Superman Celebration

Festival Location: Metropolis, IL, USA

Festival State: Illinois Festivals

Festival Type(s): Fan Coventions, Local Festivals, Bizarre Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's just a pitiful little town looking to make a buck off their name. While Metropolis, IL, literally has nothing to do with Superman, they bank on their namesake for some serious revenue. And why not, they are the only Metropolis listed in the United States Postal Code Directory. But the super hero road hasn't been so easy.

In the early 70s, the years before the Superman movies made the caped crusader big business, Metropolis was declared the Hometown of Superman by the Illinois House. The local Superman Association got to work raising funds to erect the Amazing World of Superman, the only Superman museum in America. And they did, but after a couple of years, the museum went bankrupt and all of the Superman paraphernalia they had acquired was auctioned to the public and scattered across America. But 1979 brought new hope. When the first Superman movie was released, the town was inundated with telephone calls. "Umm...can you tell me Superman's address?"

Eager to put their name back on the map, the Superman Celebration, held every June, was born and a 15-foot bronze statue of Superman was erected in the center of town. So what will you see here? Expect to get a glimpse of about anything you can possibly imagine having to do with America's most well known super hero. Also on hand every year are Superman comic book artists, plus actors who either on TV or in films have played Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen or the Man of Steel himself.