Festa Parties 5th "Cover Your Bases" Wrigleyville Pub Crawl a Success

CHICAGO - May 2, 2013 - PRLog -- Festa Parties held its 5th Annual "Cover Your Bases" Sticker-Collecting, Baseball-Themed Pub Crawl on Saturday, April 27, 2013 with beautiful sunny skies and 70 Degree weather in Chicago's world-famous Wrigleyville neighborhood.  Festa Parties, the Producers of the popular TBOX "Twelve Bars of Xmas" event the past 17 Decembers, began this smaller spring fun-fest especially for baseball fans starting in 2009. The event involved more than 30 Wrigley and Lakeview Taverns and Restaurants, with 11 stops designated as positions on a baseball diamond and events associated with a Baseball Game - National Anthem, First Pitch, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF, and the 7th Inning Stretch, and finally, Home Plate. Registered participants were issued custom-designed t-shirts with circles for 11 different stickers, and crawlers had the goal of collecting all 11 during the day and literally - Covering Their Bases.  The Festa Parties team distributed over 18,000 stickers throughout the day, and it was a great time not just for Cubs fans, but also a chance for fans of teams around the country to Represent with their White Sox, Cardinals, Yankees, Braves, and Dodgers jerseys, and suit up in their most Baseball-y attire!

The event began at the popular Wrigley hotspot, Deuce's and The Diamond Club, where the event kicked off with the distribution of t-shirts, people applying eye-black and helping themselves to dozens of inflatable bats, balls, and other toys, and joining in for an enthusiastic, but decidedly non-professional rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner. Revelers enjoyed food and beverages inside the restaurant as well as in the beautiful Deuce's courtyard, with beverage features provided by longtime Festa Parties Sponsor Miller Lite, and new 2013 Sponsors Pinnacle Vodka and Red Stag Flavor-Infused bourbon.  After the 1pm kickoff to Cover Your Bases, partiers spread out among the different bars, being guided to different bar groups in 4 2-hour periods until the end at 10:15pm.  Participating establishments included Wrigleyville favorites such as Moe's Cantina, John Barleycorn, Rockwood Place, Clark Street Beach Bar, Fiesta Cantina, Houndstooth Saloon, Roadhouse 66, Redmond's, Vines on Clark, Rebel, Sluggers, Cubby Bear, Red Ivy, Stretch, Irish Oak, Merkle's, Dugout, Mullen's, Sports Corner, Trace, Full Shilling, Yak-Zie's, Bernie's, Casey Moran's, Murphy's Bleachers, and DS Tequilla.  The event concluded with participants earning their final sticker and "Scoring" by walking a catwalk at O'Malley's Liquor Kitchen and touching a sticker-covered home-plate, to earn the gold "SCORE" sticker.  2nd-time participant and Antioch resident Jean Goranson commented, "Wrigleyville is always exciting during game days, but it's even better during Festa Parties event days - they really know how to bring fun, energy, and a super-friendly and personalized atmosphere to each of their events throughout the year." Boystown resident Trish Snell added, "Festa Parties always puts on a great time, and their creative events are part of what makes Chicago such a fun place to live. I moved here from out of state, so it's a great reason for my friends to visit Chicago, and show them around while here! You don't see this kind of friendly, social, and rocking event in a lot of other cities!"

Following the events, CYB'ers enjoyed an evening of music and dancing onstage at O'Malley's, and if they got all 11 stickers, were eligible to submit photos to Festa Parties and be in the raffle drawing for valuable prizes, which included 4 Tickets to the School Street Park Fundraiser Cubs Rooftop Game on May 5, swag items from Jim Beam, Dozens of $20-35 Gift Certificates from the participating bars, exclusive t-shirts, and other fun items.  Northside resident Jennifer Waschow commented, "This was my seventh consecutive Festa Parties event, and they keep getting better every time. What I like so much, is that there is always a goal and a mission and a game, be it collecting beads, stickers, taking pictures in frames, collecting leis, and always making friends and meeting new people.  Festa always has great themes that you can tell they put so much effort into, and it's much more fun than just another day or night at a bar!"  Festa Parties' attendance at the Cover Your Bases 2013 Pub Crawl approximately doubled from the previous year, and Festa's next major scheduled event before TBOX2013 in December will be the 2nd Annual "Everyone Gets Lei's" Hawaiian event at the end of the summer, August 24. Lakeview resident Justin Clifton commented, "I've gone to other Festa events, but this was my first Cover Your Bases, and it was a blast. The people are so friendly, and it's great to have so much fun in these bars on a day the Cubs are away, and it's not otherwise busy. I had 6 friends come in from out of town for this and BeadQuest in February, and we can't wait for the Lei event in August, and the chance to discover a new neighborhood."

In addition to Cover Your Bases, Festa Parties holds the annual BeadQuest Mardi Gras Celebration in Wrigleyville, and will hold its 18th Annual World-Famous TBOX event on December 14 of this year. Festa Parties is also a very active contributor to local and national charities. Festa Parties has been a Silver Sponsor the last 3 years, and in 2013 won the Top Fundraising Team award for the CHICAGO Dance Marathon benefit for Lurie Children's hospital, a cause they enthusiastically support both financially, and through their active participation and publicity. In 2013, Festa has also donated and collected over 700 boxes of Cereal to the Lakeview Pantry food bank, and in January of 2013, began a tradition of monthly BYOC - "Bring Your Own Cereal" parties - where friends get a special prize and can enter a contest for more prizes if they bring in 5 or more boxes for donation. This is a nod to Festa's longtime devotion to all things Cereal-related, and Cereal's central role in the charm of the TBOX pub crawl. Festa has also contributed to Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, been a leading donor and sponsor of the Lakeview School Street Park project and fundraiser, and contributes to many other causes listed on their web site.