Is it a serious discussion of topics that have come up on the board or a bunch of people in a bar getting drunk?
It’s both. Mostly it’s a bunch of people getting together and having fun. But I’ve seen heated debates, intelligent discussion, and pit-worthy rants. But mostly it’s just a bunch of people getting together and having fun.
And not everyone gets drunk. There are usually museum trips, tours of local areas, a baseball game, or other events for people to do together.
As Bill said, and as Fests (normally) last a few days, there will be dinners/lunches/brunches in cool places as well.
I can only speak for the New York Fests, but there are usually trips to other neat places like the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, stores of interest, the 9-11 site, etc.
However, as I’ve seen all this stuff, I stick to the bars.
C’mon! You forgot the weekend-long orgies and lots of nekkid Doper Wimmens!
And when we burn effigies of Cecil at the end of the weekend!
Oh yes… and we can’t forget our very special initiation rite for first-time dopefest attendees.
(No, not really. Carry on.)
Fests usually last a few days??? I think most of them are just a one-evening type thing (or other time of day, depending), except for the occassional “big ones” (like the NYC ones in January)
Most of them are just a bunch of people meeting at a restaurant or someone’s house.
There was one just tonight at Bennegan’s in Springfield, VA. It lasted about 3 hours. There was a big one at the end of June at Jonathan Chance’s house that lasted all afternoon and well past midnight.
Hey! You’re not to mention the initiation rite! Especially not the part with the salad tongs! [sub]oops[/sub]
Salad tongs? I thought we changed that to two spatulas and a corkscrew. Did I miss a memo?
What happens at Dopefests varies greatly according to the crowd. I’ve been to 'fests where the big activities included kite-flying, watching an orchestra, and bowling. Many of them aren’t alcohol-centered; it depends on where it is, who is organizing, that sort of thing.
And then there was the last big NYC dopefest, where one night I was carded and couldn’t get in, and legions of dopers in various states of sobriety came out to say hi to me, pissing the bouncer off to no small extent.
I have since turned 21. Woo.
I went to one in Monterey at a restaurant, there was alot of drinking & then people became very friendly. There are dopefest pictures on the net Major, if you want to see what happens.
That’s good to hear, andygirl. That was a pretty annoying situation.
And Opal, I don’t think these things have ever really be defined all that well. In the NY area, we’ve done a lot of DopeDinners - “Hey, let’s all get together at some joint to eat and then hit a bar.” No big deal.
Then there’s “Let’s go and hang out with our friend Dave for the day.” Certainly not a Fest, just friends seeing each other.
Then there are the Fests. Any grand event where there can be Dopers numbering by the score is a Fest in my book.
Then there are the True Fests. Weekend-long extravaganzas that have been detailed above.
I don’t know what they are, exactly, but Google is helpful!
First, “Dopefest”:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=dopefest (366 results)
Next, “Dopefest” in ImageSearch:
http://images.google.com/images?q=dopefest&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=0 (136 results)
Some nifty pics there!
Gordon? Um… I’m not sure why you are addressing that to me? I was simply countering the suggestion that “most” of them last for mulitple days. Having been a participant at Dopefests since 1997 I’ve found that very few of them, statistically speaking, span multiple days. I don’t think I suggested any sort of rigid definition.
Here are some more pics from other fests: http://tinyurl.com/crl0 (anyone who wants their dopefest pics added just email me a zip file)
A few more pix from the Folsom Street Fair 2000 in San Francisco.
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/jjtm/newgallery/DopeFolsom.html
Us Britishers get in on the act too. We have a Dopefest planned for the end of next month and the details of our previous one can be found here:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=180157
the photos of the event can be found here:
[sigh]
What? I’m confused! I’ve obviously missed something but I don’t know what.
And now I’ve annoyed someone on top of it.
cry
[sub]psst, his name’s not Gordon[/sub]
ever any in/near Pittsburgh, PA?
Occasionally, or so the rumor goes. Do a search on “Pittsburgh”, thread titles only, restricted to this forum. It turns up 12 threads, about 5 of which appear to be Dopefest threads. Since I didn’t open all the threads, I don’t know how many of them actually turned into Dopefests.