aoconnell@wiltonvillager.com

WILTON — Three-year-old Michael Arbisi was a little nervous when he came into the Wilton Library on Saturday afternoon and found himself face-to-knee with Darth Vader.

"I was scared at first. I thought he was going to fight me," said Michael, who was at the library with his mother, Mary, for this past week's "Celebrating Star Wars" festival at the library.

"We've got Queen Amidala, Darth Vader, Yoda, a Storm Trooper, Obi-Wan," said children's department assistant Lesley Keogh, ticking off the characters represented by volunteers at the library.

A self-professed "Star Wars geek," Keogh dreamed up the event about a year ago, hoping to draw young boys into the library.

"We needed a boy program," she said.

But last year, Keogh was in the throes of preparing for another festival; the week-long Harry Potter extravaganza, held to celebrate the release of the last book about J.K. Rowling's boy wizard. That event, aptly named Potter-Palooza, culminated in a "Hogwarts banquet" in the Brubeck Room, with library employees, friends and family members playing characters from the books.

The Star Wars festival featured much the same cast, although they were in different roles.

Ryan Fisher, an instructor at Norwalk Karate was cast as the dark lord Voldemort for last year's Harry Potter shindig. On Saturday, he demonstrated the Japanese art of Kendo — one of the martial arts on which lightsaber battles are based — as a Sith warrior. Keogh's son, James, participated in the demonstration as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

According to Fisher, the makers of Star Wars melded several fighting styles to create the lightsaber battles in the movies. Kendo is just one element, said Fisher. Filipino stick fighting, or Kali Sakaram, is also an element.

"They also used some tennis and some fencing, put it all together and made it look good," said Fisher, before attacking his opponent.

The three-day special event began on Thursday and featured all six Star Wars movies, a visit from some of the Storm Troopers who marched with Star Wars creator George Lucas in the Rose Bowl Parade, a light saber exhibition and a chance to beat up everybody's least favorite character, Jar Jar Binks.

Jar Jar — the irritating and good-natured alien sidekick from "The Phantom Menace" — made his brief and exciting appearance as a piñata.

Keogh made the Jar Jar piñata herself. As of Thursday, she said, 20 children had signed up to smack Jar Jar around.

"Everybody who sees it is overcome with the desire to rap him one," said Keogh.