Canadian Forces Snowbirds celebrate Star Wars day

May 4 is the annual day fans of Star Wars look forward to so they can celebrate everything about the franchise, alongside legions of fans from around the world.

It turns out members of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds team include themselves in that group.

“We have a lot of Star Wars fans on the team. Some of the pictures we posted this morning, all of the elements are from one guy that collects Star Wars elements and props,” says the team’s public affairs officer Capt. Gabriel Ferris

The team marked the day by posting photos of Darth Vader “interacting” with crewmembers and even climbing into one of the cockpits of the iconic aircraft.

Ferris says he, like other team members, related to the famous movies at an early age.

“Not just the pilots but the techs as well actually. I think our biggest nerds are from the tech side and it’s cool because the Snowbirds fan base like Star Wars as well,” Ferris says.

The Empire Donuts shop in Victoria marked the day by creating a handful of treats paying homage to the movies, naming the treats the Dark Side, Storm Trooper, Wookie and Galaxy Far Away.

“I’m a huge fan of Star Wars, grew up watching the Empire and everybody’s really excited about the shapes and the doughnuts together,” says employee Amy Kwiatkowski.

Meanwhile in a gallery far, far away, northwest coast artist Andy Everson can be forgiven if he gets distracted in his Comox office.

His office is filled with full-sized, wearable costumes he says are one-to-one scale "screen accurate" replicas.

“I have pieces from the UK, all throughout the states and different parts of Europe,” Everson says.

The Indigenous artist says he was around five or six years old when the original movie premiered and he and his friends began collecting memorabilia.

“What’s interesting about becoming an adult is you tend to have a little more money than you did as a kid, so instead of the little toys I get to get the big toys,” Everson says.

As a member of the 501st Legion, Everson takes part in charity work where the costumes are worn.

He also incorporates Star Wars images into artwork he creates on prints and wearable merchandise that he sells around the world, marketed at a discount on May 4.

“This is a special holiday for us nerds," he says. "Since there’s so many things coming out with Star Wars, the interest levels are always there. What’s interesting about the Star Wars franchise is that it hits every generation, there’s people my age and even older that were into Star Wars in the '70s and then they introduced it to their kids in the late '90s and early 2000s when the prequels came out.