Eight men sporting white hair and glasses lined up in front of onlookers at City Hall Park in Burlington on Saturday to celebrate their resemblance to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“About half a dozen times people have said, ‘Are you Bernie?’ said Art Sherman of Burlington, one of the look-alikes. “A woman stopped her car and shouted out the window, ‘Senator, I love you!’”
The event was the latest in a string of viral celebrity look-alike contests popping up around the world. It started in October, when a look-alike contest for actor Timothée Chalamet drew hundreds of onlookers — and an appearance from Chalamet himself.
Spreading the word through flyers and on social media, fans have since set up their own local look-alike events.
Recent contests have celebrated the likes of singer Harry Styles in London, actor Paul Mescal in London, baseball pitcher Shohei Ohtani in Los Angeles and Strafford musician Noah Kahan at the University of Vermont.
More from NPR: Why celebrity lookalike contests are everywhere now
But Mike Trioli, who organized the Sanders lookalike contest, wanted to do something a little bit different.
“I figure that we should celebrate someone not so much a celebrity in the world at a time like this,” Trioli said. “Burlington, I feel like, needs a good thing, good people, good times. And Bernie’s a unifier in my opinion.”
This isn’t the first time Sanders’ look-alikes have captured the public’s attention. In 2017, the PBS series Finding Your Roots kicked off its fourth season with a big reveal: Sanders is a distant cousin to comedian Larry David, who impersonated the senator on Saturday Night Live.
Sanders did not attend his own lookalike contest on Saturday; instead, he spent the afternoon at a holiday gathering in Bennington.
Trioli encouraged participants to sport a look from any era of Sanders' life, and they delivered. One participant emulated Sanders’ outfit at President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration and held a sign that read “tax the billionaires.” Another shaved his beard for the event.
After introducing the participants to rounds of applause, Miss Vermont 2024 Meara Seery selected the first, second and third place winners. Seery previously worked as a digital producer for Sanders.
John Bronstein of Putney took home the contest’s grand prize: a sandwich bag filled with $17, Sanders’ proposed federal minimum wage.
“So many people come up to me and say, ‘Are you Bernie Sanders?’ Especially people who have poor eyesight,” Bronstein said.
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