International tiki day is an unofficial world wide celebration or tiki culture and tiki bars. Every year (since 2003), on the second Saturday in August, tiki fans around the globe celebrate International Tiki Day as homage to exotic cocktails, Polynesian pop culture, and the tropical spirit that defines the tiki lifestyle. There are events, parties and celebrations regarding this, mostly on tiki bars. Back then, in late 2002. on Tiki Central it has been proposed to celebrate Tiki Day, thats how it began https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1655
Tiki Bar is an type of tropical tahemed bar that resembles an imaginative escape to a tropical paradise (typically associated with Polynesian and other South Pacific cultures). They feature tiki totems, paintings, tiki mugs, many accessories from jungle, beach and aquatics, as well as tropical coctails (that is a must). And they are often very colorful with exotic scene. There are commercial and home tiki bars. Home tiki bars are created by tiki fans, while commercial ones operate as any bar or restaurant. What is truly beautiful that people adapted them everywhere, in basements, backyards, by pools, terraces, shacks, on beaches… You can see various adaptations of tiki bars at various places. And people usually wear tropical shorts and related wardrobe to add to the ,,tropical effect”.
The golden age of tiki culture flourished in the post-World War II era. Returning soldiers from the Pacific theater brought back a fascination with the cultures they had encountered, and a prosperous American public was eager for new forms of entertainment. Tiki bars, with their promise of a far-flung adventure, became a widespread trend across the United States throughout the 1950s and 60s. The history of the tiki bar is a uniquely American story, born from the imagination of one man and fueled by a nation’s desire for escapism.
In 1933, at the end of Prohibition, a man named Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, who would later legally change his name to Donn Beach, opened “Don’s Beachcomber” in Hollywood, California. Beach, a former bootlegger who had traveled the South Pacific, created a meticulously crafted environment filled with bamboo, rattan furniture, fishing nets, and artifacts he had collected. This immersive decor, combined with a menu of exotic rum-based drinks with mysterious names like the Zombie and the Vicious Virgin, proved to be a massive success, attracting Hollywood celebrities and locals alike.
A few years later, in 1937, Victor Bergeron, who would become known as Trader Vic, transformed his Oakland restaurant, Hinky Dinks, into a tiki-themed establishment after being inspired by a visit to Don the Beachcomber. Trader Vic’s would go on to become a global chain and further popularize the tiki phenomenon, creating iconic cocktails like the Mai Tai.
The popularity of tiki bars began to wane in the 1970s and 80s, as tastes changed and the aesthetic came to be seen as kitschy and outdated. However, the late 1990s and early 2000s saw a significant revival of interest in tiki culture. A new generation, drawn to the craftsmanship of classic cocktails and the retro appeal of the mid-century modern era, began to rediscover and celebrate the tiki bar.
We also have our own home tiki bar on big terrace, Rapa Matatiki, that exists for years seasonally (from March to late Sepatember) and is awesome locally known place for good times and atmosphere and tiki style. Our friends visit it frequently and we organise thematic celebrations there, and of course we join and celebrate International Tiki Day.
Here you can find a lot o tiki bars at this place https://mytiki.life/
And here is small album of various tiki bars
