I love Douglas Adams! How can I get involved?

• Help spread the word about Towel Day (#towelday): tweet, blog, post in forums, share a link in Facebook, make art, etc.
  
  
• Tell us about events you organize on Towel Day, and we will announce them here!
  
  
• On Towel Day, carry a towel. Where? Everywhere.
  
  
• Proudly show the world you've observed Towel Day! You can post your picture and watch others' on the Facebook page or in the Flickr group. Videos are cool there too, as well as on YouTube.

What is happening on Towel Day 2021?

ONLINE OR LOCATION INDEPENDENT EVENTS

• After his brilliant Hitchhiker's Guide quiz from 2020, author Colin Reynolds runs another trivia quiz on his blog. It's again based on the Primary and Secondary Phases. This link will become active on Towel Day 2021.

What happened on Towel Day 2020?

Due to the pandemic, Towel Day 2020 will be mostly celebrated online and at home. Thankfully some great online events have been created for this year that marks the 42nd anniversary of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy! (the radio series was first broadcasted in 1978, the novel was published in 1979).

MORE ONLINE EVENTS

This list is very incomplete. Know something we don't? Please mail us!

• The annual Towel Day Ambassador contest has ended and the very hoopy Jessica Kane has been elected Towel Day Ambassador 2020 for Earth
  
  
  

  To help her with this enormous responsibility, Stefan will continue in his role as the regional TDA for Europe, the UK, Asia and Africa, and Tami will care for North and South America, Australia, and Antartica. Congratulations to all!

• Q42, a Dutch company that works on apps, websites, connected devices, games and VR, continues its tradition of giving away cool towels. Instructions on how to win one can be found here.
• Not on Towel Day, but on 13 April, Colin Reynolds posted "Do you know where your towel is?", a blog post about why this year is special and why there's a particularly good time to salute Douglas Adams.
• Rusty Cherkas is doing a 42 day countdown to Towel Day on Instagram, publishing a new picture every day.
• Colin F. Reynolds, author of The Eclectic, is running a Trivia quiz in four parts about the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the last part will be posted on Towel Day!
• Peter Almond, a YouTuber and Twitch Streamer will be premiering Part One of his readings of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, featuring guest appearances from other Youtubers and Content Creators. Here's a preview.
  He will also be doing a special livestream on Twitch and YouTube, playing the original Hitchhiker’s Text Adventure. But with a twist: he won’t actually be playing it, his Patrons will. He'll be on air to read the game to them but the actions and commands will be provided by his patrons, and maybe one or two other content creator guests. This will be broadcast on his YouTube channel and his Twitch channel from roughly around 8pm BST / 3pm EST on 25th of May.
• Lofty Pursuits are selling their handmade artisanal babel fish candy again. They're not responsibly for any issues should you stuff them in your ear!
• The Power-Kon Recife convention coincides each year with Nerd pride day and Towel Day and celebrates them. This year they will livestream on Twitch from Sunday 24 May 3pm local time until Monday 26 May. Funds will be raised to donate to hospitals and health professionals in Pernambuco. The livestream will feature artists, voice actors, game championships, karaoke, a dubbing workshop, live shows, cosplay, Kpop performances, DJ’s, geek stands selling products online, international correspondants reporting from other countries, etc. More to be announced.
• A radio interview with Philipp Horatschek, European Towel Day Ambassador 2015 was broadcasted on the anniversary of Douglas Adams' death. The recording (in German) is available here.
• Device42 is a company specializing in discovery, mapping, and optimization of infrastructure and applications across data centers and cloud. The "42" in the company name is a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. They are running a Towel Day contest where you can win "Don’t Panic" towels/bandanas and (for residents of certain countries) gift cards. The contest runs until June 12th at 11:00am EST, 2020.
• Q42, a Dutch company that works on apps, websites, connected devices, games and VR, continues its tradition of giving away cool towels. Instructions on how to get one can be found here.
• Author Deb Whittam runs a weekly writing prompt for WordPress bloggers called '42 Words'. Number 42 of the series will coincide with Towel Day 2020. Check out her blog here.
• The research data management froods from Thuringen want to draw your attention to one of the important lessons from the Hitchhiker's guide: be wiser than the mice and document the question your research is trying to answer and the methods you're going to use in advance. Thus avoiding things like ending up with an answer (42) and not knowing the question. You can for example pre-register your research at the Center for Open Science. To get this message out, Thuringian Competence Network Research Data Management is asking people to participate in their Towel Day Pre-Registration Challenge: post a picture with a towel and a short statement why you like pre-registration. #PreRegistration #TowelDayChallenge. They made a short video about it (in German)
• Artist Barbara Sproatmeyer has made two Hitchhiker's Guide themed images for those who love to colour. They will be available as a free download on Towel Day (EDT) from Barbara's collection here. The names are "Polka Dot Pals Douglas Don't Panic" and "Polka Dot Pals Trillian Towel Day". Coloring inspiration and tutorial videos will be posted throughout the day in the Whimsy Stamps Facebook group. (please respect the artist's copyright and send patrons to Whimsy Stamps to download the images themselves and don't distribute the images)
• Nerdy pop culture podcast "In This Episode Everybody Dies", skipped their 42nd episode so they could release it later... on Towel Day! Got to respect that. They will be discussing Hitchhiker's Guide. Find them here.
• French Brasserie Grange Noire brews a special beer named "Globalement Inoffensif" (Mostly Harmless). You can win one of these beers, for pickup at the brewery, if you're selected as one of the winners in their photo challenge. To participate, post a picture with your towel on their Facebook event.
• The traditional Berlin Towel Day celebration at the crashed space station C-base is moved online this year (in German). It starts at 19:42 on the Jitsu channel. Everyone who wants to enjoy an original Pandemic Pangalactic Gargle Blaster (TM) for this event can download the list of ingredients here. Everyone should get the ingredients and the mix ritual is carried out together and simultaneously but separately locally. And then you can start reading your favorite passages, take group photos and other hitchhiker-related folklore. More
• Majestic.com maps the web and sells the data to digital marketing professionals for whom competitor backlinks and anchor text are important considerations. Every few days, they rotate the website they feature as a freebie to let people get a feel for what a web map does. On May 22th they tweeted about Towel Day and featured towelday.org. Which is nice of them, we appreciate!
• At Myphotobook.de you get "up to" 42% off until May 27th on selected products and 20% off on photo albums, except for products that are already reduced in price, if you spend at least 60 euro.
• The Science Fiction Bookstore (Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö) gives away beautiful "Don't Panic" towels when you shop on their website, if you type "Don't panic" in the message box. When you shop for 400 SEK you get a small towel, spending 700 SEK gets you a large one, and 1000 SEK a small + a large towel. All towels are made from high quality organic cotton and are available exclusively at the Science Fiction bookstore. The offer is valid for orders from 22/5 to midnight on 25/5, as long as the inventory is sufficient. This does not apply to pre-orders and leftovers.
• Blogger Vincent Waciuk posted Towel Day on Lockdown, about various ways to celebrate Towel Day during the lockdown.
• Andrea Fortuna turned 42 this year and released his album "Don't forget to bring a towel" on Towel Day 2020.
• The podcast "Beware of the Leopard" had a Towel Day episode.

LOCATION SPECIFIC EVENTS

AUSTRIA

• In Bregenz, between the day of Adams' death and the towelday, the official European Towelday Ambassador 2015 is sharing books by Douglas Adams. Also this year he will report in an interview on Radio Proton how the day of remembrance can be celebrated in the time of the pandemic. The recording (in German) is available here. On May 25th he will be out and about in Bregenz after working with a bathrobe and his towel. The Instagram account www.instagram.com/towelday_austria is new - there is ongoing information.

• The Power-Kon Recife convention coincides each year with Nerd pride day and Towel Day and celebrates them. This year they will livestream on Twitch from Sunday 24 May 3pm local time until Monday 26 May. Funds will be raised to donate to hospitals and health professionals in Pernambuco. The livestream will feature artists, voice actors, game championships, karaoke, a dubbing workshop, live shows, cosplay, Kpop persofrmances, DJ’s, geek stands selling products online, international correspondants reporting from other countries, etc. More to be announced.

• In Brno, the traditional meeting takes place at the Plzeñský dvůr, at 5pm. Don't forget your towel! Map
• In Pardubice, the Towel Day celebrations start at 16.00. Details and RSVP on Facebook

• In Turku, Cosmic Comic Cafe is closed for the public, BUT the annual bad poetry contest will be livestreamed from there from 7pm until 9 pm. For more info check out the entre in the purple programme above.

• In Saint-Alban, Brasserie Grange Noire brews a special beer named "Globalement Inoffensif" (Mostly Harmless). You can win one of these beers, for pickup at the brewery, if you're selected as one of the winners in their photo challenge. To participate, post a picture with your towel on their Facebook event.

• In Verden an der Aller, geocachers invite all to the Preacher of Holy Chips ("the Best Chips ever") from 18:00 until 19:00. It would be great if as many participants as possible appeared with a towel and / or bathrobe. Details and RSVP on Geocaching.com

• In Turin, froods are celebrating THE DAY BEFORE Towel Day. It's a Sunday, so that makes sense. They meet on 24 May at 5:42 at the Blah Blah. Make sure to prepare some Vogon poetry as there is going to be a Vogon poetry contest! Spread the word and don't forget your towel. Details and RSVP on Facebook

• In Rotterdam, the sixth edition of the Towel Day/Glorious Revolution event, will feature Pangalactic Gargleblasters, Vogon Poetry Contest, Dwarfish Battle Bread Battle, Elvish Impersonation Contest, Dirk Gently's Holistic Treasure Hunt and much, much more! Prizes galore! "For truth, justice, freedom, reasonably priced love, and a hard boiled egg!" Bring a towel, wear the lilac. In honour of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Details and RSVP on Facebook Facebook

• The Science Fiction Bookstore (Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö) gives away beautiful "Don't Panic" towels when you shop on their website, if you type "Don't panic" in the message box. When you shop for 400 SEK you get a small towel, spending 700 SEK gets you a large one, and 1000 SEK a small + a large towel. All towels are made from high quality organic cotton and are available exclusively at the Science Fiction bookstore. The offer is valid for orders from 22/5 to midnight on 25/5, as long as the inventory is sufficient. This does not apply to pre-orders and leftovers.

REPLACED BY ONLINE EVENT "STAY IN FOR TOWEL DAY", CHECK THE PURPLE LIST ABOVE - In London the traditional Douglas Adams Islington Tour and Stand Up for Towel Day will take place again. Stand Up for Towel Day 2020 is taking place in Islington on the evening of Monday 25th May! It will be preceded by a tour of Hitchhiker’s relevant sites around Islington led by David Haddock. Further details upcoming. Details of ZZ9 activities can be found here.

• In Tonopah, AZ, there's a private screening of HHGTTG in the Back Room at The Cat Drag'd Inn. Probably around 14:00 local time. Meat loaf to be served before or after (bring your own plate and spoon). Screening at the door. All participants will be expected to wear at least a face towel. On their face of course.
• Lofty Pursuits are selling their handmade artisanal babel fish candy again. They're not responsibly for any issues should you stuff them in your ear!