Why New Hope Is the Ultimate Star Wars Day Destination
From “Blue Milk” cocktails to “Baby Yoda” cold brews, the Bucks County town is going full Jedi.
New Hope will be throwing a four-day celebration for Star Wars Day starting this Friday, May 1st.
If you’re looking for somewhere to seriously nerd out this weekend, there is no better place to be than New Hope.
All across the world, May 4th is celebrated as “Star Wars Day,” an unofficial, pun-based commemoration of George Lucas’s movies and the whole universe of media (see what I did there?) that has sprung up around them. The holiday has been celebrated everywhere from Major League Baseball stadiums to low-earth orbit. But there is maybe no other place on this planet more appropriate to celebrate this geekiest of holidays than the borough of New Hope — a place literally named after Star Wars.
Okay, so that’s not strictly true. New Hope got its name sometime in the 1790s. The first Star Wars movie (called, technically, A New Hope) was released in the 1970s. But this coincidence of naming has always been enough for the town to lean way into all the May the Fourth festivities. And this year, they are going all out with a four-day-long celebration, beginning on Friday, May 1st, and including 60 or more local, independent businesses all offering Star Wars-based discounts, drinks, deals, and events.
What does that mean, exactly? Well, according to the official release for this year’s celebration, “[v]isitors can move from one storefront to the next, discovering themed cocktails, specialty menus, retail promotions and interactive moments throughout New Hope. Each business brings its own interpretation, creating an experience that feels organic, creative, and constantly evolving as you explore the town.”
More specifically, we’re talking everything from the “Baby Yoda” vanilla nitro cold brew with vanilla matcha whip at Reed’s Breakfast Bar to 10 percent off Doc Martens if you show up to New Hope’s punk shop, God Save The Qweens, in a Star Wars costume. At The Den, they’ll give you a free New Hope Star Wars t-shirt if you spend $20 or more, and at the House of Jerky, they’re offering five percent discounts on their dried-meat products to anyone in a Star Wars costume.
Nomad Distilling has a whole cocktail menu devoted to $10 Star Wars-themed cocktails all weekend. John & Peter’s Place is serving “Blue Milk” on the cocktail menu (Stoli, lemonade, and blueberry purée); Fran’s Pub has a “Tatooine Sunrise” (El Jimador, OJ, and grenadine); and Greenhouse is doing “Lightsaber Shot Flights,” a Grogu martini, and giving away free “Black Spire Mousse” with any entrée purchase to anyone dressed in costume. Oh, but there’s more: Human Robot is giving away free beer — specifically, pours of their foam-heavy Tmavy 13 “Milk Tubes,” and all you gotta do is say “Milk the Tubes be with you” when you roll up.
But it’s more than just cocktails and jerky. At Sweet Repeat Records, they’re doing a drawing for a Mandalorian Season 2 soundtrack picture disc. The Bucks County Playhouse is doing Star Wars Quizzo. There are themed pizzas at Spatola’s. And perhaps the biggest event of the entire nerd-tastic weekend will be happening on Sunday, May 3rd, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., when troopers from the 501st Legion (Garrison Carida) will show up to parade through town in their full finery. These are the folks that pour their whole hearts into creating fantastically accurate and detailed costumes, and seeing them on the streets of New Hope will be awesome, no doubt.
For all of you out there (like me) who grew up with their heads in a galaxy far, far away, this is your moment. The fun starts on Friday and will run straight through until Monday. And while I (obviously) didn’t have room here to list all the promotions being pushed for this weekend, suffice it to say that pretty much all of New Hope is down for celebrating May the Fourth. So just show up. Walk around. Find your own fun. I don’t think you’re going to have to look too hard.
In any case, from one old-school rebel scum to all the rest of you scoundrels and nerf-herders out there, remember: We have friends everywhere.
And May the Fourth be with you.
