Festivals

Beer garden at Denver Int’l Airport

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

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

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

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!

Bye-Bye Burning Man & all that garbage

The Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert is wrapping up and more than 70,000 attendees are leaving Black Rock City – with their garbage.

There’s a recycling program at the festival, but all participants are required to remove their own trash and dispose of it elsewhere – in trash disposal stations in neighboring towns or perhaps in the giant trash bins set up at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

Burining Man

(Photo courtesy Reno-Tahoe International Airport)