Alternative Ways to Celebrate Thanksgiving: Friendsgiving and Blackout Wednesday

Traditionally, Thanksgiving is the time of the year when many gather to spend quality time with family, friends, and loved ones. The holiday season brings both family and celebration together during one of the most beloved holidays in the United States. While your standard Thanksgiving dinner has been an American tradition for centuries, the Thanksgiving holiday has evolved with new ways to celebrate. We now get to enjoy different ways to celebrate with our friends and family with events like Friendsgiving and Blackout Wednesday.

What is Friendsgiving?

Friendsgiving Photo

For those who might not know, Friendsgiving is exactly what is sounds like – a Thanksgiving feast with your friends. Sometimes celebrated the week before Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving is a way for friends to get together, catch up, make delicious food, have drinks, and enjoy their time together before everyone heads home to celebrate the holiday with family. Friendsgiving can be celebrated any time – whether it’s the weekend before Thanksgiving, or the weekend after – it really just depends on your group of friends and when you can find the time to get together.

Where should you spend Friendsgiving?

At whoever’s house is nicest! Friendsgiving can be celebrated anywhere – usually a friend’s house where everyone can get together. Typically, Friendsgiving is done potluck style, with each friend in charge of a different item.  Friendsgiving is great, because you get to enjoy all of the traditional Thanksgiving food, without having to deal with your crazy family. Just kidding – but really…

Who exactly celebrates Friendsgiving?

Everyone! Yes, everyone celebrates Friendsgiving. Whether you are visiting from out-of-town, making a special trip with close friends, or you’re a college student looking to rekindle and share your college memories at your favorite bar with your high school friends, Friendsgiving is the best excuse to get together.  The beauty of Friendsgiving is that you get to choose who you want to spend it with – no obligatory appearances to appease family members here!

Drinksgiving & Blackout Wednesday

Another unofficial Thanksgiving-adjacent holiday is Blackout Wednesday. So, what exactly is Blackout Wednesday? Blackout Wednesday in one of the biggest drinking nights of the year (New Year’s Eve step aside!), which takes place the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Let’s face it – no one wants to cook the night before Thanksgiving, right? Especially if you’ll be slaving away in the kitchen all day on Thursday, no one wants to cook, clean, do dishes or work the day before. Instead, most opt to take the time to meet up with friends, go out to eat, and of course, enjoy a few beverages (responsibly, of course).

As Thanksgiving Eve quickly approaches, it’s important to start preparing the celebrations accordingly. So, at Fremont Street Experience, you and your friends can join us for our very own Blackout Wednesday celebration, Drinksgiving, featuring a live performance by multi-award-winning rapper and singer, Flo Rida, on Wednesday, November 23. Flo Rida will take over the Drinksgiving celebrations with a free performance of your favorite hits hear all-time hits like “Low”, “My House”, “Good Feeling” and more!

Crawl Along…

The Great Onesie People posing

Fremont Street Experience is also excited to announce that The Great Onesie bar crawl will take over Fremont Street with one of the most comfortable yet exhilarating bar crawls ever. From one side of Fremont Street to the other, you will be joined by many others as you crawl from bar to bar. And don’t forget to wear your onesie! This Drinksgiving, comfort is key, so grab that onesie, designate a driver, and you are ready to go. With an epic drink-fest and block party all in one, it’s the Drinksgiving / Blackout Wednesday celebration you won’t want to miss! Tickets for the Great Onesie Bar Crawl can be purchased here.

Be ready to have a good time

We hope our guide to celebrating Friendsgiving and Blackout Wednesday has encouraged you to hit up your group chat and start making plans for this year’s festivities. We want you to make the most of your time this holiday season, and we encourage you to make time for your friends, over-indulge, and make some memories. It’s always a party at Fremont Street Experience, with great drinks, free live music, and nonstop entertainment.

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