May the Fourth be with you at Coonabarabran this weekend.

Fans of the sci-fi galactic world, and anyone else wanting a great time should head to Coonabarabran this weekend for the Dark Sky Awakens Festival.

The celebration is conveniently scheduled on May 4th, a well known play on words on "May the Force be with you," a common saying among Jedi and believers of the Force in Star Wars.

Vivian Evans, Community Development Coordinator from 2357 Development Group in Coonabarabran said the event was packed with activities for the whole family.

“The Dark Sky Festival has only happened once before in 2022,” Ms Evans said. “We’re so excited that it’s coming back. We really want to connect the community through all these awesome activities.”

Starting on Friday 3 May, the Coonabarabran Bowling Club invites all comers to don sci-fi fancy dress join in for Dark Sky Jack Attack! – great team games of night time bowling.

Also on Friday is part one of the sci-fi movie marathon at Flix in the Stix, featuring Flash Gordon. Other classic movies of the genre which will be shown over the Dark Sky Awakens Festival are 2001: A Space odyssey, ET and Spaceballs.

The official opening of the Capture the Cosmos Astro-photography Exhibition will be opened at the SPACE Gallery on Friday night.

“There’s plenty of space themed things happening over the weekend,” Ms Evans said. “You may want to join the challenge at Coonbarabran High School where they are running a robotics Lego challenge for teams of three on Saturday morning. They've got their own robotics team and mentor help people to create code and build things.”

​There are solar star viewings near the post office with an astronomer coming down from Siding Springs Observatory.

“He is a local astronomer very involved in community and he will be very knowledgeable. The whole community is excited. Even the local nursery is getting into the spirit with a feature of star shaped flowers.”

Ms Evans said he organising committee was keen to put some fun into the festival and draw in science fiction lovers. Even the feature act at the Imperial Hotel on Saturday night – a Van Morrison tribute show called Van the Man was chosen for their famous “Moondance” song.

And a final word of advice for anyone heading to Coona for this weekend’s Dark Sky Festival?

“Come dressed as your favourite sci-fi character for any or all events!”

 Find out more here.