by Debbi | Apr 20, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Downtown, Events
What a great night!
Last night was the Adult Swim Block Party in downtown Lawrence, and we were impressed with the crowd that came out on a Monday night! One of the members of the Adult Swim crew told us that their staff estimated attendance of around 4,000. That's amazing, way to go Lawrence!
All day long, downtown Lawrencians watched as giant inflatable characters took over the block of 8th Street between Massachusetts & New Hampshire. The party started around 6 pm with games and prizes and live music to follow.
(Picture below posted on Twitter by Jeff, otherwise known as @webology, friend of the Sandbar)
We were pleased to provide hospitality for The Whigs before their set. They hung out upstairs for awhile, and our fake beach served as their dressing room. They even took a picture of it and posted it on their Twitter account.
A steady stream of customers came through the bar and partied on the patio- it wasn't nearly as crowded as a St. Patrick's Day or our anniversary party last summer, but it was a fantastic crowd for a usually slow Monday night.
I was lame and didn't take any pictures last night, but here's one I found on Twitter that was posted by @johnkary, taken from the patio of the Sandbar:
The music was over at 10 p.m., the stage was dismantled, and the street cleaned up. These people are professionals- we laughed about how the teardown compared to ours last year after our anniversary party. (Ours took forever. We dawdled and talked and laughed.)
We would love to see this become an annual event. In fact, it would be awesome if downtown Lawrence had a block party every month…
Were you there last night? What was your favorite moment? Email us your pictures or add them to our Facebook fan page!
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Adult Swim on Twitter
Adult Swim on Facebook
The Whigs on Twitter
The Whigs on Facebook
by Debbi | Apr 18, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Downtown, Events, On the Patio
We love a good block party, especially when we don't have to do the work.
Tomorrow night (Monday, April 19), Adult Swim presents a free block party at 8th and New Hampshire. The block in front of the Sandbar will be closed most of the day for setup, and the party starts at 6 p.m. It includes carnival games, prizes, free t-shirts, and other surprises.
The event is geared towards the college-age crowd, but it's free and open to anyone.
And there's music! Live performances by Motion Potion and The Whigs are sure to entertain the crowd.
No alcohol is allowed in the street, but there are several bars on the block with patios, including us. We aren't extending our patio area to be any larger, but there's plenty of room for a few folks on our patio, and we'll definitely have the windows open.
The event is open to all ages, but you must be 21 to enter the Sandbar.
RSVP on the event's Facebook page, and we'll see you tomorrow night!
(Previous post about this event can be found here.)
by Debbi | Apr 8, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Downtown, Events
Exciting news for fans of outdoor block parties!
The Cartoon Network is planning a street party on Monday, April 19, in the block of 8th Street between Massachusetts and New Hampshire- in other words, right in front of The Sandbar. The event is part of a promotions campaign for the network's Adult Swim programming.
The event consists of a "College Carnival," which features carnival type booths and games, along with a couple of bands. The Whips, from Athens, GA, will headline the event. Games begin at 6:30 p.m., and the music lasts until 9:30 p.m.
The street will close at 9 a.m. that day to allow for event set-up and will reopen at midnight after clean-up is completed.
No alcohol will be served in the street, and we are not extending our patio service like we did for our anniversary party. The event is geared toward college students, but it's free for everyone to attend.
We are really excited about this event! Monday nights aren't always the most exciting, and we love a good block party. Be sure to mark your calendar.
More information from the LJWorld:
Outside group looking to bring ‘college carnival’ to Eighth Street downtown
Carnival planned by Cartoon Network
by Debbi | Mar 4, 2010 | Downtown, Events, St. Patrick's Day
We're very excited to announce that construction of our 2010 St. Patrick's Day Parade float has officially begun! It actually started last weekend, when the longer-than-usual trailer was delivered to our rented garage space, and some of the usual suspects hauled out their power tools and lumber.
This is at least our 14th or 15th year in a row to have a float in the annual parade. Our float, like the parade itself and the crowd that watches it, has grown bigger and better every year. Except maybe for 2008, the year of the Soggy Sandbarn– the torrential downpour that day kept lots of people away from the parade and made our dancers cranky.
Every float is our favorite one at that particular time, but the 2007 Showboat stands out as perhaps our largest undertaking ever (two levels of people!), and the 2003 Love Shack was a crowd favorite that featured a palm tree falling off the float and nearly crashing into the judge's table. Fortunately, no small children or animals were injured.
We're officially behind schedule since Mother Nature has been particularly uncooperative this year. But as long as it's sunny and somewhat warm on the big day, we're not complaining.
The Parade is held on Wednesday, March 17, at 1 p.m. It begins at South Park and travels north on Massachusetts Street and across the bridge, and then from there it's anyone's guess. The Flamingo Club is still the destination, but due to never-ending construction in North Lawrence, we don't know what the actual route will be yet. (We're just hoping that our enormous float will be able to make the trip through North Lawrence, actually.)
Become a fan of the Lawrence St. Patrick's Day Parade on Facebook, and RSVP to the Parade.
by Debbi | Jan 20, 2010 | Downtown, Newsworthy, People
It seems like every time a member of the Sandbar family is in the news, another one or two follow right along.
Dave is starting his third year as a member of the Downtown Lawrence Board of Directors. The LJW had a little blurb about the new additions to the board, as well as the continuing members.
If you have ideas, suggestions, complaints, or whatever about Downtown Lawrence, feel free to send them his way. He can at least take your thoughts to the board.
It doesn't seem like it was January of 2008 when Dave started this foray into board membership. It's been an interesting two years for him, learning about the inner workings of an organization and getting up at the crack of dawn the morning after he's worked all night in order to make a 7:30 a.m. meeting. At least they're only once a month.
However, as I look back at the original post announcing his election to the board, I think we can all agree that he really hasn't changed that much.
