The one where we were on set.
Friends, the TV show regardless of your age will evoke some serious memories. The globally renowned hit TV show which broadcast 236 episodes between 1994 and 2004 sees the lives of six friends play out.
Over 14 years since the season finally #FriendsFest pays homage to a still well-loved series. With Comedy Central touring the country with their Friend’s themes festival. In its 4th year, we headed along to #FriendsFest in Newcastle to quote some of our favourite lines from our favourite episodes.
Heading into the festival, which was located in one of the city’s vast parks the sound of the Ramones echoed with that all important theme tune. Note: it’s fall and not pour FYI. Upon entering we headed straight to Central Perk where we grabbed an iced lemonade in the Central Perk cafe. The cafe serves teas, coffees, soft drinks and cakes, all priced reasonably.
Behind the barrier is the infamous orange couch. With the set looking identical to the TV show sans Gunther we had to stand behind the counter and mutter the words we have red bagels.
Friends Fest in Newcastle
Next up, we grabbed a guitar and gave our best rendition of Pheobe’s smelly cat!
Heading on from posing outside of Central Perk (and yes the logo is both inside and out). We walked over to recreate the titles. With the Bryant Park replica fountain in the background and the reappearance of the infamous orange sofa we popped up a couple of umbrellas. Singing the theme tune as loud as we could.
And then shouted PIVOT! PIVOT!
Joey doesn’t share food!
Grabbing a bite to eat we hit Joey’s Pizza. Although we didn’t think we could manage the Joey Special so opted for the Pepperoni and Chicken slices. There was Pheobe’s Vegetarian Buffet, a Mocklate stand and a hot dog vendor, again all relatively reasonably priced (pizza was £5 per slice and was true American size slices).
Washing Joey’s favourite down with a bottle of beer from the bar. Which was also serving Friends themed cocktails too. You must have one if you head to #FriendsFest.
The studio tour is located in the centre of the event space. We headed to our tour, which was supposed to last 30 minutes. In the tour, you visit the real set of Joey’s apartment complete with Hugsy.
Pat the dog and the canoe both feature in the apartment too.
Next up, the hallway between Joey and Monica’s. We literally got 2 seconds to stand in here and virtually no time to take any photos as our tour was massively rushed. This was because Charlotte Crosby of MTV Geordie Shore fame (eye roll emoji) had a private tour after us…of course she did. Our tour was squished down to 20 minutes. But don’t let this distract from your enjoyment as of course you’re probably, almost certainly not going to have a reality tv brat in Joey’s apartment after you.
We then headed to Monica’s, I’m always the hostess. Where we eventually found creepy naked guy and found out some crazy facts about the iconic door – on the first day of filming somebody smashed the mirror on the door and the frame remained and become one of the most well-known parts of the apartment.
Unagi, Vegas & Turkeys
We then headed to Ross’ apartment where yes we did recreate the Unagi moment. As well as look at all the random dinosaur bones he stored.
After the tour, we headed to recreate the famous Vegas scene from The one in Vegas where they fly out to Vegas to see Joey. Followed by the turkey head challenge. Which admittedly was beyond hilarious.
Friends Fest is touring the UK until September and comes highly recommended if you’re a fan of the hit show like I am or fascinated by set tours. Brought to you by Comedy Central you can grab tickets to the location nearest to you from here.
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