Wonderings: rambles by way of and reflections on travel… this month, James Kay travels to the parallel universe of the theme park © Joe Davis / Lonely Planet

It’s a particular week for the 177,000-odd folks in England and Wales, and lots of extra round the world, who outline their faith as Jedi: Saturday is Star Wars Day (Might the Fourth, geddit?), the annual grassroots celebration of all issues associated to that galaxy far, distant.

Annually, followers of the franchise don robes, put lightsabers on cost and lift a glass of Bantha-blood fizz to the likes of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo – or, if you bat for the Darkish Aspect, Darth Vader and varied lesser Darths. (Be aware to the Ewok-in-chief: nobody, however nobody, celebrates Jar Jar Binks, George.)

From uber-fans who livestream their reactions on YouTube as they watch trailers for forthcoming films proper right down to closet-dwelling admirers of this wealthy fictional world like me, the inventive juggernaut that first rolled into cinemas again in 1977 exhibits no signal of operating out of highway.

An increasing universe

Identical to the actual one, the Star Wars universe simply retains on increasing, an inflationary cultural phenomenon that has lengthy outgrown its authentic medium, spawning numerous spin-offs – books, video games and sufficient merch to fill the hangar bay of a Star Destroyer (USD$32 billion of it, to be exact).

A couple of weeks in the past, for instance, I invested a chunk of money in a Lego mannequin of Luke’s X-Wing Starfighter (this age-inappropriate toy is now safely stowed in the eaves, however I’m assured that the youngsters will need to lead a Insurgent raid on a half-built, papier mâché Loss of life Star when the time is correct – no, I defo didn’t purchase it for myself).

And later this month, there can be a novel technique to reside this most protean of manufacturers as by no means earlier than: on the final day of Might, Disneyland in California will elevate the veil on the first part of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, a gazillion-dollar extension of the theme park that can, purportedly, transport visitors to the distant planet of Batuu.

As soon as there, they’ll rub shoulders with shifty inter-galactic smugglers, pledge their timeless allegiance to the Resistance or throw their lot in with the dangerous guys; they’ll even have the ability to take management of ‘the quickest hunk of junk in the galaxy’, aka the Millennium Falcon, thus fulfilling the final fantasy of many a middle-aged geek.

Guests to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge can take the controls of the quickest ship in the galaxy, aka the storied Millennium Falcon © Disney Parks

That’s only for starters, too: a second, even shinier part of this mega challenge will open later this yr, as will a separate Star Wars-themed land at Walt Disney World in Florida. Value hikes however, so common are these sights prone to be that Disney has made particular preparations to manage the movement of tourists.

Placing any cynicism apart, there’s a lot to admire about the ambition of all this. Given its storytelling ability and industrial nous, Disney is maybe the excellent custodian of Star Wars; right here was the splendid alternative for its famed imagineers to dream the goals of a billion followers and make them ‘actual’ (word, pedants: there isn’t any technique to calculate the precise variety of followers, however bearing in thoughts that the movies alone have grossed practically USD$10 billion, we are able to safely say there are… a lot).

Ever since Walt Disney opened his first resort in 1955, the firm has pioneered a type of travel expertise like no different. It’s not for everybody, after all – however from what I can see, it’s an expertise in rising demand as theme parks proliferate round the world, maybe supplanting different factors of curiosity, whether or not pure or cultural, on our psychological maps.

Escape and enlightenment?

The massive boys – Disney itself, plus fellow business titans like Merlin and Common, and even lesser lights – are ceaselessly increasing their portfolios of parks, rides and accommodations to cater for that demand, notably in Asia the place an rising center class’s thirst for leisure is the engine of improvement.

Jediism by no means made it as an official faith. However one could make a case that theme parks are quick turning into to the 21st century what the nice icons of non secular structure have been to the 20th: locations of pilgrimage the place we search escape and enlightenment. Okay, maybe that’s not so true of Tyra Banks’ Modelland, however you catch my drift.

In the meantime, in a unusual twist, there’s the curious case of Venice, a place that has grow to be ever extra theme park-like in its wrestle to deal with a relentlessly rising tide of summer season guests. Makes an attempt to put in turnstiles on the Piazzale Roma would possibly have foundered, however the mayor nonetheless plans to introduce a reserving system for vacationers in 2022, forcing guests to order entry to the metropolis in a lot the similar means as they may for, say, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge…