Meeting Friends Block Party 2025: Celebrating geocaching in Switzerland
Meeting Friends returned to Frauenfeld for its fourth iteration. This time, it had a new event location, and a new icon. Inspired by the 2023 announcement that Event hosts could choose between the Mega-Event or Block-Party icon, the team behind Meeting Friends decided to revive this beloved Event. Within four days of the Event’s publication (GCAJRTR), 600 “will attend” logs had been posted. Given the number of expected attendees, the organizing team decided to pivot and booked the historic Festhalle Rüegerholz.
The festivities started Friday evening with Welcome to the Party (GCAJW4W). Walking into the hall, you were greeted by a welcome booth to your right, where attendees could pick up their pre-ordered items, and a series of games lining the perimeter to your left. The games kicked off at 7 p.m., and featured a wheel of fortune, hot wire, a PETling tube toss, and a battle beam—similar to a dunk tank, except with a padded mat in place of water. Playing the games earned participants a punch on their game card, with a secret reward. If you won a game, or sat on the battle beam you could collect a water bottle with the iconic Meeting Friends logo in the color of your choice.
Right: A hot wire game shaped like the Meeting Friends logo. Attendees used a wand to trace the outline from left to right without touching the wire. Each person had two tries, with white shoulder spots marking designated rest points.
Besides the games, the welcome Event featured a museum with coins and other relics from previous Meeting Friends gatherings, an Adventure Lab® to highlight various items, and a mannequin dressed in a Meeting Friends t-shirt serving as the logbook.
The Block Party itself was held on Saturday. The games were once again open, and soon after, the first of the tree-climbing workshops took place! A company from Germany was brought in to teach the workshops. They began by walking participants through the various pieces of gear and then gave them the opportunity to try out tree climbing for themselves. Inside, there were Adventure Lab puzzles, vendors, a trackables table, and more. Long tables were set out to give attendees a chance to gather and swap stories.
Right: Bri aka Sassy Bandit participating in the tree-climbing workshop
The main Event was followed up by a Community Celebration Event (GCATMR0), which included a traditional Swiss meal followed by bingo, a live band, a conga line, and a lively round of Kahoot. After dinner, there was a dessert buffet made up of donated cakes that everyone enthusiastically enjoyed.
Sunday morning marked the last Event (GCAJW4Z), with attendees gathering outside the hall to say their final goodbyes. During the Event, a 10 stage Adventure Lab went live on some nearby trails that tested our riddle-solving skills. Some were tricker, but it added to the fun as different groups of geocachers teamed up to work out the answers.
A huge thank you to Thomas, and the rest of the organizing team for putting together such an amazing Block Party celebrating 25 years of geocaching!
Geocaching HQ Lackeys attend dozens of Mega and Giga-Events around the world, shaking hands, sharing stories of adventure, and of course, geocaching! Sassy Bandit is a Front End Developer, and Tafby is a iOS Developer at Geocaching HQ. They recently traveled to Switzerland to attend the Meeting Friends Block Party 2025 (GCAJRTR).
