"I've got the keys to the airport," Seybold told a group at Main Street Marion's annual luncheon Thursday afternoon. "I have the trump card."

But Seybold, Warner Bros. Studios and others organizing the event must get permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to close the Marion airport for the event. During a trip to Washington, D.C., next week, Seybold plans to hand deliver the necessary documentation.

"It's just a minor detail with a lot of paperwork," Seybold said.

A review of plans for the festival will take 30 to 60 days, and the granting of a complete closure would be unusual, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said. She said the agency tries to work with organizations to find compromises but added that officials have not yet seen the application from festival organizers.

"Obviously we would consider a request for a full closure, but because an airport is for aeronautical use and has federal dollars invested for aeronautical use, we would like to see it remain open for aeronautical use or open for air traffic," Cory said. "That's not to say we're opposing this particular closure."

The lack of commercial flights leaving from or arriving at the Marion airport should make it easier to obtain permission for a closure, said Steve Gerardi, owner of SG Entertainment in Indianapolis. Gerardi is coordinating the event for Warner Bros. and other festival sponsors.

"If I had my druthers, I would like to see the entire airport closed," he said. "With that said, I think there comes a big difference in trying to close an airport that has 100 or 150 flights a day as opposed to a lot of local and regional flights."

Earlier this month, airport officials said they were making plans to move more than a dozen of the 52 planes housed at the airport to other locations to make room for the James Dean Fest. Other organizations preparing for the event include Main Street Marion, which is planning a "Forever Cool" weekend that includes a pre-party on June 2.

"What it is is basically a First Friday, a big First Friday," Main Street Marion president Darren Reese said, referring to the monthly downtown festivals the group organizes in the spring and summer. "People coming from around the world will get a feel for Marion, Indiana."

In addition to securing use of the airport, festival organizers also are preparing to open a headquarters in downtown Marion. Work is under way to turn the former location of Brandt Jewelers, 502 S. Washington St., into a one-stop shop for all things James Dean Fest. The location is scheduled to open the first week of March.

"What we are trying to do is to have an information center, mainly for the locals and for the tourists that are coming to town," said Israel Baron, producer and CEO of the James Dean Fest. "One reason we chose a location downtown rather than out at the mall or something was we wanted to be exposed more to the traffic."

Until then, officials are collecting a list of prospective vendors and volunteers who have called City Hall. At a news conference in Los Angeles earlier this month, officials from Warner Bros. said the James Dean Fest would include car shows, photography exhibits and screenings of Dean's three movies and a new documentary on a 100-foot-wide movie screen. Seybold said Thursday that organizers are hoping to book several bands for each day of the event.

"This is Marion's Super Bowl and Grant County's Super Bowl," he said.