Record crowd expected at Trek Fest

     Riverside residents are just days away from celebrating the 26th annual Trek Fest. Per custom, the event is held the last Friday and Saturday in June, which is this coming weekend. This year?s theme is ?Mirror Mirror,? named after an episode in the second season of the original Star Trek series.

    Carol Riggan is the president of the Riverside Area Community Club, which is in charge of organizing the events for Trek Fest. She said there are a number of new events for the 2010 Trek Fest, including an effort to break a Guinness World Record. Riverside will attempt to assemble the largest number of people dressed as Star Trek characters in recorded history.

    The current record recognized by Guinness is 99, which was set in London earlier this year. Riggan said that there were 500 people dressed up at a Star Trek event in Bonn, Germany, but that figure has not yet been confirmed by Guinness. She said she expects Trek Fest to attract 500 or possibly even 1,000 fans willing to don the futuristic spacesuit. Participating fans should bring a photo ID and prepare for the group photograph, which will be taken at the tennis courts. The event is scheduled to begin at Hall Park on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Trek Fest will begin Friday evening at 5 p.m. with carnival rides, food booths, a beer garden and a mechanical bull in Hall Park. The mechanical bull is new this year, and Riggan expects it to be a hit with skilled riders as well as novices. Riggan said the mechanical bull has a knob to control how fast it moves, and it will be surrounded by a bouncy trampoline surface so that youngsters can ride it without getting hurt.

The signature parade begins Saturday morning at 10 a.m. The parade goes down Main Street and starts on the west side of town and moves east.

?We will have an outstanding parade,? said Riggan. ?It?s not just a Star Trek parade. There will be local fire departments, marching bands, old cars, tractors, horses and even a tame bull. We also allow people in the parade to throw candy.?

For more, see our June 23 print edition.