Everything You Need to Know About the Gilmore Girls’ Firelight Event in CT
Who knew that Gilmore Girls had such a devoted (and ever-growing) following? Between the recent sequel mini-series and it being one of the most re-watched TV shows on television, it looks like this heartwarming, well-written family series about a mother and daughter in the fictional CT town of Stars Hollow is set to become one of those few classic series that surpasses all its contemporaries in long-term viewership. Judging by the amount of teenagers who voluntarily showed up to the annual Gilmore Girls festival in Guilford, CT, it’s even become an intergenerational family affair.
As things were wrapping up this weekend at the hit fan fest devoted to the show (called the Firelight Event), I sat down for a bit with the organizer and founder of the event, Jennie Whitaker, to talk about the origins of this gathering, surrounded by as many Gilmore Girls fans as multi-colored Connecticut trees in peak fall glory. There were hundreds of (mostly) women in town to celebrate and connect (as well as some husbands who came along for support and as line stand-ins). Also, this dog, Paul Anka, named after the singer as well as Lorelai’s dog in later seasons.
Photo by Zhanna Slor
Photo by Zhanna Slor
So how did this all start?
Jennie Whitaker: The festival was just kind of a dream I had driving from New York City to Maine. I got stuck in traffic on a rainy day in Hartford, and I looked over at my husband and I said, “Hey, Gilmore Girls started near Hartford. There’s a town that they loosely based it on. The creator [Amy Sherman-Palladino] stopped and stayed at [Mayflower] Inn, in Washington Depot. It’s not too far from here. Let’s go sometime.” When I got back to Austin, I said, “Wouldn’t it be fun if they held some type of event there? And just gathered fans together?” This was before the Netflix revival in 2016. I was just kind of talking to him out loud and the next thing I knew, I just had this wild idea that I’m going to email the town selectmen in the town of Washington Depot.
Mark Lyon was the selectman. He’s unfortunately passed this since then, but he was like, “People have come into this town forever asking me if I was Taylor [Doose]. People stop in the bookstore. People stop in the marketplace. People stop in all the time. We get visitors frequently [because of the show].” He said no one’s ever approached them about an event. I said, “What if we put something together?”
Michael Winters and Sean Gunn in ‘Spring’ (Season 1, Episode 2, aired November 25, 2016). Saeed Adyani/Netflix/courtesy Everett Collection
My husband and I run a communications PR marketing agency in Austin, Texas. And I said, well, I think we could probably do that. I can get a hold of some of the cast and we could gather up some events and I think it could be a really good time. So over the period of eight weeks, we launched the event. I thought it was a one-time event.
How many people came to the first one?
We had 1,200 people buy tickets within the first 10 hours of launching, and we sold it out on day one. There were 1,750 the next year, but we had moved it to Kent, Connecticut. We did two events in Maine based on the line of Luke saying that he was going to take April on a fishing trip. And then I was looking for a town last fall that kind of resembled Stars Hollow had this big green area with shops around it where people could gather in a barn, like a rural town hall meeting. And this town kind of popped up on the map.
Guilford definitely feels like Stars Hollow. I’ve been wandering around town a lot and the town is so cute and everyone seems to be really happy about having the convention here. And, also, they’re all secretly Gilmore Girls fans. A couple people in Town Hall told me they looked into buying tickets even.
Yeah, the tickets were sold out.
Yeah, that’s what they told me! It seems like they want you back, too. Will you come back here next year?
We like to hear from the cast, and from the attendees. This is a fan event. It’s made for fans, it’s by fans. We are just a fan organization. And so it’s kind of not even up to me. I just kind of follow what the group thinks.
Photo by Zhanna Slor
So how did you get into Gilmore Girls?
I didn’t really watch TV as a kid, and I’m not someone that watches a ton of TV as a grownup. But I caught the reruns one year and I was like, “This is the best writing I’ve ever seen on TV.” The writing hooked me from the very beginning. I had the news on and it came on mid-afternoon, it was a rerun, in 2008 or 2009. I was like, holy smokes, this is fun. I realized then we were in season five and I was like, “Oh, there’s three more seasons. So I hit season seven and then I watched one through four.”
I loved watching it that way because I feel like I got to see it quickly. Most people had to wait seven years to watch the show.
Oh yeah, I watched it when it was originally airing. Rory was a little bit ahead of me in school, but we were close to the same age, so I felt quite a close connection to her, because I was also a huge bookworm and a writer.
Yes. I was way more of a Rory. I was a reader. I’ve always been a reader. I read about 50, 60 books a year. I love to read. My nose is always in a book. Alexis [Bledel] also grew up in the same town as me. I used to relate to Rory and now I probably [relate] more [to] Emily Gilmore. I have two 10-year-olds and a 13-year-old. I want my family to be a unit and it upsets me when it doesn’t operate that way.
I totally understand. Now I feel more like Lorelei because I have a daughter and I’m older. So now when I’m watching Rory, the age gap is so wide. I can’t even relate to these teenage problems.
Yeah, it sounds more dramatic than I remember.
Photo by Zhanna Slor
If you want to check out the next Gilmore Girls fan convention, there is a cruise in January, which will feature a visit from Emily Kuroda, who plays Mrs. Kim, among other soon-to-be announced guests! Get your tickets soon before they sell out.