Twin Peaks superfan Lindsey Bowden has founded the UK’s only official festival and recreated surreal locations from the fictional town in Hornsey Town Hall
Cherry pie and doughnuts will be on the menu as the surreal, offbeat world of Twin Peaks comes to Hornsey Town Hall.
Stars of David Lynch’s cult 1990s series including Sherilyn Fenn, (Audrey Horne) James Marshall (James Hurley) and Michael Horse (Deputy Hawk) will appear at the annual Twin Peaks Festival which will see locations such as the Great Northern Hotel, Black Lodge, and The Roadhouse recreated in the art deco building.
Series superfan Lindsey Bowden has programmed the “biggest festival yet” across the weekend of October 7-8 including film screenings, a costume parade, live music and cabaret performances.
Founder of the festival which is officially backed by Lynch and TV company CBS, she said there was increased interest with this year’s revival of the series 25 years on.
The ex Roundhouse manager who works in theatre and film production, said: “I was 14 when it came out so I’m one of the oldies who watched it first time around and loved it from beginning to end.
“I became fascinated by this world that David Lynch created as almost a safe place to be if I was having trouble at school. It stayed with me and influenced how I grew as a writer.
“I never thought it would come back but with the new season a new generation of fans are coming to the series and this year the festival is on another level.”
Combining camp, melodrama, mystery and supernatural, the series focused on pie and coffee loving FBI Agent Dale Cooper probing the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer in the fictional Washington state town.
To mark the 20th anniversary in 2010, Bowden built up contacts with original actors and ran a small event: “It went crazy, people wanted to come again and in the last few years it has taken off and doubled in size.”
She says the Crouch End venue is “a wonderful building, a blank canvas where we can create a mix that’s part film night, part performance, part Comic Con and part immersive theatre.”
This year, Art Macabre will run death drawing classes in Black Lodge, fans can step inside the glass box from the new season to get an Instagram shot, eat their complimentary doughnuts and cherry pie in the picnic area, hear music in The Roadhouse, take a jitterbug class and see the murder of Laura Palmer “tastefully recreated by torchlight in pitch black” in a train car.
Screenings of Lynche’s The Elephant Man and biodoc The Art Life are also on the schedule.
Sean Bolger and Amy Shiels from the new series as well as “David Lynch’s right hand woman” Executive producer Sabrina Sutherland will reveal the secrets of making the series.
“Fans always come dressed up,” says Bowden. “I’m the only one not dressed up as I am rushing around too much, but we’ve had some legendary costumes; people wrapped in plastic or dressed as Woodsmen, one came with a doorknob around her head and another as a ceiling fan.”
Bowden says Lynch and co-writer Mark Frost’s unique vision has inspired people all over the world.
“In the early 90s there was nothing like it on TV, they dared to go to places other writers didn’t and had the biggest cliffhanger in TV history with people still wondering what happened 25 years later. It inspired or influenced series like Lost, True Detective and Breaking Bad.”
Bowden who has written a Twin Peaks inspired cookery book; Darn Fine Cherry Pie, puts its popularity down to the writers: “Creating that complete world is something very special it’s comedy drama nightmare horror magical – every character is a main character you care about and invest in.”
Tickets are limited to just 500 or else “you lose the magic”.
“It’s not money making it’s for the fans and we’re lucky it’s been allowed to blossom.”
Tickets £65-£325
Hornsey Town Hall Crouch End twinpeaksukfest.com
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