RED BANK: FEST GIVES COMIC/GEEK CULTURE A MOMENT IN THE SUN

Presently, multiple art galleries pepper the streets of the town, music academies flourish, and young ambitious creatives flock to the town with the goal of putting pencil to paper and creating something transcendental. 

But it’d be a mistake to imply the town holds only these lofty institutions, hubs of high-culture, and prestigious ambitions in high-regard.

After all, Red Bank has long represented an intersection between high and popular culture, and right beside the esteemed count on the Red Bank Mount Rushmore would be, of course, filmmaker Kevin Smith (and he’d likely good-naturedly instruct the sculptors to include his iconic backwards baseball hat in the recreation.)

No magical intercession was required to sweep the cosplay contest, but some may be needed to escape the wrath of the onlooking Patrick Bateman.

Smith, the mastermind of the “View Askewniverse,” the hyperlocal multimedia canon that has been going strong since 1994, has long been regarded as an inspiration to those who feel a little bit out of step with the norm and who like that about themselves.

There was a time, if the legends are to be believed, where it wasn’t quite so hip to be square – when “nerd” and “geek” remained semi-hurtful insults to be endured rather than pithy monikers one self-appoints on dating apps, when the mention of Dungeons and Dragons invoked remnants of Satanic Panic era suspicion and fear and/or mild disdain rather than a request to join one’s party. When one’s “Stash” of comics/manga/what have you, had to remain “Secret,” for fear of being made fun of/considered juvenile. 

In this time, Kevin Smith’s works represented an offbeat and raucous haven, and a refreshing alternative to the norm. With them he offered up a glimpse into a snarky, irreverent, gross and fantastically fun world where pop culture references, no matter how esoteric, largely made up the shared vocabulary of all of its characters.

Smith, it turns out, was writing with an impressive degree of prescience, because the world just described (a world which spotlights Monmouth County, in fact) matches quite closely with what I experienced at the first (I suspect of many!) Red Bank Pop Culture Festival.

The event, which ran Saturday on Broad Street, was organized by Red Bank RiverCenter and Smith’s shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. 

Not Pictured: Specialty Bat Parking Meter

It was a lively collage of contests (Two very competitive cosplay contests, and a Pokemon Go event at which I participated and lost very badly in) games (many a ping-pong ball was inadvertently catapulted into the unsuspecting crowds) vendors, music (courtesy of the extremely fun DJ Khali, who was unafraid to break out the Star Wars disco remix first thing) and art.

The presence of vendors, artist booths, and especially cosplayers made the event feel similar to a convention, but the outdoor setting and the gorgeous late summer weather made it much more enjoyable than a stuffy convention hall. 

If you’d prefer to stay out of the sun and just watch cartoons on your Saturday, though? That’s very relatable, and also was a possibility during Pop the Culture Festival.

Some (emphatically non-Satanic) tabletop games set up by the lovely folks at Shore Gamers

The Count Basie Center Cinemas (another beloved Red Bank institution at which high and pop culture intersect) played classic serials for the duration of the event, and boasted free admission.

Children adorned bright red capes supplied by the RiverCenter, flocked to Yestercades’ booth in delight upon seeing the appealing stack of games on the table.

Their parents (many of whom also were sporting those same red capes) proudly in tow, looked on with cheerful nostalgia at the familiar CRT TV and the vintage games that had likely offered them the very same delight in their own childhoods.

To me, this really beautifully summed up the event; a cross-generational celebration of the pop culture we all love; of the language it permits us all to communicate with, and its time travel capabilities.

You just can’t see the Batmobile in person without turning back into a little kid for at least a second. One gets the sense that the RiverCenter and Secret Stash staff all understand that feeling, and planned the Pop Culture Fest with it very much in mind.