Photo provided by the Normal Theater
NORMAL, Ill. – The Normal Town Theater is partnering with Keg Grove Brewing Company to unite the community through film. “Out of Your Element: The Big Lebowski Festival” will be on April 20 and open to the public to purchase tickets.
The street festival portion will begin at 5 p.m. and guests can listen to live music, enjoy food trucks, play games and participate in a costume contest. “The Big Lebowski” film will be screened at 7 p.m. at the Normal Theater.
The Normal Theater Manager Benjamin Young says partnering with Keg Grove has been fantastic.
“We’ve been batting back and forth on the idea of doing an event together for a couple of years now,” Young said.
The pairing was perfect because both are huge fans of the film. Keg Grove Brewery has several kettles named after its characters.
“When they approached us in 2022, they mentioned an idea for doing a Lebowski festival,” he said. Young goes on to say that the match “couldn’t be passed up.”
The duo had planned to bring the event to life last year but, unfortunately, could not obtain exclusive rights to the film.
“We’re very excited about this event finally coming to fruition,” Young said.
Keg Grove Brewery will be bringing two exclusive beers to the theater. One is a White Russian, which is their take on the beverage but as an ale. The other special release is Devil’s Lettuce, a heavily terpene-infused West Coast India Pale Ale (IPA). The beers aim to remind testers of concepts or beverages in the movie.
“We both share a love for ‘The Big Lebowski’, and what better way than a community event to spotlight that,” said Jeff Knauff of Keg Grove Brewery.
“At the previous owner’s home brewing, we would watch the movie and order the same food,” he said. “If the beer turned out well, we would continue to order the same food and beer and watch the movie every time.”
The movie became a classic for Knauff and he has watched it over 50 times.