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