Festivals

A place to go, a plane to fly + airport art to see

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Inbox zero isn’t in the cards for us this year. But in an effort to make some headway, here are some travel tidbits we’ve been holding onto from the past few weeks.

Philadelphia’s 52 weeks of firsts

(Woodcut by Charles R. Gardner, copyright 1931, The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company)

52 Weeks of Firsts is part of Philadelphia’s yearlong commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026.

And the first Philadelphia-based ‘first’ honors America’s first balloon flight.

The First Balloon Flight Saturday “Firstival” takes place Saturday, January 3 at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia in the Historic District, near the site where the first balloon took flight.

On January 9, 1793, French inventor and aeronaut Jean-Pierre Blanchard ascended in a hydrogen-filled balloon from what was then the work yard of the Walnut Street Prison and became the first person to fly a manned free flying balloon in the United States. 

President George Washington was one of the onlookers in the crowd.

Reaching an altitude of over 5800 feet, the flight lasted 46 minutes with air currents taking the balloon across the Delaware River to Woodbury, NJ, where Blanchard set it down safely.

Some of the other home-grown firsts Philadelphia will be celebrating throughout 2026 include the first public Girl Scout cookie sale (1933), the first flower show (1829), the first circus perforance in America ( 1793), first Mother’s Day (1908) and the first World’s Fair on American soil (1876).

See the full list of Philadelphia’s 52 weeks of firsts.

JetBlue’s Boston-themed livery

JetBlue gets creative with special liveries that celebrate everything from Puerto Rico, the Boston Celtics, the New York Jets and Dunkin Donuts to its homebase, New York City.

The carrier also give a lot of love – and service – to Boston. And earlier this month JetBlue rolled out “Wicked Blue” a fun, Boston-themed livery.

In Boston and some other parts of Massachusetts, people use “wicked” to mean “very” or “extremely.”

So “Wicked Blue” is a good name for this Airbus A320 livery, which has “Boston” written across its fueslage and city-inspired illustrations, such a a lobster, inside each letter.

Online guide to art at Miami International Airport

Established back in 1996, MIA Galleries is the robust arts and exhibitions program at Miami International Airport (MIA) presenting permanent and temporary art, installations, demonstrations and performances pre and post-security at the airport.

Now there’s a handy MIA Galleries Guide , on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app created by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The, online guide is a great tool if you’re at the airport to help find permanent and temporary installations located both pre and post-security.

If you’re not at the airport, the guide lets you see the artwork too.

A fistful of festivals to head for this summer

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Festivals worth planning a summer trip around

My story for CNBC this week is a round-up of festivals and events around the country that could lure you out of town. Here is a slightly edited version of that list.

Jazz in Atlanta

Credit_Matt Alexandre

The month-long Atlanta Jazz Festival is underway, with jazz concerts taking place in neighborhood parks, MARTA stations, city museums, clubs and bistros and even at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The festival caps off Memorial Day Weekend (May 25 & 26) with a free concert at Atlanta’s Piedmont Park featuring more than a two dozen noted jazz performers. 

Chicago’s Festival Season

Ruthie Foster, photo Ricardo Piccirillo, courtesy Chicago Blues Festival

Chicago is chock-full of festivals each summer.

There’s Lollapalooza (August 1-4), of course, but also the Chicago Blues Festival (June 7-9), Chicago SummerDance (June 27-August 24), the Windy City Smokeout (BBQ, country music and beer; July 12-14) and the Chicago Jazz Festival (August 30- Sept 1), to name just a few.

Shakespeare in the parks


The Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park_ photo Tammy Shell

Around the country, Shakespeare and summer go together very well.

In New York City, The Public Theater’s free Shakespeare in the Park season kicks off May 21 with “Much Ado About Nothing.” Shakespeare Festival St. Louis will offer “Love’s Labor Lost” in Forest Park May 31-June 23. Chicago Shakespeare in the Park brings its free (abridged) performance of “Comedy of Errors” to city parks July 18-August 19. And the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in Boston offers free performances of Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” July 17 – August 4 on the Boston Common.

Celebrate the Grand Canyon Centennial

National Park Service photo

This year is the centennial of Arizona’s Grand Canyon being designated a national park. There are special events taking place all year long to help celebrate the milestone, but one major summer event will only take place after dark.

The Centennial Star Party  (June 22-29) is a night-sky celebration that takes advantage of the park’s dark skies and clear air and takes place on both the North Rim and the South Rim of the park. Amateur astronomers and park rangers set up telescopes nightly and offer constellation tours, lectures and free viewing tips to help spot planets, star clusters and far off galaxies in the sky. The week caps off with the Centennial Summerfest and Grand Archeology Fair on June 29.

Make Music – Even if You Can’t Carry a Tune

Courtesy Make Music Day

More than a thousand cities around the world will be celebrating Make Music Day on June 21 with free outdoor concerts, music lessons, jam sessions, “Mama Mia!” Sing-along trucks and other and music-making events.

“Mass Appeals” in many cities are musical performances all played on the same instrument, i.e. kazoos, ukuleles, guitars or accordions. “Sousapaloozas” will bring together hundreds of brass and wind musicians to play marches by John Philip Sousa. And in many cities, drum shops will set up two full drum sets out on the sidewalks and invite passersby to sit down for drum set duos.


 Flores Mexicanas by Alfredo Ramos Martinez – courtesy Missouri History Center

The Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis houses a large collection of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh artifacts and on June 1 will open a new exhibit at the Missouri History Museum featuring photographs, historic footage and many rarely seen artifacts.

The exhibit, Flores Mexicanas: A Lindbergh Love Story, centers around the recently restored, 9-by-12-foot Flores Mexicanas painting by renowned Mexican artist Alfredo Ramos Martinez, which has been stored away for 50 years.

The Lindbergh – Mexico connection for this painting?

According to the museum:

“In 1929 Mexican president Emilio Portes Gill gave the Lindberghs the Martinez masterpiece as a wedding gift. Mexico was significant to the Lindberghs as the place where their love story began. For the Mexican government, the gift was a chance to impress the daughter and son-in-law of the United States’ respected ambassador to Mexico, Dwight Morrow — Anne’s father.”

Straight to the Moon – 50th anniversary of Apollo 11

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon – NASA photo

Cities, attractions and museums everywhere are getting ready to – or have already begun to – celebrate the 50th anniversary of NASA’s July 1969 Apollo 11 mission and the first time humans walked on the Moon.

A few to set your sights on: Seattle’s Museum of Flight is hosting the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition, Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission, featuring the Columbia command module and other artifacts, through September 2.  The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air & Space Museum has five days of Apollo 50 events and exhibits planned July 16 through July 20. At the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY, the exhibit Journey to the Moon: How Glass Got Us There, opens June 29 and runs through January 30, 2010. And there are Apollo 50 events scheduled at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center, at Space Center Houston and in many-other communities around the country that have direct or casual connections to the space program.

A few festivals & cool museum exhibits in May

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Out and about this month? Here are few fun festivals, events and new museum exhibits to check out.

Party like its 1969

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has just opened a new exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of Woodstock.

The exhibit runs through Fall 2019 and includes rare prints, performance outfits, video footage, original signage and artifacts including the guitar strap Jimi Hendrix used while playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the festival, a hand-drawn map of the festival grounds and the outfit John Sebastian (of the Lovin’ Spoonful, wore when he made an unscheduled acoustic performance after a rain break.

Hang with Hoosiers

Indiana is going all out to welcome visitors with discounts and free admissions at over 300 businesses and attractions during Visit Indiana Week.

Admission is free to all Indiana state parks, forest recreation areas and off road vehicle riding areas on May 5, State Park Sunday.

Discounts for zip lines, bike and boat rentals and ideas for free outdoor activities are offered on Get Moving Monday (May 6), while restaurants around the state have lined up deals for Tasty Tuesday (May 7). Museums, monuments and state historic sites will have discounts on Wayback Wednesday (May 8), while sampling and discounts are on the menu at Indiana’s wineries, distilleries and craft breweries on Thirsty Thursday (May 9). The week rounds out with Family Fun Friday (May 10) and Sweet Saturday (May 11). 

Gather in Greenville

Greenville, South Carolina’s annual 3 day art & cultural festival known as Artisphere takes place this year from May 10-12.

This year the festival includes demonstrations, dance performances, more than 30 concerts, a DIY art lab, a local “Artists of the Upstate” exhibition and Artist’s Row: 135 pop-up shop galleries on Main Street in Greenville.  

A new public art sculpture, by Blessing Hancock, titled “Spindle” will be unveiled during the festival to honor Artisphere’s 15 anniversary. The sculpture is inspired by the rich textile history of the area once known as “The Textile Capitol of the World”.

Party like its 1869 on National Train Day  

On May 10, 1869 workers, dignitaries and railroad officials gathered in a remote spot on the north end of Utah’s Great Salt Lake for a ceremony to join the tracks of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads and mark the birth of the Transcontinental Railroad.

During the event, which is reenacted each year at the Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory Summit in Utah, four ceremonial spikes  including a gold spike with “The Last Spike” engraved on the top – were tapped into a wooden tie with pre-drilled holes.

This year, to mark the 150th anniversary of “Last Spike” ceremony and of the Transcontinental Railroad, there will be three days of festivities (May 10 through 12) with locomotives facing each other on the tracks and volunteers reenacting the 1869 ceremony word-for-word and spike tap for spike tap, several times each day.

For those who can’t make the trek out to the park, Spike 150 lists exhibits and events to mark the anniversary taking place throughout Utah, and throughout the year, including a display that includes three of the original four spikes used on May 10, 1869.

Reno-Tahoe airport says bye-bye to dusty Burners

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This year’s Burning Man festival is over and more than 18,000-20,000 Burners will be heading home via Reno-Tahoe International Airport over the course of about five days.

This is one of the busiest times of the year for this airport, which usually handles about 7,000 departing passengers a day, and it’s one of the dirtiest and dustiest as Burners leave the playa covered in a fine dust and packing out all their garbage.

 

 

To make sure all that playa dust doesn’t muck up the airport’s bagagge handling and security systems, the airport and the airlines require everyone to put everything in a plastic bags.


These photos come courtesy Reno-Tahoe International Airport.  I asked for photos of the piles of garbage burners may be leaving behind, but so far they say those trash bins are “too yucky.”

Washington, DC-area airports celebrate Cherry Blossom Festival

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(Washington Dulles International Airport, photo by J. David Buerk)

The month-long National Cherry Blossom Festival is underway in the Washington, D.C. area and even the airports are getting into the spirit with cherry trees in bloom and buildings lit in pink at night.

Pink lighting is illuminating the iconic main terminal of Washington Dulles International Airport and the parking garage stairwells at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Inside the airports, there are cherry blossom-themed promotions and entertainment scheduled through April 16.

There will be Cherry Blossom stilt walkers strolling through airport halls pre-and post-security from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays (March 24, March 31, April 7 and April 14).

Photo courtesy Sidney Woods

Entertainment on tap includes souvenir photos, paint sessions with a Japanese Sumi-E artist (black ink painting) and performances by Cellist Peter Kibbe at Dulles International on Thursday, April 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and at Reagan National on Friday, April 7, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Several restaurants will be offering pink-themed menu selections and drinks through April 17 and shoppers who spend more than $100 (pre-tax) on food or retail can turn those receipts in for a free National Cherry Blossom coaster set.

Social media followers of the airport Facebook pages can also win free ticket to official Cherry Blossom Festival events. Details here.

 

 

 

Oktoberfest at CVG Airport

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It’s Oktoberfest season and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport (CVG), is helping kick off the city’s 40th Annual Oktoberfest Zinzinnati today (Friday, September 18) with Bavarian pretzels, soft-drinks and a band playing polka music between 8 and 10 a.m.

Fritz, the Oktoberfest Wiener Dog Mascot, will also be greeting passengers.

Oktoberfest is also being celebrated at Denver International Airport this year, with the temporary “Beer Flights” beer garden on-site for a full week.

Beer garden at Denver Int’l Airport

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DIA BEER FLIGHTS

Just in time for Oktoberfest season, Denver International Airport has brought back “Beer Flights,” the temporary beer garden in the center of the Jeppesen Terminal.

The beer garden will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily from Sept. 19 to Sept. 27 and coincides with worldwide Oktoberfest celebrations and Denver’s Great American Beer Festival. Tickets are available at the door for $10 and visitors must be 21 or older with a valid ID to enter.

The $10 admission includes a souvenir glass and 10, 2-ounce samples of beer from the 20 Colorado breweries and special brews represented:

· Avery Brewing – Liliko’i Kepolo

· Big Choice Brewing – #42 Poblano Stout

· Boulder Beer – Shake Chocolate Porter

· Bristol Brewing Company – Red Baron Octoberfest

· Crooked Stave – Colorado Wild Sage Mountain Saison

· Dry Dock Brewing Co. – Apricot Blonde

· Elevation Beer Co. – 7437 Double IPA

· Epic Brewing Co. – Escape to Colorado IPA

· Fate Brewing – Laimas Kölsch Style Ale

· Funkwerks – Tropic King Imperial Saison Ale

· Great Divide Brewing Company – Hibernation Ale

· Hall Brewing Co. – Juicy Peach Blonde

· High Hops Brewery – The Golden One

· Odell Brewing Company – Odell IPA

· Oskar Blues – Oskar Blues IPA

· Pikes Peak Brewing Co. – Devil’s Head Red Ale

· Pug Ryan’s – Hideout Helles Lager

· Sanitas Brewing – Sanitas Saison

· Station 26 Brewing Co. – Colorado Cream Ale

· Telluride Brewing Co. – Fishwater Barrell-Aged Double IPA

The beer garden will feature eight picnic tables decorated by local artists, live music, talks by brew masters and brew trivia.

Passengers who post photos of their “Beer Flights” experience on social media using #BeerFlightsDIA will be eligible to win prizes that include T-shirts and commemorative glasses, VIP brewery tours and more.

Cheers!

DIA BEER GARDEN

Reno-Tahoe Airport & the Burners

Airports, Festivals, ,

RNO's 15-foot Mini-Man is a replica of the giant sculpture burned each year during the Burnning Man festival.

The 70,000 “Burners” who attended last week’s Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada have to go back to their regular lives now and about 22,000 of them re-entered the real world via Reno-Tahoe International Airport on Monday on Tuesday.

Some of the more than 22,000 Burners heading home from the 2015 Burning Man festival via Reno-Tahoe International Airport

That makes this week one of the busiest times for RNO airport and a week filled with unusual challenges.

“There are lines of travelers with large, dusty bags and unique items like hula hoops being carried onto airplanes,” said RNO spokeswoman Heidi Jared, who explained that airlines were wrapping each piece of luggage in plastic to keep the conveyor belt system clean from the fine playa dust that can bog down the belt.

Because Burning Man operates with a strict “leave no trace” policy, many Burners ended up bringing their garbage with them to the airport. “So RNO puts out extra trash bins on the front curb to collect a variety of items that Burners simply don’t want or don’t have room to take on the plane,” said Jared. 

Large boxes are set up at RNO airport to collect tons of trash and unwanted items Burners will leave behind_edited

Bicycles are the main method of transportation during the Burning Man festival and while many Burners put a lot of effort into decorating their bikes, they don’t plan to bring them home.

In the past, many bikes ended up left behind at the airport, but now the local Kiwanis club sets up a bike drop-off area at RNO to collect the cast-off cycles. The club then refurbishes the bikes and gives them to kids in the community.

The local Kiwanis club has a drop-off station to collected unwanted bikes used at the Burning Man festival. Bikes will be refurbished and given to local children

( My story about Reno Airport and the Burners first appeared on the Today in the Sky blog on USA TODAY in a slightly different version. All photos courtesy Reno-Tahoe International Airport)

Reno-Tahoe Airport celebrates Burning Man

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Burning Man Mini Man at Reno-Tahoe Airport

Burning Man kicks off this weekend and the far-out festival has a major impact on the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, which each year hosts approximately 35,000 additional arriving and departing Burners from 34 different countries.

RENO WELCOME

Over the years, the airport figured out how to best welcome and help the Burners get where they need to go – and it seems like quite the set-up.

The airport has travel information on the Burner web site, a welcome table (with travel info, and complimentary water and fig bars), a 15-foot wooden replica called “Mini Man” in Bag Claim and a Burning Man art exhibit in the depARTures Gallery.

RENO LOVE sculpture

artist: Jeff Schomberg

When Burning Man is over, the airport really goes into high gear.

No motorized transportation (beyond Art Cars) is allowed on the Playa, so lots of Burners bring bikes, which are frequently left behind. The airport partners with the local Kiwanis Club on a bike drop-off area so those bikes can get refurbished and given to kids in the community.

RENO BIKE DISCARD HERE

Travelers – and their belongings – heading home from Burning Man are often dusty and dirty, and everyone must pack out their trash from the Playa. So the airport has its custodial staff working around the clock cleaning restrooms and emptying trash bins. The airport also keeps a supply of crates on the curb to collect trash.

Because everyone’s suitcase or backpack is likely to be covered in dust, and because all that dust and grime can muck up the airport’s delicate and expensive baggage machinery, all airlines are required to put a plastic bag around each item of checked luggage and/or place it in a plastic tub. So there are plenty of bags and tubs on hand.

RENO DUSTY SUITCASES

Before and after Burning Man, travelers can enjoy the Burning Many art exhibit at the airport. Through the Artists Lens includes over 60 photos of Burning Man artwork and activities by three well-known Burning Man photogrpaher. Look for the depARTures Gallery on the second floor of the airport’s terminal, post-security.

RENO ART EXHIBIT

Want free tickets to Bonnaroo 2015? Make airport art

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Bonnaroo 2014 Wednesday-photo by David Barnum

Want two free tickets to the 2015 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival? It will help if you’re an artist.

The annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival takes place each June on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee and many event attendees make their way to and from the festival through Nashville International Airport.

To welcome everyone (and help promote the event), each year the airport features artist-made, Bonnaroo-themed artwork in five skylights on the secure side of the terminal.

Here’s a sample of the artwork from this past season on display through January 2015:

Bonnaroo

By AK Lamas

 

Proposals for next year’s Bonnaroo-themed skylight art will be taken through November 9, 2014.

Each selected artist will get an honorarium of $2,000 to create skylight art that incorporates or reflects iconic Bonnaroo festival elements (but not the full Bonnaroo brand logo), the festival location and the Bonnaroovian Code: Prepare Thy Self, Play as a Team, Radiate Positivity, Respect The Farm, Don’t be that Guy/Gal, and Stay True Roo.

Each selected artist also gets two free tickets to Bonnaroo 2015.

Good luck!