Events Reviews

New Years Eve Flash Mob at Cal Neva

michael@gonnahappen.com — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:57:00 GMT

A huge crowd of people showed up tonight to countdown the coming of the New Year. We got there about 8 o’clock because we wanted to make sure we had good parking and get dinner. We ate dinner at Cal Neva since that is where we were meeting friends. It was a great time for a beer and friends.

The fun part about tonight is that everyone knew there was going to be “something” going on at Cal Neva but very few people knew what it was. Cal Neva announced that there was going to be a group Karaoke-style sing-a-long and we anticipated that it could be the largest sing-a-long in Reno history. I truly believe it was. There were thousands of people downtown during the sing-a-long and microphones were passed out into the crowd.

We all sang along to “Fight for your right – to party” from the Beastie Boys as well as “Friends in low places” by Garth Brooks, “Shook me all night long” by AC/DC, “Don’t stop believing” by Journey and many more. The music and singing was very loud, the crowd was on fire and enjoying every song.

Then it happened… A Flash mob happened right in the middle of the 10,000+ people on South Virginia St. A spotlight hit the first performers and then one after another it grew as new dancers joined. The crowd was a little thrown off because they were not sure what was going on but all in all it was a sight to be seen. When it was over it blended into sort of a Conga-line that looked more like a mosh-pit. But then there was like 10.000 people there. lol

Check out these other quick Videos:

We were very pleased to be part of this event with the Club Cal Neva, Reno’s Best Bet. What an exciting team with lots of crazy crowd-pleasing events. They brought us Reno’s largest tomato fight with La-Tomatina as well as Jello Wrestling, Kink, Beer Pong and so much more. It’s this kind of creative thinking that will keep Reno on the map and in the hearts of crowds everywhere.

CANFEST - Reno International Canned Beer Festival

michael@gonnahappen.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:16:00 GMT

We got invited to experience Reno's first CANFEST event on October 23rd, 2009. It is known as the Reno International Canned Beer Festival. I love that Reno is known for all the new and exciting events that start here. CANFEST in my opinion will grow to eventually rival the famous Rib Cookoff or the Italian Festival. This event has all the makings of a great international event.

The event was sponsored by Buckbean Brewing Company along with The Nature Conservancy and Great Basin Bird Observatory. There was a lot of emphasis on the Green properties of canned beer as opposed to other methods of distribution. ECORENO was there with a booth as well.

There was a total of 22 diffrent brewers represented at the event and each participant was given a 4 ounce tasting glass to walk the event with. You got to basically taste, try and drink as much beer as you wanted for the $35 entrance fee. Once you got in everything was free so the cost seemed more than worth it.

Along with the 22 different brewers there was a couple of guest speakers. First there was Paul Gatza, the Brewers Association Director who discussed the movement to can craft beer.

Did you know that 48% of all beer is consumed from cans? We found that very Interesting!

Ginger Johnson of WomenEnjoyingBeer.com also talked about women and beer trends.

This event was Great!

We enjoy good beer and found the opportunity to try all the variations an amazing experience.

Each brewer brought in their top 2 or 3 beers for you to try. Not only did we learn a lot about beer, canning and recycling; we also got a chance to try beers that are not normally available to try.

I personally never like to buy a whole six pack or case of beer I haven't tried before so this was a great chance to try 30+ beers in small amounts and truly find some great flavors. I came away from the event with a list of beers I would like to buy and share with friends.

Here is a list of all the brewers that were at the event:

USA

21st Amendment Brewery - California
Anderson Valley Brewery - California
Big Sky Brewery - Montana
Bohemian Brewery - Utah
Buckbean Brewery - Nevada
Caldera Brewery - Oregon
Coors Brewery - Colorado
Four Peaks Brewery - Arizona
High Noon Saloon & Brewery - Kansas
Mammoth Brewery - California
Maui Brewery - Hawaii
Mudshark Brewery - Arizona
New Belgium Brewery - Colorado
Northwoods Brewery - Wisconsin
Oskar Blues Brewery - Colorado
Prescott Brewery - Arizona
Rochester Brewery - Michigan
Sleeping Lady Brewery - Alaska
Surly Brewery - Minnesota
Ukiah Brewery - California
Uncommon Brewers - California

MEXICO

Tecate
Corona
Modelo

BELGIUM

Brouwerij

SCOTLAND

Belhaven Scotch Ale

ENGLAND

Greene King
Strongbow Cider
Newcastle

IRELAND

Guinness

JAPAN

Asahi
Sapporo

CANADA

Archibald Microbrasserie

Truly an International Event with beers from many countries. I coudn't try them all because even with a 4 ounce glass I would have got plowed if I tried even half. I enjoyed everything I could.

There were a couple of beers that really stood out for me. I really liked the MooseDrool from Big SKy Brewery as well as the IPA from Caldera Brewery and the Belgian white from Mudshark. I also liked the Sapporo Reserve, I didn't even know that one existed before CANFEST 09.

There was a great turnout to the event that was held at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in the Grand Theatre. They had tables in the center so you could stop with your beer samples and your food and talk with friends. We really enjoyed the layout.

Food and Beer pairings were provided by Tahoe Creamery, Dorado Confections and Roth Kase USA Ltd. Hanging above the event as well (seen in both photos) was Can-Art made from Buckbean Brewery cans.

I cannot say enough about this event. You really need to attend next year and make sure it is on your calendar. For more details about this event and next year follow us here on gonnahappen.com or on facebook, twitter or checkout the better beer blog.

Eldorado Great Italian Festival

michael@gonnahappen.com — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:03:00 GMT

We visited the Great Italian Festival on Sunday October 10th. We met friends downtown for lunch ans to checkout the activites. If you like Italian food as much as we do you have to make it to the Great Italian Festival in Downtown Reno.

The event was broke out into a couple sections. You could find the farmers market in the south section of town by the music, and the food and drink was in another section. We grabbed ourselves a beer and walked the event. We were hungry for lunch but not ready to get into any lines so we started with some fried calamari from one of the vendors. We also bought some cheesy french toast from another. Both were reasonably priced.

People were playing bocce ball near the farmers market. A giant game deck was built onsite to play on. It was not active, I got the feeling that noone knew what they had to do to play or what the rules were. Perhaps some signage would have been nice and people would have played.

There were a lot of 'characters' walking among the crowd. For example there was about 5 guys on stilts dressed in costumes walking through the crowds doing entertainment. There was also a small garlic and artichoke walking the crowd. I snapped a picture of the artichoke for you.

All in all it was a beautiful day! I bought some local honey in the Farmers Market and had lunch and couple of beers with friends. The crowd was light but got real thick during peak lunch rush. Cool vendors, good music and I would say it was very relaxing.

I believe Reno Nevada is the events capital of the world! Fortunately we go to events all over the west and get to see some wild and crazy stuff. This Great Italian Festival is fun for all ages with great food and we will come again.

Twitter Giveaway Winner

michael@gonnahappen.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:10:00 GMT

Tonights Twitter winner of a pair of UNR Wolfpack tickets for Friday night..... @flexativity:http://twitter.com/flexativity. You'll need to pick up your tickets from our good friends at CSG Direct in Reno 775-852-9777 x12 - bring id
- CONGRATULATIONS

Join us on twitter

Follow us on Twitter, Blog about events

michael@gonnahappen.com — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:31:00 GMT

We're having fun with out twittering these days and if you like fun events and want to get in the gift pool now is the time to follow us on twitter.

Right now we have some pairs of tickets to UNR home games and a Silver Legacy package that's coming together and Arrowcreek Golf Passes for starters, but we're more than just a Reno Events website. We're Nationwide so let's act like it.

We're offering our users all over California, Nevada and beyond to offer up free passes to some of their events so we can give them out as gifts to our events fans. If you would like us to talk more about your event and maybe even get an event review posted on gonnahappen.com then send us some free passes to your events.

To our event attendees (like myself) follow us on twitter and on facebook and let us know what you found when you went to these events. Send us some Blog content to michael@gonnahappen.com and I will post it for you. The more active you are with gonnahappen.com the more chances to win free event passes, gifts and notoriety.

On that note: We are looking for event Bloggers to attend events in areas all over the Country. Maybe you can become famous and get invited to every event in your area. Start by sending me reviews about events you go to in your area and send me a couple pictures of the event. I can then upgrade your account to let you Blog freely. Then you can become a full-fledged event reviewer for your area.

Don't forget to ask about our ad affiliate programs!!

There are lots of exciting event opportunities and fun right here on gonnahappen.com.

Street Vibrations 2009 is here - Part 3 of 3

michael@gonnahappen.com — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:29:00 GMT

Today was a busy day. It's Friday; not the busiest day of the Rally by far, but we seemed to be all over the place. We started at Sierra Gold this morning for a great breakfast and some billards to get us rolling. We went from there to Reno Harley and they were already hopping. It's like they had their own rally going. Booths, Rides, Bike techs, Bands and a mechanical Bull to name some of it all.

Well Bill put some new brake pads on his Bike and then we were off to Downtown Reno. We have favorite parking spots so we headed there. It was already getting hot as we headed downtown.

The Crowds were already there, the music was everywhere - We were glad to be there.

We checked out the bands and we bought some stuff that we wanted from the vendors. We ran into a couple of people we know and we enjoyed the general people watching. We had to meet friends at Tamarack Junction in South Reno so we headed back out.

From Tamarack Junction we decided to ride up to Virginia City NV. Everyone goes here during Street Vibes and this would be my second trip up in two days but we wanted our friends to enjoy it too. I planned ahead and I setup to film the ride up to share with you. I broke it into 4 pieces.

Video1
Video2
Video3
Video4

Then here is an extra video once we got to Virginia City.
It will be shoulder to shoulder Saturday so I was glad to be here today.

Well Virgina City is ALWAYS a blast but we wanted to take our friends back downtown Reno to eat and watch the fireworks. If we could hang long enough we wanted to go to Cal Neva for their KINK show that night but it has been a long day. So to Reno we go.

It is an incredbile sight to be seen and you have to love the crowd. It is not the "Bikers" your parents told you about. These are great people having a great time and there is so much to see and do and ride to. This event definitely gets an 11 out of 10 stars (it can happen) because they cover the entire area. Tahoe, Carson City, Virginia City, Mustang, Moundhouse and Sparks. There is even a Candy Dance in Genoa but that is a different Blog for another day.

I won't be taking pictures or blogging about Saturday - the greatest day of the ride.
You'll just have to see that for yourself. Come to Street Vibrations !!

To see the rest of our pictures join us on facebook: gonnahappen.com

Added Sunday: OK - All I can say is that Saturday was Legendary in Virginia City. Still Recovering. I might have a couple of pictures in the week ahead for you. But maybe you're not able to handle them - lol

Street Vibrations 2009 is here - Part 2 of 3

michael@gonnahappen.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:15:00 GMT

We Rode to all the major stops for Street Vibrations today. The crowds were light because it is Thursday and the masses really don't show up until tomorrow. I had some fried catfish for breakfast around 10:30 at a booth in downtown Reno. It was delicious and I got a huge portion for $10. We walked the full length of Downtown Reno and went into the Pavilion for the inside booths and to checkout the Tattoo artists.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures today. I didn't want to worry about my camera all day so I could enjoy myself. I really plan to use it on Saturday when the crowds are at their best.

Tomorrow we plan to eat a good breakfast, ride to Tahoe and meet up at Tamarack Junction about 2:00 with more riders showing up. There is a planned ride out to Mustang, back into Carson and up to Virginia City we might be going on Friday night, we'll see.

After our ride today we spent about 2 hours at the Ol' Time Saloon playing pool. Good Times! Last year we spent a whole evening playing pool at the Alturas club. We're kind of aiming for that again tomorrow night.

I'm feeling kind of sunburned so I'm gonna go jump in the hay and check in with y'all tomorrow.

Street Vibrations 2009 is here - Part 1 of 3

michael@gonnahappen.com — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:40:00 GMT

I'll likely be blogging and tweeting about Street Vibrations all week. Today my friends and family rode in from Sacramento and we're planning to enjoy every bit of it. To get ramped in we plan on taking one of our bikes downtown and getting a new Metzler front tire for one of us. I had to get a new battery for my Valkyrie today.

I ride 2 different bikes and if I am off one long enough I can lose a battery. Even though I run float chargers all year I lost the battery on my Valkyrie this year. Too much time on my Trike I guess.

I'm thinking about making a video of the ride up to Virginia City this Saturday when the masses are all lined up in Parade fashion. It should be a popular video - it is a popular ride. More Soon.

La Tomatina at Club Cal Neva Reno

michael@gonnahappen.com — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:40:00 GMT

We were rather excited to be part of Reno's very first La Tomatina (link). This event was advertised as the largest food fight in America and we always enjoy Club Cal Neva events so we really wanted to go. We had a scheduling conflict where we were supposed to be on the MS Dixie that day but fortunately it all worked out and we made it after all. (Video and Pictures included)

We arrived early at the Cal Neva in case there was traffic or lines. We also thought that showing up early would give us some time to walk the vendor booths. When we arrived there was not that many people. We wondered if there were just not enough people willing to get covered in tomatoes. So we went to the registration table and paid our $10 each (went to charity). We were officially there.

We got there just in time to see the media was playing tomato games with the Reno and Sparks Mayors. Turns out they both got creamed ahead of the event as part of some additional fundraising and promotional efforts. Pretty much all the management and staff were already covered in tomatoes.

There was a giant red pile of tomatoes in the center of the fight area, they were clearly cooking in the sun and waiting for the fun. We went off to the booths for now to enjoy a beverage and shop for a couple of birthday gifts. There was a stage and what appeared to be some local sharing a stage in the booth area.

A few of our friends started to show up for the fight and ultimately like a well timed bird migration about 1,000 people showed up all at once to join in to the event. Some people came dressed in costumes; some people wore matching outfits to represent some sort of teams. There were goggles and masks, wigs and more.

Ultimately they lined us all up and got us to chant a long to some kind of tomato fighting song and then let the games begin. It was a race to the center of the pile. Man!! You really cannot know what this was like from the outside watching in. From inside the pile it was like a mass crowd trying to push to the front of the stage at a concert - then you got to the tomatoes. I started bending over and picking up tomatoes as soon as I got to the edge of the pile and at first I was just throwing them into the crowd in a one at a time fashion. This was fun at first. Within 30 seconds I got bored of picking up 2 or 3 at a time and decided to push in to the center of the pile.

At this point you would bend down and pickup armloads of tomatoes and in a single upward thrust you throw this entire mass into the air. We started chanting "Make it Rain Tomatoes" as if in a single motion we had started a group effort to drown out the clean folks outside the pile. It was a memory I doubt I will ever forget.

So there was this giant mass food-slinging event. Something I thought was funny was when you bent down to scoop up tomatoes you started finding other items. Shoes, broken goggles, sunglasses and all kinds of stuff ended up in this pile. It was so slippery that you had to struggle to stand up (hence the waiver we all signed). People were slipping and sliding in this giant mass of mato. The smell was also very interesting. Due to all the people working very hard in the sun and the tomatoes that had sat in the sun - it was like a sweaty locker-room of tomato ick. But that didn't bother anybody.

All in all this was a very memorable event. I could write so much more about so many things I saw and did during this event. You just have to experience it!

I give this event 10 out of 10 stars. It was new, unique and went very well considering Cal Neva had no real way of knowing how it would all end up since it was a first time event. It was Historic! They plan to do it again in 2010.