By now you’ve seen the many memes and heard the many qualms about Twilight. “Still a better love story than Twilight” is a popular one, as is the weird insistence that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson can’t act (which, c’mon). But, even after a decade of hatred, Twihards are still going strong, embarking annually on a pilgrimage to Forks, WA, the real-life city in which the book is set (though it wasn’t filmed there).
The above “docu-short” is the first in a new series, “Fandom Uncovered,” that dives deep into, you guessed it, different fandoms. Here, it chronicles the Forever Twilight in Forks Festival, which, every September—Bella’s birthday month (even though she doesn’t really possess a lot of Virgo tendencies)—sees the town welcomes hordes of fans intent on celebrating a decade-old franchise. Among them is a woman with an Edward Cullen cardboard cutout, another with a set of fangs (even though Twilight vamps just have strong, regular-looking chompers), and some time-challenged fans who think the Cullens and Bella attend Forks High (spoiler: they do not, they graduated in 2010).
Forks also hires cosplayers to portray the characters for the festival, during which they wander the grounds, Disneyland-style, fully committed to their roles. Yeah, it’s weird, but, thanks to these stans, the town of Forks gained a major new revenue flow to help compensate for its flagging logging industry.
