The first annual World Banana Day brought a small banana-clad crowd to Dallas’ Uptown

by Misti Day

World Banana Day

(Click photo to see entire gallery)

Bananas boarding the Trolley in Uptown.

DALLAS — What started as a silly conversation about a night in Vegas quickly turned into a fun filled fundraiser as a group of friends formed the makings of World Banana Day. “Helping solve world hunger through the cunning use of banana suits” became the theme as the group began to pull the event together. The friends got into contact with the North Texas Food Bank and set up a virtual food drive which can be accessed through the WBD website, which was made by Bill Cochran. The drive makes it easy to give a monetary donation towards feeding the hungry in the North Texas area by being able to give from the convenience of your computer. Along with the website, a Facebook played an important role in spreading the word and getting more people involved.

The first annual World Banana Day was held February 21 on McKinney Avenue in Uptown, which seemed to be a fitting place to the group for raising awareness and money for the North Texas Food Bank. The group rented out a Trolley and contacted local bars to make sure they would be banana friendly. Bars such as Bella, Tribeca,The Quarter and The MAT were more than happy to help out, some offering specials for those dressed in the suits and even banana liquor. No banana suit, no ride was the rule as the Trolley circled McKinney Ave. for two hours Saturday evening. Passersby took pictures, waved and laughed at the odd sight of seeing almost 50 people dressed in banana costumes aboard a Trolley riding around town. Inside the Trolley, banana puns were widely abundant as everyone enjoyed themselves and were often reminded of the reason for the event and donations.

People from all over including New York, Kansas City and Seattle came to town in order to take part in the festivities. Though it took some effort to attend this event, the group was glad to see that people made time to help out others in need. They did not break the Guinness World Record for most people in a banana suit this year, but the banana enthusiasts are hoping that more people will hear of the event and join in as talk of the second annual World Banana Day filled the Trolley throughout the night.

Staff
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Anonymous

This group must have been crushed by the failure of your geosynchronous banana project.

DC Anonymous

9 months ago
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World Banana Day? Well.......OK then!

Russ Vandeveerdonk Verified

9 months ago
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That's awesome!

JW Richard Verified

9 months ago
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Great art event and human crowd of folks who love....pealing...A/T,..Banana mania.

alexander troup Verified

9 months ago
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Huh, a part of my Saturday night makes a little more sense now. I was wondering why a bunch of people dressed as bananas wandered into the bar I was at. But far too lazy to actually get up and ask.

Ashley Lyell Verified

9 months ago
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I take slight offense to the headline "small crowd"?! Do fifty people in banana suits not at the very least constitute a "good size crowd"? Maybe not "huge crowd" or "throng", but at the very least... a simple "crowd"...

Respectfully, Bill (Executive WBD committee member)

bcbaroo Anonymous

9 months ago
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worldbananaday.org is the website and the link to our virtual food drive...if the link above doesn't work.

bcbaroo Anonymous

9 months ago
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::I take slight offense to the headline "small crowd"

We have gone through a long and painful process of crowd estimation during the last year. Overblown claims of friggin gazillions may have the staff a bit gunshy at any superlatives.

We have some sticklers around here.

I think you can safely proclaim it The Largest Single Accumulation of Oversized Bananas in Dallas History without rattling the wrong cages