香蕉酒吧巡迴 / Banana Bar Crawl

Banana Bar Crawl coming to Toronto — just because it’s ridiculous

Maybe it signifies the extra layer we all carry, the emotional peel that is removed only through trust.

Or it could serve as inspiration, imploring us to find the ripeness of life. To eclipse the solitude of existence by embracing others in the bunch.

Fine ... but we all know it’s about getting drunk in a banana costume.

On Aug. 25, revelers in pointy yellow dress — one can also reasonably expect brown tips — plan to gather en masse for a night of potassium-inspired partying.

The Banana Bar Crawl is coming to Toronto, and it’s exactly what you think it is.

The idea comes from Dallas, Texas. Rob DenBleyker and several friends started the crawl, organically of course, in 2009 “due to a sale at a costume website and a strange idea.”

The following year about 100 people showed up, and then 200 the year after. Now they’ve kind of made it into a thing whereby you dress up and drink at various bars.

“Mostly it’s just because it’s a ridiculous costume,” said DenBleyker.

The 26-year-old cartoonist is also the creatorof the web comic Cyanide & Happiness, which features a banana-clad character. DenBleyker will be in Toronto later this month at the video gaming/comic/anime Fan Expo at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, which runs from Aug. 23 to 26.

He and his friends decided to export the bananas north to “see if we could pull it off in Toronto as well.”

It will be the first venture outside of Texas, joining the likes of Santa Claus-themed crawls and that beacon of oft-inappropriate adult creativity, Halloween.

The Toronto version starts at the Duke of Richmond at 20 Queen St. W. between 8 and 9 p.m. and then moves on to bars unknown. Updates will be with provided on their Twitter feed at@bananabarcrawl. With a schedule like that, the potential for bruised fruit is moderate to high.

So what’s the, um, appeal?

“There’s no cause, there’s no event, there’s no holiday,” said DenBleyker.

“It’s just bananas.”

How-to banana crawl

 • Be a banana.

 • It’s easy to find banana costumes locally or online (just Google it).

 • This is a for-fun event, so please don’t ask for free drinks because of your costume. We’re just regular bar patrons.

 • Bring cash! You can move between bars faster that way.

 • If a given bar is at capacity, don't worry. There'll be enough of us to “split” up and still have a good time.