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TBOX2009 -
7,000 STRONG!!!
Thanks so much
to the over SEVEN THOUSAND People who participated in TBOX2009, our 14th
Annual Twelve Bars Of Xmas Pub Crawl in Wrigleyville, Chicago. Taking
place on December 12, 2009, this was the BIGGEST, and in our humble opinion,
the BEST TBOX ever!!! Starting at The Cubby Bear at 8:30AM, and ending
at The Cubby Bear at Closing Time, it was a Beautiful Day of Winter Madness,
Crazy Costumes, Manic Energy, 73,000 Stickers, The Best Royal Court Ever,
Cereal Absolutely Everywhere, Spectacular Opening Ceremonies, Dramatic
Closing Ceremonies, and a total blast for over 18 hours across 36 bars, with
people coming in from all over the USA and the World to go WIRE TO WIRE and
enjoy what has become one of Chicago's most beloved annual events. We
would first off like to thank our wonderful staff without whom this event
would never have come together; our sponsors, including Miller Lite, Sailor
Jerry Rum, and The Hyatt Regency Chicago; Will Byington Photography; Rock
Candy; The Royal Court; Chicago Hospitality; Our Fantastic TBOX2009 Interns;
and of course, all 7,000 of you who came and made this such a huge success.
And How Many Days till the NEXT TBOX?? Just look at the banner above
for the real-time countdown clock!
To View ALL OF
the TBOX2009 Pix, Visit Our
Festa Parties Facebook Page
- there are 8 Albums of TBOX 2009 Photos PLUS Special TBOX2009 albums of
Best Cereal Shots,
Opening Ceremonies,
Closing Ceremonies, and
Great Group/Costume Shots. You can also view these albums on
FLICKR if you prefer
(All Pix)
(Cereal Shots)
(Opening Cerremonies)
(Group Shots). Click below to read all about The Greatest
Crawl on Earth!
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THE
TBOX2009 OPENING CEREMONIES
As you can read
in our History Of
TBOX Section, The TBOX Opening Ceremonies have grown from a few
people standing on my porch under the El Tracks into an onstage spectacle of
wonder! This year, at Cubby Bear, at 10:55AM, an Attendance Bell Rang
with the Dean of Students announcing "Principal Festa will Address the
Student Body in 5 Minutes" -- Immediately following, on every TV Screen in
the place, a giant countdown clock counted the hundredths of a second until
the Opening Ceremonies began in 5 minutes. When the final bell rang, 4
dignitaries... Fuji, Biggins, Tracey K, and Sarah K... walked to the Corners
of the Stage with Dark Sunglasses. Then, Mr. Festa and the 6 TBOX
Interns walked to the Center of the Stage, and as Music Played, they flipped
signs reading TBOX IS HERE / TBOX IS NOW / and... ZERO DAYS TILL TBOX!
Cereal showered into and through the audience, and then, with POUR SOME
SUGAR ON ME playing, each of the 4 TBOX CLASS OF 2009 "High Schools" marched
out one by one as cereal was poured on each Royal Court Member. Once
they all took their places onstage, Mr. Festa made the announcement, set to
the Prince Intro Organ Music, "DEARLY BELOVED, WE ARE GATHERED HERE TODAY
FOR THIS THING CALLED TBOX... IT'S A DAY OF EVERLASTING HAPPINESS, WIRE TO
WIRE, AND THAT'S A MIGHTY LONG TIME... AND WE ARE HERE TODAY, TO INTRODUCE
THIS YEAR'S VALEDICTORIAN, NUMBER ONE, HARROOOLLLD!!!" Then, Harold
burst through the Gift Wrap Paper and was doused on all sides with Cereal,
Cereal, and more Cereal, as "Let's Go Crazy" played! And then... after
partying at Cubby Bear from 830AM to Noon, the 4 Teams Split Up and went on
their routes around Wrigleyville, to do the crawl and prepare to re-unite 10
hours later!
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THE
TBOX CLASS OF 2009 ROYAL COURT
The Royal Court
are the each year's TBOX VIPs, with the lowest badge numbers, and you can
read all about
how it started
here. For TBOX2009, we had The Top 50 Badge Numbers as Royal Court
Slots, plus several "A/B's" and and "A/B/C", The TBOX Interns, and Lemon
Boy. For the 2009 Theme, each RC Member was assigned a Role, Shown
Below, in the faculty or student body. Among these were Mr. Festa,
Principal; Harold, Valedictorian; Mr. Fuji, Guidance Counselor; J-Lo, Head
Librarian; Tony Y, Most Likely To Succeed; Biggins/Goze/Bill, School
Janitors; as well as designees for the Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and
Senior Class Presidents; Rich Kid with a Camaro; Homecoming Queen, Head
Cheerleader, and many more. Click the graphic below if you'd like to
see the full-size version, or
Click Here to View everyone tagged in the Facebook Photo. We
want to thank ALL The Royal Court Members who were FANTASTIC this year, and
in their own words, "The Best Royal Court Ever!" Each of them had
their own custom Royal Court License Plate and Gold Chain, as well as 500 of
their own Gold Stickers to hand out to everyone. RC and Interns - you
were awesome!!! Click Here to View the awesome Metromix TBOX 2009 costumes feature that appeared in the Chicago RedEye!
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HAROLD - THE TBOX CLASS OF 2009 VALEDICTORIAN
It's a great
honor to be given the Number One Badge - #0001 - at TBOX2009, this honor
went to Harold Woods, who had been at every TBOX since 2002, with a huge
entourage, in awesome costumes, and of course, going Wire to Wire every
year!
Click here
to read our tribute to Harold, The TBOX Class of 2009 Valedictorian
- you were awesome - thanks!! In your green graduation robe, you were
a picture of scholarly sophistication! :)
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THE
TBOX FRAMES
Since TBOX7, we
have had the tradition of
"THE TBOX
FRAME" -- evolving from a handwritten, hand-cut piece of
plasterboard to a professionally printed sign. This year, we had 17 of the
participating bars making their Own Frames with the name of the bar, a great
way for people to take picture and show all the places they visited... we
also had frames for the Beginning and End at the Cubby Bear.
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STICKERS, STICKERS AND MORE STICKERS
The tradition of
fun stickers started at TBOX7 in 2002, and grew and grew until this year,
when we had over 73,000 total! Each Royal Court Member had 500 of
their own stickers... Each Bar had between 300 and 2500 stickers... we also
had the Cubby Bear Morning and Evening Stickers, the Make Out Stickers, the
High Scool Stickers, the "Committed Monogamous" stickers, the TBOX VIRGIN
stickers, the "Will BLANK for Cereal" stickers, the "I Met Mr. Festa"
Stickers, and many, many more. There were stickers, everywhere, on
every one, and the quest for stickers became more fervent as the day went
on!
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THE
4 HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE TBOX CLASS OF 2009
For the TBOX
Class of 2009, we split the group into 4 Teams, who went in a round robin
around Wrigley from Noon to 10PM, then reunited at the Cubby Bear, each led
by approximately 1/4 of the Royal Court. Little did we anticipate the
Intense School Spirit that would develop among each of the 4 Schools,
dubbed: Bayside Tigers, Ridgemont High, Rydell High, and Save Ferris.
CEREAL SHOTS!!
The tradition of
bringing cereal to TBOX... and the Cereal Shot, was alive and very, very
well at TBOX2009. It seemed that almost EVERYONE had at least one box of
Cereal with them, and the Trix, Lucky Charms, Capn Crunch, and other sugary
sweets were FLYING from morning till midnight. For some of the very
best cereal shots, visit our
Cereal Shot Gallery, and to learn more about WHAT THE HECK this is
all about, visit the
History of The Cereal
Shot page. |
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GOING WIRE TO WIRE
AND THE CLOSING CEREMONIES
As each of the
Schools completed their circuit around Wrigleyville, we came to the Closing
Ceremonies back at the Cubby Bear. In the morning, we had given out
Green Wire to everyone; at the end, we gave Red Wire, and if you got both,
you had officially made it WIRE TO WIRE. At approximately 10:05PM, Mr.
Festa and members of the Royal Court took the stage to officially declare
that we had reached "Bar #12" and that those who had gone Wire to Wire had
graduated. 3 Times, the crowd shouted, WIRE TO WIRE, BABY!!!!
And, Mr. Festa made the officially pronouncement that all the TBOX VIRGINS
in the Crowd -- WERE NO LONGER VIRGINS! As the Cereal flew for the
final time, the great band ROCK CANDY took the stage and played awesome
tunes through closing time, and as the last partier crawled home sometime in
the wee hours, another TBOX was in the books! Didn't we almost have it
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