Jeff Lebowski, a.k.a. The Dude played by Jeff Bridges (left), and his bowling buddy Walter played by John Goodman star in "The Big Lebowski." Credit: Merrick Morton

By of the

Milwaukee loves a party. Milwaukee loves bowling. And Lebowski Fest celebrates both.

So why did it take so long for Lebowski Fest to come to the city of festivals?

"We've gotten some emails from folks in Milwaukee telling us we needed to come down there," said Scott Shuffitt, the festival's co-founder. But "we didn't know how big a following there was."

They will have their answer when the festival comes to various venues around the city Friday through Sunday.

"Lebowski Fest has come to Mecca," said Matt Beringer, assistant director of The Pabst Theater, whose persistence helped bring the festival here. The festival is being presented by the Pabst and the East Town Association.

The public is invited to an outdoor screening of "The Big Lebowski," the film that started it all, Friday in Cathedral Square Park at E. Kilbourn Ave. and N. Jefferson St. Gates open at 5 p.m., a Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band called Blue Moon Swamp plays at 7:20 p.m. - CCR songs are featured in the film - and the movie starts at 9:10 p.m.

The screening is free and open to the public, but the 500 VIP seats, which include cocktail service, are already sold out.

No carry-in alcohol is allowed, but vendors will sell beer and White Russians - the drink of choice for the character of Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, played in the film by Jeff Bridges. Food trucks also will be in the area.

Beringer said 5,000 people are expected to attend.

The Pabst group has held outdoor screenings of the film at Fish Fry & A Flick at Discovery World, "but this one will be bigger," Beringer said. "People will be traveling here from all over the country."

Another 700 people will attend the bowling party and trivia and costume contest Saturday at the AMF Lanes, 7505 W. Oklahoma Ave. in West Allis. That event also is sold out.

Other free events that are open to the public include a "liquid lunch" at noon Friday at the Pabst Theater, 144 E. Wells St., where different bands will cover songs from the film's soundtrack; and an after-party following Friday's screening at Bad Genie, 789 N. Jefferson St., where Radio Milwaukee (a.k.a. WYMS-FM, 88.9) announcer Tarik the Architect will spin songs inspired by the film.

On Sunday, Lowlands Group Grand Cafe restaurants - Cafe Centraal, Cafe Trocadero and Cafe Benelux - will feature a Lebowski-themed "hangover brunch" menu. The complete schedule can be found at pabsttheater-emails.s3.amazonaws.com/other/lebowskifest/lewbowski-fest-itinerary.pdf .

Shuffitt and Will Russell came up with the idea for Lebowski Fest in 2002, while selling T-shirts at a tattoo convention.

"It was painfully boring," said Shuffitt. "So we started going through lines from the film, and people around us started joining in and the light bulb went off."

In the 1998 cult film by Joel and Ethan Coen, Bridges plays a laid-back character whose passion is bowling, whose favorite drink is a White Russian - a cream and vodka concoction - and who, after his living room rug is ruined, gets caught up in a convoluted kidnapping and ransom plot.

In my original review I called the film "the 'Easy Rider' of kegling." The film's appeal is hard to pin down, and is probably different for everyone.

"The easiest thing to point to is that the Coen brothers write really great films," said Shuffitt.

And, he said, "Lebowski" "is visually appealing."

The film did not do well at the box office in its initial release, "which is the first hurdle" in achieving cult status, said Shuffitt.

"I don't know anyone who saw it in the theater," said Beringer. Shuffitt said he first saw it on VHS.

Ethan de Seife, assistant professor of film studies at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., who wrote a book about "This Is Spinal Tap," said films that find a cult audience are "usually subversive." But they also can be mainstream and "speak to a specific subsection of the audience" that sees it in "an unconventional way."

De Seife, who attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Lebowski "is a very rich film" and "the plot is really quite intricate. You can see it in a lot of different ways."

Beringer called it "one of the most quotable movies of all time." Lines such as "This aggression will not stand, man" and "That rug really tied the room together" are among the few printable ones.

Shuffitt and Russell tour with the event. There will be Lebowski Fests in Louisville, Ky., where it originated, in July and in Seattle in August.

Beringer, who has a Dude bobblehead on his desk and has attended a Lebowski Fest in Louisville, pointed out that the appeal of a "Star Trek" convention "is about being around other 'Star Trek' fans.

"I very much think Lebowski Fest is the same thing. People want to walk around, drink White Russians and quote the movie."

Milwaukee "has a good temperament for this," Beringer said.

And, hopefully, this will be "just the first annual" of many visits here.

***

QUIZ

Joel and Ethan Coen's 1998 film "The Big Lebowski" is beloved by fans who revel in its dialogue and detail. Even casual fans can probably answer the trivia questions based on the film below.

1. What band does The Dude (Jeff Bridges) hate?

2. Who is the character of The Dude based upon?

3. What's the difference between a Caucasian and White Russian?

4. Where were the bowling alley scenes filmed?

5. When will Walter (John Goodman) not bowl and why not?

6. Who plays the Stranger and what does he drink at the end of the film?

ANSWERS

1. The Eagles.

2. Producer-promoter Jeff Dowd, who helped the Coens market their first film, "Blood Simple."

3. A Caucasian uses Cremora; a White Russian uses dairy.

4. Hollywood Star Lanes in Los Angeles. The site is now a high school.

5. Walter says he doesn't roll on Shabbos. His ex-wife is Jewish.

6. Sam Elliott; Sioux City Sarsaparilla

Email: ddudek@journalsentinel.com

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Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story said incorrectly that the Dude's rug was stolen; it was, well, ruined. Also, the earlier version incorrectly listed Matt Beringer's title as assistant director of the Pabst Theater Foundation; he's assistant director of the Pabst Theater.