Off Topic of the Day - 2005-01-28 "Festivals and Good Times"

[surfcam]

I am heading down to the (cough) beautiful (cough cough) town on Galveston for the first weekend of their Mardi Gras celebration. :D :D Not nearly as crazy as New Orleans, but that is a good thing. Looking forward to boozing it up with old friends and seeing the sites (wink wink, nudge nudge). ;) ;)

What are your favorite festivals or events?

Discuss amongst yourselves............

[sarabella]

Did you know that St. Louis has the second largest Mardi Gras celebration? Gosh, I miss it. Soulard (a neighborhood on the waterfront) is a helluva place to play come February. :D

[arsenalgirl30016]

St. Patrick's Day in Savannah........good times!

[jegerpenge]

You want to see a crazy Mardi Gras go to Mamou or a small town like that in south central Louisiana. It's original Mardi Gras. 50 year old men, drunk as ********, dressed up in stupid costumes and then they throw a rooster out and they all run around trying to catch it. The whole time you're just drinking constantly and eating good food. It's a bit surreal. Now the sh!t in NO is just too commercialised. I hate NO anyway. Delhi, India has less filth than that hellhole.

[arsenalgirl30016]

You want to see a crazy Mardi Gras go to Mamou or a small town like that in south central Louisiana. It's original Mardi Gras. 50 year old men, drunk as ********, dressed up in stupid costumes and then they throw a rooster out and they all run around trying to catch it. The whole time you're just drinking constantly and eating good food. It's a bit surreal. Now the sh!t in NO is just too commercialised. I hate NO anyway. Delhi, India has less filth than that hellhole.

Don't you think everyone should experience New Orleans during MArdi Gras at least once? I went my freshman year of college and it was a blast. Drove all night on a Friday after a late afternoon chem lab and got in town about 3 am and the party was still crazy. That was a fun long weekend! It was the 1st time I was ever able to buy beer without a fake id, so I was very excited!

[Riz]

I've enjoyed pre-Mardi Gras parties in March in New Orleans, the Chicago Blues festival, and St. Patrick's Day in San Francisco (SO much fun!). My personal favorites have to be the Drag Races the night before Halloween in Dupont Circle in DC, and of course the Cherry Blossom Festival (which gets a bit more rowdy then people think ;)).

[surfcam]

Don't you think everyone should experience New Orleans during MArdi Gras at least once? I went my freshman year of college and it was a blast. Drove all night on a Friday after a late afternoon chem lab and got in town about 3 am and the party was still crazy. That was a fun long weekend! It was the 1st time I was ever able to buy beer without a fake id, so I was very excited!

I already get into too much trouble in NO, so going for Mardi Gras may just be the end of me.

One festival I am desperate to go to is Octoberfest in Munich. Just the size of the beers there makes it all worth the effort!!!

[bergkamp10]

Toronto's Caribana festival is the biggest celebration of island culture outside of the Carribbean. More than 1 million people attend every year. It is a blast for people of all ethnic backgrounds.

[michaec]

I go to New York for a week for St. Patrick's day every year as my brother lives there. The place is mental for the day. The weather is weird too, about three years ago it was quite warm and then it snowed really heavily on St. Patricks day itself. Loads of snow last year too, they couldn't paint the green line on the parade route until the early hours of the morning!

[Bluto11]

Taste of Chicago is great, especially since it is around the 4th of July and you can go get fat all day and then watch the Fireworks. Chicago has a lot of street festivals. The best one is the Old St. Pat's Block Party. It is a two night concert and boozefest. I saw Guster. It is $35 for a ticket to the show and five drink tickets. You have to give one person a ticket and then walk down a line to get the beer. You also have to hold on to your cup and you can not get a new one. So what you do is get four cups, stack them and hold them low, give one ticket to the ticket person, and then give the beer person all four cups to fill. It was listed as the best place in Chicago to meet good looking single ladies.

[The Singer]

St Georges Day, Little House, Hendon, London

Would love to do New Orleans

Parade day when The Arse have wone the league can never be beaten.

[OPArsenal]

There's a mideval festival going down a little bit south of where I live. If I go, I can get extra credit for my comp class. And every year out in the woods, there's a Civil War battle re-enactment. Those are fun to go to, and buy all the nifty old-tyme stuff. Where else can you find sassafras candy???

[phishy]

obviously, any past phish phesty has been absolute mint (lemonwheel, coventry, it, the great went).. oktoberfest is incredible, as well as the "lovefest" in Berlin every summer...

[Neo¹]

Im making a Girls Gone Wild Video. :D

[n4100]

obviously, any past phish phesty has been absolute mint (lemonwheel, coventry, it, the great went).. oktoberfest is incredible, as well as the "lovefest" in Berlin every summer...

Phishy, hate to break it to you, lovefest has been cancelled. Seems Berlin got upset about the trash and the way the city looked afterwards that last year they did away with it. Something else sprung up in its place, but there's talk that whatever it was will either fade, or maybe, just maybe, Berlin will realise they're taking a huge hit and reinstate the original.


Personall, Oktoberfest was a blast. NYC during New Years Eve is a great time, and I don't mean the stupid party in Time's Square, I mean the rest of the city.

[phishy]

Phishy, hate to break it to you, lovefest has been cancelled. Seems Berlin got upset about the trash and the way the city looked afterwards that last year they did away with it. Something else sprung up in its place, but there's talk that whatever it was will either fade, or maybe, just maybe, Berlin will realise they're taking a huge hit and reinstate the original.


my good mate janine, who lives in Lubeck (n. germany).. she said they had it again... i cant remember the german name for it.. i will be there next summer no doubt.. free love, world cup, good mates... good times indeed

[yossarian]

I spent New Years Eve 03/04 in NYC.....and, no, not in Times Square but at some wacky bar in the East Village.....loads of fun.

Went to Mardi Gras in NO during my third year of law school. I had a friend who was Tulane Med so we had a free place to stay. It was fun but he didn't inform me that his sister and all her hippy friends were going to be staying there as well. Ended up being 16 people in one house with ONE bathroom. Needless to say, didn't shower that much that week.....although in New Orleans...during Mardi Gras....don't think anyone noticed.

[JAReyes9]

Not so much an annual festival but nothing so far in my young life has rivaled the RED MILE during our playoff run. Of course most people probably haven't even heard of it. Its basically after ever Flames playoff game fans would all pile into one street and party. It had the flashing too almost like a poor mans mardi gras. Except these ladies didn't even get beads.

Drunkiness, the random high-fiving of strangers(when we won), the flashing and basically the mood as a whole, was just awesome.

[bergkamp10]

Not so much an annual festival but nothing so far in my young life has rivaled the RED MILE during our playoff run. Of course most people probably haven't even heard of it. Its basically after ever Flames playoff game fans would all pile into one street and party. It had the flashing too almost like a poor mans mardi gras. Except these ladies didn't even get beads.

Drunkiness, the random high-fiving of strangers(when we won), the flashing and basically the mood as a whole, was just awesome.

How could one forget? Flamesgirls.com covered each party (or should I say every flash?). Whilst you guys were partying other hockey towns (ie famed ones like Toronto and Montreal) put it down to you guys not knowing how to deal with success. I am just kidding. I know you'll refute by referencing the fact that the Leafs have not won anything since 66.

[fortunatesonJG]

For music lovers like myself, its all about Coachella. Its an enormous music festival usually around April in the California desert. Too many awesome bands play there to name every single one. Radiohead was there last year, and they were alone worth the admission price.