It’s June 12th 2015 – that means it’s been more than 4 whole days since OutdoorFest 2015. It’s a bit crazy to be sitting here speaking of the 2015 festival as something that happened in the past. Last week thousands of people tried a new activity or explored a new place, met others who share their passions, and connected with a larger community of organizations that do outdoor recreation year round in the five boroughs. Here at OutdoorFest we’ve been busy returning altitude training generators, cleaning out tents, and refolding bright blue t-shirts. There’s hardly been a moment to reflect until now.

So what did we learn?

1) Nature is great but sometimes inopportune. While we can be bummed that flash flood warnings limited what we were able to do outside for a few days during the festival it’s obvious that this was outweighted but the intense excitement about the sunshine over the weekend.

2) Temporary tattoos are almost universally liked. We took a chance on that one – I’m personally a temp tattoo enthusiast but was unsure if OutdoorFest participants would share the passion I’m happy to report I’m not the only one who thinks a picture of s’mores on your calf is the perfect mix of silly and badass.

3) The NYC outdoors community is awesome. While this is something we obviously already knew, during the week of OutdoorFest it is always reinforced. Connecting with our community always leaves me awed because of the year round work of organizations and the enthusiasm of individuals on a daily basis. The best part of OutdoorFest is always getting to do fun things outdoors with amazing people and this year’s crew just built on the strength of last year. I know that every writer among you is cringing at my adjective usage in this paragraph but it just can’t be helped – incredible, amazing, and awesome are words that are meant to be used to describe this community.

Some of the most exciting things about OutdoorFest this year were all of the ideas circulating. Various conversations and comments popped up throughout the festival from partners, participants and volunteers suggesting ways to grow and strengthen the year round programming of OutdoorFest; the “fest” might be over but we’re all still here living in the city and loving the outdoors. I can’t wait to see what’s next NYC and thank you all for being part of #OFNYC15.

 -Sarah 

Header photo by Reggo Wilson