Annual Festivals: The Good & The Weird

[thenetwork]

Every town has it's share of Annual Festivals.   

- What are some of the best you have attended outside of your home turf?

- What are some of the weirder but good festivals in your area?


As far as festivals away from home, mine would have to be (in no particular order):

1) NIOSA (Night In Old San Antonio) -- I happened to be in town on training during their big Fiesta.  It felt like a post-Lenten Mardi Gras.

2) Groundhog's Day in Punxatawney, PA.  I went with my future wife there in 2002.  It was billed as the "Year of the Philennium", seeing that it fell on 2/2/02.  And for those of you who have seen the movie, the event does NOT happen in town.  It is a loooong hike from Gobbler's Knob (where Phil appears) and the center of town (1-2+ miles).  The "movie" event took place in Woodstock, IL (I have been there too!)

Some of the Annual "oddball" festivals in my neck of the world include:

1) Mike The Headless Chicken Festival, Fruita, CO (Mid-May).  Celebrating the life of a chicken who was headless and remained alive for 18 months -- touring freak shows in the 1940's.  I hit this one annually, and is a lot of fun -- one of the first "Summer" festivals in the area.

2) Frozen Dead Guy Days, Nederland, CO (Mid March).  Celebrating the Norwegian man who "lives" in a shed packed in dry ice, waiting to come back from the cryogenic dead once they can find a cure for him.  Grandpa Bredo is now 109 years old.  This event is still on my to-do list.

Others?

[roadman65]

Fantasy Fest in Key West is considered good by some and weird by some others.

[Scott5114]

Norman has a lot of festivals. Our Music Festival and Arts Festival are pretty run-of-the-mill as festivals go, but they're quite popular, fun events. We have a Medieval Fair every year in the park.

Our most out-there festival is probably the Weather Festival. This is held at the National Weather Center in October. It includes tours of the Storm Prediction Center (they issue the severe weather watches for the entire US; when you're under a severe thunderstorm watch, it originated from the SPC in Norman) and the Norman NWS office. There's also events like weather balloon launches (soundings) to observe. It sounds like it would be lame but if you have any interest in meteorology or science in general it's a lot of fun. The folks at NWS are enthusiastic about what they do and it's a good time.

[nexus73]

"Keep Portland Weird" says the sticker and part of that deal is the World Naked Bike Ride that has several thousand riders participating.  That event sure screwed up my friend and me the night it took place in 2013 as we had never heard of it until we encountered all those naked bike riders and their route blocking our way back to a PDX suburb, which meant a longish detour for us that night.

http://pdxwnbr.org/

Rick

[Takumi]

Hopewell (yes, that Hopewell, with the infamous speed trap), has (or had) an annual festival called Hooray for Hopewell. We used to laugh at the name growing up.

[Pete from Boston]

There's a small Marshmallow Fluff festival in Somerville, Mass., where it was invented. 

It's a pretty lame festival–kind of cutesy and sloppily organized, draws way too many people expecting something better, and is generally a sticky mess of mostly kids' activities involving unappetizing food creations. 

It was funny that they did it back when it started ~10 years ago, but it had really run its course after just a few years.

[english si]

"Keep Portland Weird" says the sticker and part of that deal is the World Naked Bike Ride that has several thousand riders participating.  That event sure screwed up my friend and me the night it took place in 2013 as we had never heard of it until we encountered all those naked bike riders and their route blocking our way back to a PDX suburb, which meant a longish detour for us that night.

That it's a World Naked Bike Ride means that it's not just Portland. Though there were only a hundred or so in Southampton when I used to live there. I remember trying my best to avoid them, and ending up coming into more prolonged contact with them. They are fine, just I wasn't in the mood to see body paint and balls.

----

The best one for good and weird is the Cheese Rolling - not only a bizarre tradition, but also an extreme sport!

[jeffandnicole]

the World Naked Bike Ride...

ending up

Heehee

more prolonged contact with them.

Giggity.

I would actually like to do something like this sometime.  Individual cameras I'm fine with...for the most part, people take pictures and they never show them to anyone else (or just a few close friends).  Sure, there's a chance they'll wind up on the internet, but it's fairly rare.  When I've been to events where I think I would see things online, I find there's probably a specific person or two that has posted them.

It's the media cameras that I hate.  There's a huge greater chance someone like my parents would be watching, and I'll be getting a phone call later...

Body paint - I'm a huge fan of. :-)

[Zeffy]

The two that I thought of immediately are the Trenton Punk Rock Festival, as well as the (fairly new) Trenton Pork Roll Festival. Both of these manage to draw large amounts of people to the capital city. This year, however, the pork roll festival has run into a snag because the two people who organized it last year are in disagreement this year, so instead of one festival... there will be two.

[Pete from Boston]

This year, however, the pork roll festival has run into a snag because the two people who organized it last year are in disagreement this year, so instead of one festival... there will be two.

One for Taylor Ham, one for John Taylor Pork Roll?  One for thick sliced, one for thin?

God, this makes me want Taylor Ham so bad.

[nexus73]

"Keep Portland Weird" says the sticker and part of that deal is the World Naked Bike Ride that has several thousand riders participating.  That event sure screwed up my friend and me the night it took place in 2013 as we had never heard of it until we encountered all those naked bike riders and their route blocking our way back to a PDX suburb, which meant a longish detour for us that night.

That it's a World Naked Bike Ride means that it's not just Portland. Though there were only a hundred or so in Southampton when I used to live there. I remember trying my best to avoid them, and ending up coming into more prolonged contact with them. They are fine, just I wasn't in the mood to see body paint and balls.

----

The best one for good and weird is the Cheese Rolling - not only a bizarre tradition, but also an extreme sport!

True but PDX's is the largest of them all!

Rick

[cjk374]

http://www.dumasar.net/dumas-arkansas-ding-dong-days.html

[US71]

Toad Suck Days in Conway, AR

Tontitown Grape Festival (!) Tontitown, AR