Unconventional festivals by train travel

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Northwestern

Lead Service Attendant
AU Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2022
Messages
360
Location
Santa Rosa
There are a lot of offbeat or unconventional festivals, around the country, that I would like to attend. Some are near Amtrak stations or depots while others would require a rental car and possibly 2-4 hours of driving.

Duct Tape Festival, Avon Ohio. Not far from Cleveland:
https://is.gd/0hgyYz
Chicken Show in Wayne, Nebraska. Amtrak Hastings stop the nearest.
https://is.gd/cFudZL
Amtrak Mooning festival in Laguna Niguel, Calif
https://is.gd/cyLYEX
Texas Mosquito Festival, Clute, Texas. Nearest stop woud be San Antonio on the Sunset or Heartland Flyer.
https://is.gd/cGFS2W
Cow Chip Throw in Prairie de Sac, Wisconsin. Not far from Portage or Madison:
https://is.gd/LtKSea
DB Cooper Days in Ariel, Washington. Cooper was the guy who stole some money, hijacked a plane, and parachuted to the ground near Ariel, Wash. (they think).
https://is.gd/8bwpni
Billy Barker Days, in Quesnel, BC. The Rocky Mountaineer stops in Quesnel during their "Rainforest to Gold Rush" tour.
https://is.gd/NBC0Ph
UFO Festival, Roswell, NM. Closest Amtrak station would be Albuquerque, about a 3.5 hr. drive.
https://www.newmexico.org/events/summer-events/roswell-ufo-festival/
Richard
 
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There actually is a travel market for these events, as well as some of the bigger ones like Indian Days in Browning, Montana. And from a different angle, my Japanese tour wholesaler colleagues in 1974 had me gathering information on North American Halls of Fame. Business groups wanted them included in tours. I had visions of a carload of Japanese tourists alighting from the Broadway Limited in Canton, Ohio in the middle of the night.

For most of these events, what is missing is spare rolling stock. For others, no charter buses are available in places off the tourist beaten path. Sometimes it all works out:

scandiafest.jpg
 
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