Would-be Jedis of all ages are encouraged to participate in this weekend’s Underwater Lightsaber Festival and competition, sponsored by Blacktip Island’s Society for Creative Futurism. (photo courtesy of matnkic)
Blacktip Island’s Society for Creative Futurism will sponsor its inaugural Underwater Lightsaber Festival this weekend to draw attention to the small Caribbean island’s need to reuse and recycle household goods instead of sending them to the island’s overfull dump.
“Some of us have been making lightsabers for a while,” SCF president Catalina Luxfer said. “Building the hilt and focusing the plasma blade is pretty straightforward. The challenge is to create the saber solely with items found in the island’s dump. It’s our way of graphically demonstrating just how much reusable debris is simply tossed aside.
“On a small island like this, with limited landfill space, we can’t afford not to reuse, repurpose and recycle,” Luxfer said. “We added the requirement for the swords to function underwater to draw even more attention to the problem. Physics-wise, it’s not much of a jump, but it’s damned impressive. And the fish seem to love it, especially the hamlets.”
Other SCF members noted the festival’s strict format.
“Participants will have all day Friday to gather parts at the landfill,” Payne Hanover said. “Then they’ll have all day Saturday to construct their weapons at the Heritage House, where spectators and judges can watch the assembly. On Sunday we’ll all deploy to the sand flats off Didley’s Landing for the combat demonstrations.
“We’re stressing safety at every step of the process,” Hanover said. “It’s easy to get cut up digging through the dump, and during the assembly process we’ll require builders to always point the plasma-blade generator in a safe direction. A couple of weeks ago Booger Bottoms put an eye out when he first powered up his blade.”
Organizers said sabers will be judged on ingenuity, originality and effectiveness.
“It’s more of a celebration than a contest, a symposium, if you will, on this technology,”
Val Schrader said. “But we’re all fairly competitive, so there have to be prizes of some sort. Single- and multi-blade swords will be allowed. The most interesting part, I think, will be seeing the variety of lightsabers produced by essentially like-minded people.
“The sabers will be judged by local Jedi,” Schrader said. “Well, members of the island’s Jedi Church, anyway. But it’s pretty much the same thing.”
To encourage attendance, all phases of the event will be free and open to the public.
“We want as many people as possible involved with recycling and conservation, but we’re also looking for new SCF members of all ages,” Luxfer said. “We’re especially hopeful we’ll attract some younger would-be Jedi and Sith padawans so we can pass this knowledge on to future generations.”
The Blacktip Times 