It was a typical night in Phoenixville, PA, just a few miles outside of Philadelphia. People, laughter and cigarette smoke filled the local theater showing a horror movie, the most popular attraction in town.

Unbeknownst to the citizens, a gelatinous being lurked. It slid through the slits of a vent into the theater’s operator room, silently approaching an innocent projectionist.

The monster rose up and engulfed the man, whose screams were drowned out by the audience’s laughter. The cranberry-colored Blob ballooned into the theater itself, attacking the crowd from above.

Police rushed over to the Colonial Theater when they saw the mob of slick comb-overs and bobs running away screaming. Thrusting through the stream of petrified moviegoers, an officer entered the theater and left a changed man.

“It’s the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

The same Colonial Theater that was victim to the Blob is home to Blobfest, an annual celebration of the 1958 movie The Blob. The festival was hosted in Phoenixville, where much of the film was shot, on July 12-14.

The three-day event included costume competitions, movie screenings where attendees replicated the iconic scene by running out of the theater, and a street fair.

Local artists, brewers and vendors lined downtown Phoenixville selling sci-fi and Blob-themed merchandise and products.

The official merchandise tent stationed outside the Colonial Theater was selling pins, stickers, shirts and posters with varying Blob designs. Rob, a volunteer, said the shirts and posters designed by illustrator Tom Whalen were the bestsellers.

“The Blobfest shirts sold out,” he said. Official 2024 Blobfest T-shirts and screen-printed posters sold for $25; digitally printed posters sold for $10.

The official Blobfest T-shirt was a hot seller at the Phoenixville festival.

Whalen, who goes by the online pseudonym strongstuff, is somewhat of a local celebrity. He said he got his start making movie posters for the Colonial Theater around 15 years ago and has made a career out of it.

Attendees took the shirts and posters with his design across the street for autographs, where Whalen was stationed selling his other posters.

Local artist Tom Whalen designed the official Blobfest T-shirt and posters.

“The director of the theater contacted me to do the 25^th Blobfest branding. He wanted a design that encompasses the fun of The Blob movie,” Whalen said. “I’m thrilled with the way it turned out, and everyone seems to be responding really well to it.”

In Whalen’s words, the logo depicts the Blob coming out of a meteor creating a “25” with the Colonial Theater circumducted by UFOs in space.

Pennsylvania-based Sly Fox Brewing Company was selling its tribute Blobfest Red IPA at the festival. Many attendees walked around with the colorful cans depicting the Blob engulfing a hop above the Colonial Theater, with “Blobfest” in large yellow lettering across the red monster. Like the shirts, Sly Fox sold out of the product.

Pennsylvania-based Sly Fox Brewing Company offered a Red IPA as tribute to Blobfest.

The beer is a “crimson sea of flavors” with bold hops and notes of caramel malts, according to the Sly Fox website: “Just like the film’s namesake, this beer is indestructible, indescribable and truly unstoppable.”

Though it was a steamy midsummer weekend, Blobfest drew a large crowd, brought business to many local shops and vendors, and it carried on a unique, beloved local tradition, attendees said.

“We’re celebrating one of the coolest horror movies ever,” Rob the volunteer said, “and we’re celebrating Phoenixville.”