Festivals

Reno-Tahoe Int’l Airport ready for Burning Man fans

Events, Festivals, ,

Burning Man Mini Man at Reno-Tahoe Airport
Burning Man 2014 runs from August 25 through September 1 and Reno-Tahoe International Airport is ready to welcome the more than 15,000 “Burners” who will be flying in to attend the festival.

The airport welcomes the Burnes with a welcome area set up in the Baggage Claim to dispense travel information, an eight-foot-tall Mini-Man in the terminal and an art exhibit courtesy of Black Rock Arts Foundation in the depARTures Gallery, which is on the second floor.

Burning Man is the single largest annual event to pass through the airport and has a big impact on the airport’s bottom line: Burners spend more than $10 million on airline tickets, car rentals and on food and gifts in the airport’s restaurants and retail shops.

burning-man-display-courtesy-weststudio

Stockholm Arlanda Airport celebrates Swedish Midsummer

Festivals, Holidays, ,

Swedish

Filing this under “Best Airport Amenity of the Week:”

Stockholm Arlanda Airport is celebrating Swedish Midsummer this week by inviting travelers to dance around a maypole and sample Swedish foods.

At a long table set up in Terminal 5, passengers will be able to sample herring, salmon, fish roe, Västerbotten cheese and elderflower juice.

A variety of Swedish products, including a book of Swedish drinking songs, will be for sale and there will be Swedish music.

Billed as a “crash course in Swedish Midsummer Traditions, the five “subjects” will be:

Dancing around the maypole – which is likely fun, but also insures good luck in marriage and childbirth;

Wearing a Midsummer wreath with flowers on one’s head;

Singing Swedish drinking songs;

Dreaming: Seven kinds of flowers placed under one’s pillow insure a dream of one’s true love;

and Eating – that’s where the herring, new potatoes, salmon, Västerbotten cheese and strawberries and cream come in.

Cherry Blossom Fest at Dulles and National Airports

Festivals, ,

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is underway in Washington, D.C.

DC CHERRY TREES

The National Park Service horticulturists have been monitoring the blossoms of the Yoshino cherry trees that surround the Tidal Basin for peak bud opening and they say right about now is a good time to pay a visit.

It’s also a good time to visit Washington’s Dulles or Reagan National Airports.

DC PINK NATIONAL AIRPORT

They are featuring Cherry Blossom-themed cocktails, food, banners and displays, including cherry blossom shirts and handbags, cherry blossom pink martinis, donuts with cherry blossom pink frosting and cherry blossom nail designs.

Need more pink? Reagan National Airport has pink lighting shining through the glass block walls in the stairwells in the parking garages and banners out front.

50th Birthday Party for Chicago O’Hare Airport

Events, Festivals, Wi-Fi, , , ,

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Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is having a 50th Anniversary Celebration this week with a wide variety of special theme days, music, activities and – yay – discounts and free stuff for passengers.

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Here’s a run-down.

Throughout the week, many concessions will be offering discounts and specials.

Monday, March 25 is Military Appreciation Day. 

Military and cadet bands will perform in all terminals from 2 to 5 p.m and United Service Organizations of Illinois (USO) will staff tables in the domestic terminals to share information about O’Hare’s two USO centers for military personnel and their families.

Tuesday, March 26 is Family Day. 

All terminals will have family-themed entertainment including jugglers, face painters, balloon twisters and clowns from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Children’s activity books will be distributed at food and beverage concessions all week long.

Wednesday, March 27 is O’Hare Employee Day. 

There will be special treats for all the people who work at the airport and, for everyone, performances by Chicago Blues bands in all the terminals from 2 to 5 p.m.

Thursday, March 28 – Business Community Day. 

For everyone who needs to take care of business while passing through the airport, there will be 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi via Boingo’s splash screen.

Jazz bands will perform in all the terminals from 2 to 5 p.m.

Friday, March 29 – Celebrate Chicago Day. 

Choose Chicago reps will be handing out information about Chicago and there will be International music performances in all terminals from 2 to 5 p.m.

Eli’s Cheesecake Café will also roll out an an enormous cheesecake and offer free slices to passengers in Terminal 1 near Gate B9.

Cherry blosssom time at Dulles & Washington National airports

Airports, Festivals, ,

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is in full bloom through April 27, 2012 and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees from Tokyo, Japan to Washington, DC.

There are five weeks worth of exhibitions, programs, celebrations and, of course, opportunities to marvel at the pretty trees in the nation’s capital, but here at StuckatTheAirport.com we’re tickled (pink) to learn that both Washington Dulles International and Ronald Reagan Washington National airports are participating as well.

This week, Reagan Washington National Airport accepted the gift of 100 cherry trees from Narita International Airport Corporation in Japan and hosted a tree planting ceremony near Terminal A.  Through March, parking garages at DCA will also be lit pink.

Over at Dulles International, the iconic terminal is also bathed in pink lighting to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

(Airport photos courtesy Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority)

Free Mardi Gras beads at New Orleans Airport

Festivals, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, , , ,

Going to New Orleans?

If your trip begins on a Friday, you’re in luck.

Since September, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport has been hosting “Throw me something, Fridays” and offering free Mardi Gras beads to arriving passengers.

250-300 pounds of beads are handed out on an average Friday and on the Friday before Mardi Gras airport staff handed out 1100 pounds of beads – along with stuffed animals, balsa wood airplanes, luggage tags and other “Welcome to New Orleans” treats.

Reed Barnes, the airport’s customer service manager, told me that the purple, green and gold beads are handed, not thrown, to travelers from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. each Friday and that “No one has to lift their shirts” in order to get some beads. “Although,” said Barnes, “a lot of guys offer.”

As airport amenities go, free Mardi Gras beads are a nice touch. Especially because the airport buys recycled beads that have been cleaned and bundled by employees from a local charitable organization.

Nikki Giovanni at Reagan Washington National Airport

Art, Festivals, Free Stuff, , ,

If you’re passing through Reagan Washington National Airport on Monday morning, February 27, 2012, around 10 a.m. then make your way to the historic lobby of Terminal A for a poetry slam.

The event is part of the airport’s Black History Month celebration and the local high school students competing will be judged by  a panel that includes Nikki Giovanni, a well-known poet and a New York Times Bestsellers List author; Amy Young, poet laureate from Alexandria, Va.; and Vincent Young, published author, artist and Airports Authority employee.

Following the Poetry Slam, Nikki Giovanni will read selections from her works and answer questions from the audience. A real treat!

“Mini Man” honors Burning Man at Reno-Tahoe airport

Art, Events, Exhibits, Festivals, ,

Burning Man, a wild week-long party that organizers say is “dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-reliance,” kicked off today in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.

About 15,000 of the 50,000 “Burners” will arrive via the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, which is rolling out a welcome mat that includes “Mini Man,” (above) – an 8-foot tall replica of the 40 foot Burning Man.

During peak arrival times, volunteers will staff a welcome area at the entrance to Baggage Claim and through October 15 the airport’s Connector Collections Gallery is hosting an exhibit titled Burning Man: Baker Beach to Black Rock Desert and Beyond, that tells the history of Burning Man through art and artifacts.

Tunes for travelers: Irish Festival at JFK

Entertainment, Festivals, Free Stuff, Music, , , ,

JetBlue is putting on an Irish heritage festival in the post-security Marketplace area at JFK Terminal 5 this week.

On Wednesday (March 16) and Thursday (March 17), JetBlue and its party-partners Aer Lingus and Tourism Ireland promise Irish step-dancing performances, traditional Irish music, complimentary shamrocks and Irish chocolates and “some of Ireland’s great mythological and folklore characters including Fionn Mac Cumhaill, Grainnuaile, Molly Malone, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and W.B. Yeats.”

Not sure about the folkfore characters part – but the complimentary chocolates sure sound like fun.

On Thursday Irish Artist Julie Feeney “a dramatic and stylish chamber-pop singer, composer, orchestrator and producer and the winner of the Choice Music Prize for ‘Irish Album of the Year,’” will stop by T5 for a concert.

Samba at Singapore’s Changi Airport

Air Travel, Airlines, Airports, Entertainment, Exhibits, family travel, Festivals, Free Stuff, , , ,

This sounds like fun:

To celebrate Singapore Airlines’ new direct service from Singapore to Sao Paolo, Brazil, Changi Airport isn’t just having a kick-off party; it’s staging a month-long “Fly to Brazil” carnival, complete with exhibits, attractions and prizes throughout the airport.

The celebration will include booths offering a chance to play Brazilian games, opportunities to get photographed wearing Brazilian party clothes, and regular performances of Brazilian music and dance, with instructors on hand to teach samba and other Brazilian dance moves.

And anyone who spends S$10 in the airport shops and restaurants  will get an entry in a “Fly to Brazil” ticket raffle.

Changi’s “Fly to Brazil” carnival runs through March 27th, in the Departure Hall of Terminal 3 and the Departure Transit Mall of Terminals 2 and 3.