People often ask how TBOX began, where I (Christopher Festa) came up with the idea. Well, we have a Whole Slideshow of the History of TBOX From 1996 to Present (Of Course We Do!!) — but to get the TLDR, here it is…
In 1996, after Mr. Festa had his big “FestaPalooza” party in his 1 bedroom Lincoln Park apartment, so many people came that he almost got evicted. He had been having informal 40-60 person pub crawls for his work friends from Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) every few months, so to avoid problems at home, he had heard of this “12 Bars of Christmas” thing based on the “12 Days of Xmas” song.
So on December 14, 1996. at 4pm at the Goose Island Clybourn Brewery, TBOX was born.
No one showed up.
Mr. Festa drank alone for 47 minutes (approximately) until 2 of his friends, Ty and Chris P showed up, chugged a Honker’s Ale, and they were off to Bar #2, where about 15 people were waiting. TBOX was off and running. In 2003, Steve Bartman helped TBOX become a business. By 2010, over 10,000 people were coming… and here we are at the 25th TBOX!
And Mr. Festa and Chris P. – Who You’ll Meet at TBOX2021 for sure… are the ONLY PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN TO EVERY SINGLE TBOX***!!! Chris P. Plans to keep the streak alive forever (so does Mr. Festa)!!
Click here to see the whole history of TBOX Slideshow – it’s worth killing some time!
