You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will?
What's that Mango?
So I am so angry because we missed Stuart Pennington's World Championship Running of the Tubs again this year.
Okay, so here's the thing I've always wondered about Stuart Pennington. Who is Stuart Pennington?
You don't remember Stuart from college?
I don't know.
Stuart Pennington was this booster and this businessman from Hot Springs, Arkansas, and he was trying to figure out a fun way to bring more tourists to town. So I didn't realize this, but Hot Springs actually has some fun novelty events already. The shortest, Saint Patrick's Day Parade is I think their most popular. It's a ninety eight feet long. But anyway, building off that idea, he came up with the idea of this world Championship baptub race, and now it's named in his honor.
You know, I actually vaguely remember this one from back in our Mental Flaws days, but I did always wonder, like, why race bathtubs?
Yeah, it's a good question. Apparently Hot Springs has this beautiful section called Bathhouse Row, and it's full of spas, these like architectural gems that are built over the town's natural hot springs. They were built there in the eighteen nineties to nineteen twenties, and that's about the period where people are really getting into sanitariums. Anyway, the tubs are kind of an homage or almost a nod to the bathhouses,
and the races sound really fun. Apparently, each team has to have five members, a captain, a bathtowel attendant, a b attendant, a soap attendant, and alofa attendant in size. They're the ones doing the pushing. Meanwhile, the captain steers the tub from inside, and all the attendants can only push with one hand because they have to hold on to their other item the whole race, whether that's the soap or the bath mat or whatever.
I like all the specifics of this. This actually sounds pretty great.
Yeah, it's a hood, but there are also obstacles along the course, and the judges can make up rules on the fly. Also, you are free to bribe judges, and if you bribe the right ones, they'll let you pass, and if you bribe the wrong ones, they'll actually hold you up at various detours. The crowd really gets into the whole thing. You're encouraged to pelt teams with water balloons and water guns along the way. And there's one
last rule. You can decorate the tub and dress up in any theme you want, but everyone has to wear suspenders, right, of course, that's the only logical anyway, Maybe next year we should get a team together, but apparently the town makes it really easy. They even provide stock bathtubs on
wheels for you to decorate if you're inclined. But the fact that we missed Stuart Pennington's World Championship running in the tubs this year gave me major fomo, and I wanted to make sure we didn't miss any other strange and important summer festivals. So why don't we dig in? Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm here with my good pow mangash hot ticket here and sitting behind that big booth
carving a giant slab. I think that is spam into a beautiful sculpture just in time for Spamfest.
Mango. That's our pal Dylan. Can you see what he's carving over there.
I think it's is it it like spam b Arthur.
Or it looks a little b arthurish Margaret Thatcher, I can't. I'm pretty sure he's a big Golden Girls fan, so I'm gonna go with b Arthur. But you're right, it's it's either way. It is very, very impressive, all right. So the weather is changing in New York. Mango now. I know that it is, was just there last week and it's finally getting to be summer. But here in Alabama, my kids have been off from school for a while now, so I'm curious when does summer vacation start for you guys.
Yeah, it's still a couple of weeks away. Kids in New York are basically in class until July, which is so hard when the weather is nice. Yeah. Actually you know this, But that year where we moved from New York to Atlanta, Henry, who was like seven at the time,
was so excited for summer. He's really one of those kids who's built for camp and built for summer, and so he gets off school in July, and then we got to Atlanta and he had to be in school on August first, and I don't know when it dawned on him that he only had like a month of summer vacation, but he was so angry.
I get it, he should have been. That's rough.
But you know, since I have a few more weeks before our summer vacation really begins, this is kind of selfish, but I want to hear more about some of the weirdest summer festivals just in case we can sneak one in on the calendar.
I like that. That's a good idea. All right, Well, I will jump in here, and I think I will start with the messiest festival that I can find. Now, some people might want to talk about Great Throwing Festival or that tomato tossing festival in Spain, But if you want real, real messiness, you're looking to do some international travel as well. You've got ahead to Boryong in South Korea.
Well, I don't know about getting dirty, but the international travel part of it sounds appealing, So why don't you tell me a little more?
All right? So, Borjong is this town in the western coast of South Korea. But every July for two weeks, there's this giant mud festival there. Now, I know what you're thinking, this probably reminds you of the giant mud party that happened on the quad in college, which was a total disaster, although funny to watch, but it is nothing like that.
Oh my god, that mud party was the worst. It was supposed to be. It was supposed to be a bubble.
Party, a bubble party, and all college kids love a good bubble party, I think, yeah.
But then that machine malfunctioned and just spit out like tiny bits of soap, and it was raining, and it just turned into like a ridiculous mud wrestling pit. It was so gross.
Yes it was.
But I mean I assume at this mud festival people just get muddy, right, well.
I mean that is part of the name. But you've got to remember this is no ordinary mud mango. We are talking premium South Korean mud here. Keep that in mind.
I like that, so, so tell me a little more.
Well, in the nineteen nineties, Borjong had fallen on hard times, and the beaches were kind of laughed at because the water was dirty with mud and it wasn't the sort of pristine thing you would travel for. Also, local manufacturing had shut down, and things for various reasons were pricey. But when the towns mayor read this report that Boryong mud was superior to other MUDs for skin care, he
helped bootstrap this industry around it. Apparently the mud has these various nutrients and qualities that are beneficial for cosmetic care. And because Boryong mud Flats had mud all over the place, it turned into a real driver of business. And then slowly as the town wanted to glamorize this mud and the pr around it sort of just kept growing. It's art of this giant mud festival.
What happens at the mud Festival.
Well, it's for two weeks every July. Millions of people flock to the town. Seriously, millions of people flocked to the town for all sorts of muddy events. Now this is according to the official site. There's mud wrestling, mud sliding, mud swimming, and a muddy marathon which just sounds like torture. I don't know if it's a full marathon. There's also something called a mud prison, which I'm not sure what that is. But best of all, if you show up, you can get free mud like they'll dollop it into
your hands and it's yours. Mango like you can fly home with it. You can go home with it. Yeah, you get to keep the mud. It's pretty amazing. Plus there's food, there's fireworks. I don't think either of those are made of mud, hopefully not. And most importantly it ends in a big K pop concert, which is just a blast. And because I know how finicky you are, there are also lots and lots of places to wash off,
from jumping in the sea to water spouts everywhere. It's really this joyous of and the real promise is that, after all the mudtastic fun, which is a phrase I pulled from the official site, you are going to walk away with glowing skin, so sort of an added benefit.
Well, here's the summer festival I like. It takes place in August. It's called the Burning of z Zobra or burns Azobra, and it's in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Speaking of which, have you ever hung out in Santa Fe or like spend time in New Mexico.
I have actually never been to Santa Fe. You know, there's that group that I get together with once a year to just kind of make up our own half marathon somewhere, and Santa Fe has always been on the list. One of the things that scares us is the elevation there in terms of, you know, adjusting to that for a good run. But I've always wanted to go. I know, it's just beautiful there.
Yeah, I mean we went last summer and it was like a wonderful and easy trip. And you know that writer Rachel Sime, she made a list for this friend of mine who was going on the trip, and it was just all these incredible things to do in New Mexico, and it was so wonderful between like the landscapes and the high in the food. So I've been evangelizing that. But back to Zazobra. The whole festival comes from this artist named Will Schuster, and this is way back in
nineteen twenty four. I guess he and his friends formed this little club where you could only be a member if you could spin great yarns. So it's this like colorful group of characters and they decided to throw a big annual party. But at the end of it, they wanted something meaningful. So the names of Zobra, according to the festival site, means anguish, anxiety or gloom in Spanish, and the idea is that they wanted to create this
giant's Zobra character. It started out just six feet high, but today it's a fifty foot high marionette, and they light it on fire at the end of the festival, and they keep it dancing through the flames, which is, you know, amazing because it's a marionette. But here's the thing. Instead of just lighting this big marionette on fire, everyone
celebrating fills it with their worries. So some people will stuff old parking tickets in or paid off mortgages, or some people actually put their divorce papers in the pile, or you know a lot of people just write their anxieties and put it on paper and then you know, slip it in. And then this gigantic effigy of wood, wire and cloth goes up in flames. There's a whole ceremony and parade that leads up to the fire. But the idea is that you can leave your worries and
get some relief from it all. Actually, this is a note that will Schuster wrote to his friend back in nineteen twenty four. After burning. It goes quote. After the flames consumed the effigy and the embers faded into the Starlit Santa fe Sky. We stood together, a group of unburdened. In the ashes of this effigy lay the worries of the past year, and from them we shall rise anew our, spirits ablaze with hope and renewal. Tonight we have not
just witnessed a spectacle. We have participated in a sacred rite of purification, laughter, and rebirth. And I should think that could be a really great way to end the summer.
Yeah, I mean, that's just is especially with that quote, that's pretty terrific there. All right, Well, there are plenty of things to get into before the end of the summer, including Maidens Fair, and once again, I'm going to go international. I think you can tell I've just sort of got this bug. I'm ready to travel here. But the Maidens Fair takes place on the third Sunday of July in the Gayina Mountains of Transylvania.
And so what happens on Maidens Fair, Well.
The Guina Mountain borders four regions that make up something like eighty villages. So for centuries the mountain has been this convenient meeting spot for trade and communication. And actually the location is supposed to be stunning, like there's this clearing about a mile up where you're basically touching the
clouds and overlooking all these towns. And so since the eighteen hundreds, the festival mostly served as this huge market, but at some point Romanians realized that it was also a good way to match make, and they'd form ties
with these other communities. There's also this legend about a magic hen the mountain is named for Guyina that would lay these golden eggs and once a year, newlyweds who were truly in love would receive an egg as a present, And according to one site, there is still plenty of these super locals who believe that the mountain is good luck and that a couple can only be happy if
their wedding is done in the mountains clearing. Anyway, in modern times, there's much less matchmaking that takes place there, and it's really just this wonderful festival of Romanian culture. People dress up in these traditional clothes, they sell crafts and just kind of indulge in all these folkloric arts' It seems like a really pleasant thing to be at.
And is it just kind of like a cultural affair or is there a party element to it too.
No, definitely. In fact, there's this homemade plum brandy that the mountaineers in the area apparently love, and that's supposed to be pretty good as well, and there's lots of dancing and drinking. So it sounds like a great time.
Oh I like that. Well, here's an international one that I think is pretty funny.
Actually, I thought I was the one doing the international one.
Go ahead and joining you. Now, I will not be traveling to this one this year, but it takes place on July twenty eighth and twenty ninth in Ferrano, Hokkaido in Japan, and it's a festival dedicated to the belly button.
The whole thing is dedicated to the belly button.
Yeah. Yeah, So I was wondering why the belly button, and I guess Serano is the center of Hokkaido the same way you're a belly button is the center of your body. So they decided to celebrate its geography with a belly button festival. Nice. Apparently, in the late nineteen sixties, town politicians thought that the people of Ferano needed something fun, like a summer festival and something to bring them together
because apparently the population is really spread out over the region. Now, Hokkaido has tons of things that attract people in the winter. It's a northern Japanese island, so it's got skiing and hot springs, and I read this one tourist account of slurping on this delicious hot crab soup that's made in the winter, so they've got that as well. But Kerano needed a summertime activity aside from the cherry blossoms and the lavender fields, so they concocted this belly Button Festival.
All right, all right, so we still haven't said yet though. What actually happens at the belly Button Festival is mostly a lot of belly dancing, but not not belly dancing in the way you might think. People paint funny faces on their stomachs, and then they carry these parasols and umbrellas to look like hats to cover their heads, so it looks like your stomach is this giant face of a cartoon character. And then they wear these clothes that
have arms sticking out from the waist down. So yeah, I've got to show your picture is just so ridiculous. Oh my gosh, this is not at all what I pictured like these are so incredible, Like these are real. I just expect like somebody had taken a sharpie and drone on their belly button and then like made faces with its. These are amazing, mango.
Yeah, it's this insane parade and it's really fun and sweet, and the whole purpose is just to laugh and bring joy to people. Yeah, the first year of the festival in nineteen sixty nine, only eleven people took off their shirts and painted their bellies. But these days the event draws four thousand dancers and anyone can join in, and
the troops can win awards for best dances. But the weirdest part of the festival, and the thing I really still can't figure out, is this thing that all the sites seem to claim, they say, quote, the best part of the festival is the belly button themed food.
I mean, of course I love belly button theme food, but what is belly button themed food exactly?
I have no idea. Every site seems to talk about it, but you know, and I was thinking maybe it's like candy buttons or like uh, gummy suma wrestlers or something, you know. And the only reference I could find to the food was curry and noodles, which I guess just goes in your belly but doesn't seem particularly belly button themed.
Wow, that is wild that I had never heard of that festival before. All Right, so how about for our last four Since such a significant number of our listeners are in the States, why don't we keep it domestic or at least to North America? What do you think?
Yeah? I could do that, So so what are you thinking?
Well, since we haven't done a music festival yet, how about the Underwater Music Festival and Big pine Key Florida. So this one is coming up soon. It's on July tenth of this year, so you'll have to make plans pretty quickly. But the festival was started back in nineteen eighty five by Bill Becker, who worked for US one's radio station one oh four point one FM, and it was a way to do something fun and raise money
to protect the coral reefs. So basically, the radio station encourages people to dress up then dive or snorkel as they pump music into the water.
Does the music come through clearly? Like? What does it sound like? Well?
Bill actually was doing an interview with a local website Florida Keys dot Com, and he was saying that sound travels five times as quickly in water as it does in air, and it comes from all directions, so you get this surround sound sort of this ethereal feeling from the music there. And of course all the music is water theme, so from playing the Titanic soundtrack to Yellow Submarine, they keep it all in that theme.
And I'm guessing this a lot of Jimmy Buffett too.
You nailed it, a lot of Jimmy and Buffet. But the other fun part of the festival is the costuming. So people dress up as rock stars and mermaids for their dives, and they're all sorts of punny underwater instruments from the trombone, fish and clambourines that artists make. It's actually really quite fun.
And what about the fish, like, are they bothered by all this noise that sort of piped into the ocean.
Apparently not. Some of the divers actually say that the fish to tend to shimmy in unison with the music, and that sounds fun to watch. But lots of animals come though, from turtles to manatees, and as Bill likes to point out, It's pretty special because quote, this is the only living coral reef off the coast of the continental United States that you can actually drive to. So he said, why wouldn't you want to join the fun, get in the water and enjoy this reef.
That's a really good point that Bill's making. So I'm going to book my tickets tomorrow.
Great, all right, So what else do we need to add to our calendar?
Next? How about the sand firm In Festival in New Orleans, which is taking place July twelfth to fourteenth. I actually chose this one because I already talked about the running of the tubs, and I thought it'd be fun to talk about the running of the bulls Nueva Orleans style. The event is the brainchild of Mickey Henning, a local who saw someone in that all white red kerchief thing that runners in Pamplona ware and he saw that at Marti Ground. He thought, hey, why doesn't New Orleans have
its own bull festival? So instead of real bulls, he put his bulls on roller skates. Henning found four hundred roller bulls, who are athletes from local roller derbies, and their dresses, bulls with little helmets with horns, and they line up and chase down fourteen thousand runners and then they whack them with his foam bat they have, or
occasionally poke them with horns on their helmets. It is fun and total chaos, and you can end up with minor bruises, but as the tourist site promises, it's nothing a little food and drink can't fix. And there are other events that round out the weekend. There's a La Fiesta de Pantalonez, which is for some reason a festival of pants that first night, and an El pobre de me or poor Me event that final day when you're
supposed to be nursing your hangover and your bruised bottoms. Also, there's a Hemingway lookalike contest for added fun.
Oh I like that. That's a good, good addition there. All right, we've got two more strange festivals to get to, But why don't we take a quick break first?
Welcome back to part time genius. When we're talking strange summer festivals, I think we've got a pretty strong list of things to do this summer will but what do you want to finish with?
I mean, there's so many wonderful festivals that don't exist anymore. There's the Cleveland Duct Tape Festival. There's the Friendship Festival that used to occur between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo.
They're not friends anymore.
They're friendly, but apparently bingo and slot machines used to fund the festival, and when the slots casino closed, people stopped playing as much bingo and that money that funded the Friendship I guess dried out. But it still feels like you could celebrate this border crossing friendship, don't you think.
Yeah, it feels like there's still opportunity there. But what are you going to talk about instead?
That was me buying time to decide which festival I'm going to talk about next. But all right, well, here's a festival that is still going strong, the fortieth anniversary of Mount Rainier's Slugfest.
So what happens at Slugfest.
Well, basically, it's a slug appreciation festival because slugs are good for the soil, and the Pacific Northwest takes pride in their giant slugs, especially the Banana slug, which is
the best of the slugs. And this year the festival is on July twentieth and twenty first, but it is filled with slug like costumes where you can your own tentacles, and you have this slug hunt where you go on hikes to look out for the critters, and best of all, slug races where you're given a waterproof slug sack and you have to crawl on your bellies on a slip and slide to the finish line and then you can't qualify as finishing unless you have yelled snailed it.
I feel like you just want to talk about that because you want to say snail nailed it. Well. I also picked an animal festival for my last entry, and it's called a Festival du Coachew, which takes place in Quebec. I guess this year it's August first to fourth. And I was totally intrigued because this is how an article and Vice described it quote, There's no elegant way of catching a pig. It's not a matter of speed or agility. You have to corner the beast and jump on it,
plain and simple. At least that's what I was able to glean last weekend between mouthfuls of pork while watching the National Greased Pig Race and Saint Perpechu quebec An event, which is, depending on who you ask, either the ultimate celebration or humiliation of the humble pig. So I like that. I also loved this description of the grease pig racing, where quote, rural gladiators step into the ring with grease covered pigs in an attempt to drop it into a barrel in under ninety seconds.
I like that time was there. So how did this pig festival start?
Well, apparently the races started in nineteen seventy eight, and it came from locals remembering how when pigs would get loose at the local farms, especially in the rain, the employees would race around, slipping and chasing them and trying to pin them down, and that kind of inspired a town event, and it quickly grew into this massive festival. According to Wece the town only has like a thousand inhabitants, but over thirty five thousand people show up for this event. Apparently,
even Celine Dion has played the festival. I will say that while greased pig races were a big draw for a long time, they stopped those over concerns of swine flew some years ago, which made animal activists happy, although they still serve pork at the events. I don't happy they could be, but the festival is more about barbecue music now and of course some pig meat and greets.
Oh pig meet and greets. Is this where you get to meet the pigs or the pigs meet and greet each other?
I think you get to meet Okay, that's very exciting.
I might have to check this out. I feel like we covered a lot of great festivals and definitely ones worth trying to get out to in the next few years. But I have to say the fact that you expected I might know who Stuart Pennington was, and the weirdness of the Stuart Pennington running of the tubs, I think you win this week's trophy, Mango.
Well, thank you. I'm serious. We should figure out how to enter because I've actually never been to Arkansas and I want to visit those hot springs. But from Will Dylan and me here at part time genius. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with the new episode. Oh and remember the reviews. Do you make us happy? If you want to rate the show, just write up your review on iTunes. And if you want to write it with memories, corrections, or just a
little notice to say hi. You can always email pet Genius moms at gmail dot com. Our moms love to pass along the messages and they are wondering why you haven't written yet. Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongish Heatikler and research by our goodpal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced by the
wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts and Viny Shorey. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.