Fun in Fort Worth

What can I say but everything is BIG here in Texas. Fort Worth is the home to Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kids and I am conveniently staying on 'Sundance Square' where there are many restaurants, bars, music venues, huuuuge pick up trucks and men with very large hats on.



I initially wondered how much of it was for show but quickly realised that this was for real, these (mostly) men in jeans, huge belt buckles and big hats strode around town like this all the time.



The Texans are very friendly people, even when you look only slightly hesitant they are there asking if they can. Help and I have struck up the most amazing conversations with people on buses, in elevators, bars, in the the hotel lobby and just ambling down the street. Most amazing thing is they all think I am British.....



And this of course is all in between me doing this events and festivals course with other participants mostly from the States. Their worlds are so small compared to ours emphasised to me on the first day when the guy sitting next to me told me all about himself and Daytona Beach, Florida and then saying with something close to pride tha he had never been out of the USA.

My favorites in the course have been
Mary-Margaret from Arkansas who's events name I still don't know but I'm calling the Toad Sucking Festival, she lives in a dry county but the whole premise of the festival (of which the highlight is toad races) originated in people getting drunk (now there's no alcohol)
And then there's Candy from Sugarland Texas who is as sweet as can be and has the sugar festival (I did just make up the festival but not where she is from)
And after day three the other notable festival is the 'Maizy Daze Festival' again somewhere in Texas and accordingly they promote themselves as the 'corniest festival in Texas'



Whilst all this was happening there's a myriad of events going on in Fort Worth and surrounds whilst I am here which I can't get to see as I've been stuck inside some of them were
Dallas Cowboys
Texas Rangers
Texas State Fair
Fort Worth Music Festival and
The local Gay Pride March - not quite Sydney Mardi Gras but full of enthusiasm


And to top it all of Sydney was announced as the best global festival. And events city for the second year in a row a the conference - yay Sydney!!!!!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe Harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”. Mark Twain

Location:Fort Worth, Texas