That time of the year is here, and it is up to us, those who attended previous HiveFests to start some noise about the biggest and coolest in-real-life event in the whole blockchain.
Before I begin my monster size #MemoriesFromHiveFest, if you've ever been to a Hive Fest before, I invite you to make a post about the same topic so we can all begin the FOMO. Use the tags #hivefest and #roadtohivefest please. @blocktrades will be monitoring these tags by the way.
A bit of background info about the #RoadToHiveFest initiative
5 years ago, I was only a minnow building my Hive life and posting about off-the-beaten-path traveling, and after visiting more than 10 countries and being just like 4 months old in Hive years (which is like dog years if you ask me), I heard about the second edition of HiveFest, which was being held in Lisbon in November, 2017.
I remember I thought to myself "Damn, it would be nice to attend, I would give anything to be there.
But I didn't have enough money and it's an expensive event, especially for a 3rd world country minnow that had no purchasing power and, since the flight expenses, accommodation and event ticket - apart from the urge to visit more parts of Europe since I would already be there for the event - made it impossible in my head to even think of attending, and then my FOMO began, a FOMO that I haven't been able to deal with to a point that I haven't missed any irl Hive Fests since I am part of this blockchain.
Then I heard about @blueorgy's HiveFest ticket contest and I joined with one the most thorough posts I've ever made and... I won! I remember @abh12345 also joined this contest and we got to meet in person in Lisbon, as well as other people who supported my post and we got to meet in person like @jeffjagoe, @ezzy, @liliana.duarte and many others who are not active on Hive anymore.
So then the planning began, I knew I had to get money from under the rocks to be able to afford this trip - back then I had like 10 bucks on my pocket - and have one of the best experiences in my life.
I made a few posts about the journey and how I was getting ready for HiveFest and how I was planning to help my plane ticket funding with Hive rewards and I even made a few travel update posts as a #roadtohivefest idea, I even made a rookie thumbnail for this:
Then, after a lot of planning and scrapping the wallet of everyone in my family as well as some help in the form of votes by @acidyo, @cervantes, @ausbitbank, @tamim, and even @blocktrades, I was able to get to Brussels, where I hitchhiked all the way to Lisbon with @martibis and recorded every step of the way:
Hitchhiking to Hive Fest part 1
Hitchhiking to Hive Fest part 2
Hitchhiking to Hive Fest part 3
Hitchhiking to Hive Fest part 4
I finally arrived in Lisbon and I got to meet many, many incredible people that I will never forget, some of them are not active on Hive anymore but many of them are! And for the real FOMO, here's a huge gallery of the pics I took with my shitty cellphone, tagging incoming (only for those who are still active on Hive though):
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As I said, I didn't take many pictures with my shitty cellphone, but that was probably my first crypto and international experience and I cherish it dearly.
A year passed, and the HiveFest3 announcement came
I was on a whole different stage of my Hive Life, almost a year and a half had passed - and as I mentioned, Hive years are like dog years - and I had made a ton of friends and I has some influence on the community, so I decided to make the #roadtohivefest idea I put to practice in 2017, and share that with everyone so that everyone could get to Krakow, Poland in 2018 and already have a lot of friends and some shared experiences and the ice would be broken already for everyone attending.
And thus, the #roadtohivefest began:
With topics like "Let's get to know each other", Hivers like @eveuncovered, @tarazkp, @honeydue, @waybeyondpadthai, @slobberchops, @soyrosa, @joythewanderer, and @celestal began their #roadtohivefest, it was the first post regarding this topic so not many people joined, but then with topics like Choices, [Three fun facts about me] and Business or Pleasure?(@anomadsoul/3-fun-facts-about-me-or-my-road-to-steem-fest), Hivers like @revisesociology @misslavegas, @travelgirl, @louis88 and @rivalzzz decided to jump in the train and - apart from everyone mentioned above - we got to read about their fun facts and much more!
It was a great dynamic, many Hivers joined week after week and when we met in person, it was as if we all knew each other for years and the chemistry and friendship kickstarted from the first moment. This is when I realized that the #roadtohivefest idea was stupidly good and it had to be replicated every year. We got so close with each other that 10 Hivers rented a house together and we moved everywhere as a gang.
Anyway, the pics say it all, and this is where the pics will start making the FOMO real:
All the pics are taken with my cellphone, so excuse me if my face is plastered everywhere
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And the rest is history, I've been to 3 HiveFest and I can safely say that this edition was the one that hosted the biggest amount of friends irl, and the community got together for everything that was to come in the year coming. Hive saw a lot of synergy and comradery after this edition and that feeling never left.
People began to look forward to the next year's event so hard after HF3, and you could tell by the in-chain interaction that Hive never felt the same way, it was a place for friends to interact and keep bonding until next year, the social media side of Hive was truly powerful.
A year passed, and the #roadtohivefest began once more. This time the event would be held in Thailand so the quorum would be different, but the vibes remained, and even though many people from the previous event attended, we saw much more Hivers from that side of the world.
The cool part? This initiative to share thoughts, fears, ideas and everything hivefest-related with other Hivers before the actual event in order to create some bonds and friendships, continued and it got even bigger.
The first idea was A trip down memory lane where tens of Poland's edition, HiveFest3 wrote about it, and you can really have some FOMO if you check the links to their posts. You will definitely have a real glance at how HiveFest3 went down after clicking on these posts.
Posts from @tarazkp, @celestal, @karinxxl, @joythewanderer, @slobberchops, @honeydue, @guchtere, @travelgirl, @detlev, @alexvan, @louis88, @adetorrent, @eveuncovered, @steevc, @soyrosa, @liliana.duarte and @buttcoins will make you feel like you definitely can't miss HiveFest7 in Amsterdam in September.
But as I was saying, 2019's #roadtohivefest was incredibly amazing as dozens of people joined us with initiatives such as Planning and Dreaming and Meeting in person that featured @livinguktaiwan, @vaelriel, @cryptospa, @nainaztengra, @elizacheng, @kolkamkwan, @ramengirl, @derangedvisions, @priyanarc and @catwomanteresa.
Then, ideas like Budgeting and Funding got people like @ace108, @rmach, @jeffjagoe, @reeta0119, @surpassinggoogle, @wanderlass, @bitrocker2020 and @jacuzzi involved which proved to be a great way to help Hivers get some HBD to help their travel expenses and attend this massive event.
So, enough of the roadtohivefest, here's a small gallery of what 2019 left for me in order to make you fell some FOMO:
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But hey I don't want to steal the highlight from other Hivers, so why don't you all share your previous Hive Fest pictures and use the tag #roadtohivefest so other Hivers know what is it like to attend one of these events...
Perhaps the FOMO kicks in and then, we'll definitely have a kickass event this year thanks to @roelandp.
There will be many contests to win a Hive Fest ticket soon sponsored by @blocktrades, @leofinance, @actifit and @splinterlands, check out this post to hear more about them and to get a little bit of FOMO!
All the liquid rewards from this post will go to help funding the above mentioned contests, so don't feel bad to spare a vote :)