular recurring character on the Deep Space Nine series. She said she was proud to represent the franchise’s underlying principles.
“I love that Riverside has so much Trek spirit, and that these people hold true to the values that Gene Roddenberry laid down, in infinite diversity and infinite combinations,” she said. “They understand that Roddenberry wanted to create a world where we could all live long and prosper, where people of color and people of every gender and people of all beliefs and parts of society are equally welcome.”
Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com
