#TNI: The Morning After

#TNI: The Morning After

This is a guest post from our Travelers' Night In Recapper Lauren, AKA WanderLoz. What's #TNI? It's a gathering of travelers on Twitter - click here to learn more or look below to read our favorite tweets from last night's discussion. - Grahame "Festivals" photo from ZipSetRachel Phew! How fun was last night's #TNI?! I feel like I attended the biggest, craziest, multi-themed party and like always, learned quite a bit about the world. No matter what kind of traveler you are, there is a festival out there for you. The discussion was especially lively this week, which isn't surprising. When it comes to good entertainment, fantastic food and drink, cultural awareness, and quirky costumes, who's better equipped with knowledge and enthusiasm than Twitter #TNI-ers?The Pre-Party: The More the Merrier Every week #TNI's attendance grows with new enthusiastic and engaging travelers. Like the Tripping Community, #TNI is stronger in numbers. I believe we had a couple "#TNI virgins" this week. If you haven't already, please welcome carmenlroberts and CateTV! Also, it's exciting to see that adventurouskate's plus-one was her adventurous mother whose tweets were a great addition to the discussion. Guests are always welcome to the party. The Party: Discussion A lot of things come to mind when we think of festivals. Some think music:

santafetraveler: The World Fleadh, County Mayo, Ireland. Really love Celtic music AND Ireland.

RickGriffin: Festival with best live music #SXSW and #Coachella

eurapart: Rock Werchter in Belgium is probably the best 4 days of live music.

Sail_Fly_Jen: Festival with best live music- Jazz Fest in New Orleans & The Hog Farm Pig Nic in Laytonville, CA

Some crave food, beer, wine, and everything in between:

mobilelawyer: Best festival food. Hmmmm. Hops+barley+fermentation = food. Oktoberfest (and the sausage- yum)

visitwales: Can't decide between Abergavenny Food Fest & Great British Cheese Fest for best food. Ok the cheese wins. Go Wales!

besttraveldeals: South Beach Food and Wine Festival. By the end, your tummy loves you and your liver hates you.

visitbritain: Bizarre Enough? The Pennine Lancashire Festival of Food & Culture has the world gravy wrestling championship.

Some envision nature, culture, and tradition:

easytoursofasia: I love festivals, they are like an injection of pure culture.

nu_veau: oh, well by now you all know best festival is trinidad carnival for me.

BudgetTraveller: Not religious but emotions you experience are overwhelming: Holi + Diwali- festivals of Colour + Light in India- out of this world.

AryCancun: "Dia de Muertos," similar to Halloween... celebrated in Mexico on November 1st and 2nd

And then there are the... interesting... sides of festivals:

GlobalBasecamps: Doll cremation festival in Japan to honor all the rejected & neglected dolls... no joke!

YucatanHolidays: Me at the Carnaval de Putla in Oaxaca a couple of years ago.

craftyxplorer: Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. Leather, whips, chains, cheeks (not the face kind either) You can imagine the outfits...

adventurouskate: Halloween in Salem, Mass: Real Life Village People!

Tips and Tidbits

WeekendInParis: Best buds, hat, sunscreen, blanket, bug spray, picnic, H2O, fav bevvy & fun attitude are all you need for the best festival plans!

glutenfreewife: Be respectful of those around you. Make new friends. Deodorize. (those all go hand in hand)

escapemaker: Bring a note to remind you where you parked the car!

Kayballard: Best Festival survival tip: Always have a cute boyfriend.

The After-Party: Celebrations, Connections, and Cheers! Like all good parties, the doors of #TNI stay open long after the scheduled end time. In addition to the friendships made and lessons learned, this week's after-party was littered with fantasy talk of what a #TNI festival would be like...

Shantiwallah: #TNI Festival! Random people in field, someone shouts a q & we run around talking for 10 min.

CravenTravels: Festival the world needs: where & what would the theme be? An offline #TNI fest, some Thursday afternoon... Theme? How about TRAVEL!

Jaguardman: I'm not very well versed in Festivals, except for the traditional ones in Latin America, but I enjoyed reading all your crazy answers.

culverlake: Who needs a life coach when you have twitter? :) So enlightening today at #TNI.

Here's to the Hosts! If anyone knows the invaluable importance of a good host, it's a Tripper. Like a successful trip, behind any successful event is a fabulous host, or in #TNI's case, fabulous hostesses! This party would not be possible without the ladies from Zip Set Go. Thank you ZipSetRachel, ZipSetAndrea, GoApril, and GoSaraBeth! And cheers to this week's co-hosts: Gadling, traveldudes, smartertravel, traveldesigned Next Week's #TNI: "Cruises" Join us for #TNI on Twitter next week at 3:30 PM EST on Thursday, September 9th. Hope to see you there! -Lauren