Among the thousands of entertainers, artists, and vendors that fill McCormick Place each spring for the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) only one municipality has a recurring booth each year, and that is the City of Lockport.

Lockport has been participating in Chicago’s largest comic and entertainment convention for the past 12 years as way to promote the “quirky” arts-related programs the city hosts each year.

“We started it to promote the Steampunk Festival we did for a while, which was really popular,” said Mayor Steve Streit, who usually makes a costumed appearance at the convention to man the booth.

“Then the White Oak Library started coming with us to promote Comicopolis, and we’ve had artists from the Gaylord Building come in some years,” he said.

Over the years Streit said the booth has promoted events at the Roxy Theater, the Illinois State Museum and Gallery at the Gaylord Building, the White Oak Library, and the Illuminate Lockport projection shows.

The booth usually features art from the city. In the past Streit noted that the city’s “Steampunk Lincoln” statue has been a fan-favorite fixture of the booth for photo ops.

“This year, we’re sharing the space with Hell’s Gate Haunted House, which is the number one haunted house in Illinois, and we’re bringing our rocket-ship sculpture,” he said.

Streit noted that the booth for this year’s convention featured one of the city’s decorated car benches, which has been created for the downtown to celebrate the upcoming 100th anniversary of Route 66.

The Lockport Council of Arts and multiple local sponsors have commissioned Bauer Designs to create custom-designed fiberglass car benches, which will be displayed in the city’s downtown starting Memorial Day weekend.

The cars commemorate the celebrated road trip route, as well as to promote tourism, public art, and community pride.

Streit said the bench on display at C2E2 from March 27-29 is the first to have been completed.

The C2E2 booth has been a good way to promote information about the city’s programs to people from around the Chicago area who are interested in the arts.

“We take shifts working the booth and we are constantly interacting with people all day long while we’re there,” said Streit. “We have a lot of quirky things we do in Lockport with the arts and this is a fun way to promote them in the region.”