Lebowski Fest

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Lebowski Fest 2nd Annual Poster

Lebowski Fest is an annual festival begun in 2002 in Louisville, Kentucky that celebrates the cult film The Big Lebowski. The Festival's main event each year is a night of unlimited bowling with various contests including Costume, Trivia, and Farthest Travelled contests. Leading up to the main event are concerts and a screening of the film. Various celebrities from the film have even attended some of the events.

The Festival in its third year branched off the Lebowski Fest West, held earlier in the year nearer to the West Coast. A branch has also been held in New York City. In May 2006, an event is scheduled for Austin, Texas.

While another Coen Brothers movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" had a huge impact on the popularity of old-time country music, this movie, via oddball events like Lebowski Fest, has had a similar effect among fans of slightly left-of-center lifestyles and promises to have its own cultural legacy. Because the movie itself generated a following and a lexicon of quotables that are broadly recognized, the Festival has become a cultural happening, recognized across the country in the same way that various summer concert festivals have become part of our common cultural heritage.