Following the destruction of the Deathstar and the fall of Lord Vader, East Maitland stormtrooper Glen Fredericks began forging his own empire of coffee and social geekery in the Hunter Valley.
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After a trial run in Newcastle was overwhelmed by hordes of cosplayers, sci-fi fans and caffeine addicts, The Empire Coffee Co has turned to Maitland to secure a larger premises capable of hosting the crowds.
“We were only in the Newcastle place for two months but we outgrew it almost instantly,” Mr Fredericks, who sources his beans from Lorn’s River Roast Coffee told the Mercury.
“We started out only catering to the office workers, but I wanted to make it a bit fun, so I brought my toys in and started wearing my [stormtrooper] suit a few days a week and the office guys were loving it,” Mr Fredericks said.
“Then the Star Wars fans began showing up.”
Vaders, Chewbaccas and stormtroopers from the cosplaying charity 501st Legion filled the King Street cafe, mingled with local office workers and spilled onto the pavement.
“It spread like wildfire in just a few weeks and in school holidays we had people turning up in costume,” Mr Fredericks said. “We had Chewbacca come from Sydney and Nuke Gunray from Tamworth as well as a kid dressed as a stormtrooper from Penrith and a guy from Dubbo all dressed up.
“Then the crowd came and it was fantastic, Darth Vader took my sign out onto the road that said ‘Honk if you love Lord Vader’ and it was bedlam.”
But the crowds, Mr Fredericks said, were often disappointed by the lack of seating and space to mingle while they discussed warp drives and disappointing prequels.
“We realised we needed to change something,” he said.
Mr Fredericks said Maitland would be ideal due to its proximity to Newcastle, but also the wider Hunter.
“There’s people who dress up and catch the train down to Supanova or Oz Comic-Con in Sydney whenever they can, but there’s not many chances up here,” he said.
“There’s plenty of people [in Newcastle and the Hunter] who dress up and openly show their love of geeky stuff, but there’s even more who don’t dress up but still love being in a place they can talk about it,” he said.
The Empire Coffee Co is crowd funding for its new premises and wanted to emphasise that the cafe wouldn’t only cater to Star Wars fans.
“It excited us when [the] first customers came marching in wearing costumes,” the admin posted on the Facebook page.
“Some were bought, some handmade, not all Star Wars.
“We had some other movie franchises represented and we loved it all!”
More information can be found on the Facebook page for The Empire Coffee Co and donations can be made to the crowd-funding effort at www.pozible.com/project/199006.
So what is cosplay?
Cosplay, a combination of the words ‘Costume’ and ‘Play’, is a past time in which fans dress up to represent their favourite characters from popular culture.
Usually characters from science fiction, Japanese manga, cartoons, comic books or cult films dominate the lineup.
The two largest events on the Australian cosplay calendar are Supanova and Oz Comic-Con, both of which attract thousands of meticulously costumed role-players to Sydney’s largest convention centres.
The popularity of cosplay has skyrocketed in recent years as the internet fostered and co-ordinated geographically dispersed subcultures and Hollywood turned to films based on comic book characters.
The 501st Legion is an international organisation in which fans cosplay as stormtroopers from the Star Wars franchise and visit hospitals, raise money and improve their communities.
The legion boasts half a million members and followers on Facebook in over 59 countries including a local contingent with almost 3000 fans - the Southern Cross Garrison.
