Question Of The Day. Saturday 5th Of August

[Norachan]

Hi, Happy Saturday.



The town I live near is having the annual fireworks display tonight. I can hear them being set off from here. I usually go, but this year I didn't finish work in time to get the last bus down there. Oh well, maybe next time.

What special events does your town hold in the summer? Do you go to any of them? What are they like?

They really like to burn stuff in these parts. They have a firework display on one of the lakes every evening for the first 5 days of August. Then later on this month the next town over will have their Fire Festival. They line the streets with huge bamboo "Mount Fuji's" and set fire to them while everyone drinks beer and tries not to get singed.

I've been to the fire festival a few times and I usually go to watch at least one of the fire work displays if I can. They're fun. Nothing like sitting out on a warm evening and watching pyrotechnics.

 

[neely]

Our town has a 4-day festival over the Labor Day weekend, e.g. dog show, food tent/bbq challenge, charity softballl game, nightly concerts, craft fair, carnival rides, fireworks, golf tournament, kid's activities and parade. We used to go when our kids were young and before our dog went to the bridge but now we just watch the fireworks and hide from the noise.

 

[DreamerRose]

Oh, gee. Special events don't stop here in Naperville. The biggest is Ribfest over the 4th of July weekend. It lasts three or four days and somehow manages to include part of a weekend. Purveyors of barbeque sell their ribs, and name bands play every night in the baseball field. On the 4th, there is a magnificent fireworks display, which you can see from my house. Over Labor Day weekend, there is the Last Fling with streets closed and lots of rides for kids. It's not really the last, though, which is Oktober Fest, in you guessed it, October, with German om-pah bands and lots of beer.

Then there are smaller events, like the Harry Potter birthday party, which closed streets around the library, the Woman's Club art festival, and an Indian pow wow. Parades, too, and a rubber duck race at Riverwalk.

There is always something going on to go and see.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

.
This is a tourist town, and has been since the Victorian era:

"olcott beach" "antique postcard" - Google Search

and its amusement park once rivaled that of Coney Island. A few of the more modern rides (including the 1928 Hershell-Spillman two row carousel, now completely restored, with its 1931 Wurlitzer band organ - the reason that the National Band Organ Rally:

"olcott beach" band organ rally - Google Search

is held here annually) still remain open. Summer brings the tourists in vast hoards like Biblical locusts pillaging once-lush farmland and from mid-June until Labour Day, the summer homes and cottages are chock-full of idiots delightful folks, ramming their jet skis drunkenly into one another, and getting their sixty foot boats drunkenly jammed in the shallow river channel, and then waiting for the Sheriff's patrol boats to fish them out.

Every summer's day is like a rain of flaming rats delightful carnival, with band concerts, fishing derbies and tourists stumbling drunkenly perusing the tacky quaint Lakeview Village shops:

"olcott beach" shops - Google Search

Nighttime is always pleasant in Summer, with the patio bars and al fresco restaurants filled to overflowing, as hungry tourists drunkenly complain about the service, and then leave one dollar tips, as each establishment competes for the loudest, most annoying live music. Every one is a winner.

Weekends are the best, of course. Saturday is Cruise Night

http://cf.collectorsweekly.com/stories/VWpOFimd37eP6ApW4RBu2w.jpg

sometimes drawing as many as a thousand antique and classic motorcars, and throngs of charming tourists drunkenly placing their jelly-doughnut-covered hands on some exhibitor's 1909 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, or 1962 Ferrari GTO.

Fireworks exhibits over Lake Ontario have been curtailed, and where they were once weekly events, are now limited to Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labour Day, plus a few Saturday evenings in between. Beyond all this fun, the local calendar of events requires its own phone-book sized flyer:

Calendar of Events

People often ask me why I live nearly a mile from the Hamlet, out in the countryside, surrounded by quiet, verdant acreage and gardens, rather than right in the thick of all this drunken fun. God is great; beer is good....
.

 

[Mother Dragon]

The little town of Tomball has something going nearly every month. The chamber of commerce stays busy. Their biggies are the German Festival and the German Christmas Festival. They cover about six square blocks, plus antique alley.Lots of good food and oom-pah music, plus the obligatory country bands.

Houston has a July 4 festival that's huge. The closing fireworks last about 30 minutes. The attendance is about 300,000 people. I am not among them.

Not too far from us, in August when it's hottest, is the Clute Mosquito Festival. The mascot is a giant mosquito named Willie Manchew. They have a mosquito legs contest where the contestants' bare legs are all that are exposed. It's a people's choice event. They also have a mosquito calling contest.

Another festival is the Marshall Fire Ant Festival. They have a gurning contest, which is where people make the ugliest faces they can. They're usually framed by a toilet seat. Some of those folks look worse than those dried apple dolls.

We also have the two-weekend Crawfish Festival, the Cajun Catfish Festival, and the (alli)Gator Fest. West Texas has a couple of Rattlesnake Roundups.

 

[kashmir64]

We have Pioneer Days and the Sweet Corn Festival. I have no idea when they are, since I've never gone to either. I think pioneer is in June and the sweet corn is coming up. Don't quote me though.

 

[jcat]

Our town has a 5-day festival the week before school vacation starts, with a big beer tent, entertainment and amusements (rides), plus fireworks the last evening. It draws a lot of people (thousands) from the surrounding area. I just wish it were more than a few blocks from our house because of the noise levels.

It's not something we regularly attend anymore, though I'll meet up with other people who volunteer at the animal shelter early Friday evening.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

there aren't any special events in my area during the summer months, other than July 4th fireworks. i live in a rural agricultural area, and many folks are working on the farms/in the orchards.

although, we do have some chicken bbq's here and there some weekends during the summer months.