BootsnAll Travel Community

Curious how interested people here are in attending man made spectacles.

Like sporting events (Olympics, World Cup, Super Bowl), religious gatherings (India's Kumbh Mela - largest gathering of people in the world, or Mecca, Pope's funeral), celebrations (Rio Carnaval, New Year's Ball drop), parades (Macy's Thanksgiving, Rose Parade), huge concerts, etc...or heck even just everyday smaller scale spectacles / circuses like a regular season basketball/soccer/football/auto racing/WWF/boxing game, UFC fight, religious functions.

I ask this because I've realized after traveling around and seeing alot of "large/grand" things spectacle or not (Though I believe the "anti-spectacle" feelings started earlier)...that I'm just not so interested, or impressed by man made spectacles any more - large or even smaller ones. Natural ones like Wildebeest migration or a place like Iguassu falls, or non tourist/religion oriented -industry - is another story altogether. (Like the Defining Points thread earlier)

There was a time not long ago I even worked hard to plan my earlier travels around spectacles. One of the first ones I went to was Rio's Carnaval. Among other events - I was planning to hit a mini Kumbh Mela (A few million people gathered vs the less frequent 10 million+ I think), and end with the Greece Olympics but never made it to either of those. I still remember the time, 2000-2001, I was so happy to finally go to the "official West Coast USA" New Year's Ball Drop in San Diego.

I'm often content just to watch these on TV and let someone else be a body in the crowd.

How about you?

I definitely prefer the smaller events. Concerts in small clubs or pubs, genre-specific music festivals, local sport matches, etc. I agree that things like the Olympics etc. are better watched on TV. I bet it's different for religious events though, but I'm not religious.

I would say that it depends upon whether you have company or not to enjoy these spectacles. Although I have not attended enough man-made spectacles in my life to be jaded of them, I do know that it can get overwhelming especially when you're travelling solo.
For example, I just attended the Las Fallas 2005 festival in Valencia, but I had the best time of any vacation that I have taken so far. The reason was that I was there with 5 other friends and being the only one of the 6 who could at least spit out some spanish words here and there, I was in the thick of all the action. It was a relentless 4 days where we would leave the hotel at around 10:00 in the morning and come back at 4:00 and do it all over again. However, the festival itself was fascinating as I had not really heard or seen a lot of the actual details of what goes on during the festival.
Maybe one of the reasons why spectacles like the Olympics, New Year's ball drop and Carnaval seem so passe is that we have been bombarded with images, stories and footage from them over and over again.
In short, I really do believe that there are still some spectacles out there worth travelling half the world away for!

I thought you were talking about man made glasses.

Slaps self up side the head...

It depends on what it is. I certainly have no interest in parades, new years ball drops or the olympics, but if it's something that I would want to see even if I was the only one watching, then I'd still want to go. Concerts are a good example, where, yes I would rather see a band playing in a small club (provided it was a smoke-free club), but I wouldn't be averse to a huge concert if it was someone that I wanted to see.

I don't think it's remotely related to travelling though. It just a personality thing where I want to do things for my own reasons, not just because that's what the herd is doing (or alternately, just doing something because it's what the herd isn't doing).

quote:

I thought you were talking about man made glasses.

Yeah, that was my first thought too.