Our fourth annual birthday block party was last Saturday, and once again we were truly amazed at what a great night it was. So many of you came out and partied with us, and for as many people that came through our doors- or gates- there were virtually no problems.
Local band Blue Orleans (like them on Facebook here) kicked off the party around 7 p.m. on our recycled pirate ship stage. (We spend a lot of time and money building our St. Patrick's Day float, so we're thrilled to be able to use it again!) Blue Orleans has played at street parties in front of our place before, and they're always popular with the crowd. In fact, usually people are asking if they can play longer
Here's a video that Patrick shot of the band:
After Blue Orleans wrapped up, Peach introduced the newest member of the Sandbar family- Dave's baby boy. He's almost eight months old, so give him a couple years and he'll be mopping floors and wreaking havoc at the bar, just like Andrew did when he was little.
While Mark Valentine's headlining band was setting up their equipment on our ship, we played a slideshow of pictures from the past year at the Sandbar. Many of the photos were submitted by our faithful fans, and we appreciate the response we got when we asked for your pictures.
The slideshow is pretty long (though, it's not the longest one EVER as our friends over at the Larryville Chronicles seem to think) and we'll eventually get it posted on YouTube so everyone can see it.
While we're talking about the Larryville Chronicles, click here to check out their recap of our block party. It's pretty funny, and we're impressed that they got their recap posted long before we found time to write our own.
The big news of the night was the debut of a brand new hurricane video! Our current video is five years old, and while we still love it and many of you still laugh at it, it's time for something new. Patrick, Peach's brother, created a new video starring a few folks from the Sandbar. We played it at the block party, and we hope you'll stop by the bar sometime to see it in action.
Mark Valentine and the Knights finished up the night by playing all of our favorite tropical tunes.
Once again, the night was super fun and went by so fast. We can't wait until next year!
It's almost time for our fourth annual birthday block party!
This year's extravaganza will be held on Saturday, Aug. 11. The fun starts at 7 p.m. with live bands, a beer garden and tropical drinks.
Around 9 p.m. we'll have a special surprise: the unveiling of a brand new Sandbar hurricane video! We're also attempting to create the first outdoor hurricane in Lawrence. Mark Valentine and his band will play afterwards, starting around 9:45.
We're also putting together a slide show of Sandbar pictures from the past year. If you have pictures you'd like to have included, email them to us at sandbar@thesandbar.com. We'll do our best to include all the photos we receive!
There's a $5 cover charge for the beer garden, and you must be 21 to enter the beer garden and/or the bar. Alcohol must be kept within the beer garden. Otherwise, everyone young and old is welcome to join the party!
We've had some questions about the shark slide from last year. We weren't able to reserve the slide again this year, someone else beat us to it. So, it won't be there this time.
A favorite tradition of local Lawrencians- and people from far, far away, too- is the annual Downtown Lawrence sidewalk sale.
It takes place every year on the third Thursday of July, and this year promises to be a hot one. Hot, temperature-wise and bargain-wise.
We don't really do anything for the sidewalk sale, since we're a little bit off the beaten path of Mass Street, but we do have cool drinks and popcorn to snack on.
A few things to know about the sale:
The city bus system, the T, is FREE this year on sidewalk sale day! All fixed routes are free all day, and the bus is in service from 6 a.m.-8 p.m. More details here.
If you're tweeting about the sidewalk sale, be sure to use the hashtag #swsale. If you can fit #Lawrence in your tweet, use that too.
Did you know? The sidewalk sale is put on every year by Downtown Lawrence, Inc. DLI is a not-for-profit membership organization that was created to promote downtown. Members include retail, bars, restaurants, service providers and other downtown businesses.
Also, your esteemed bartender/manager Dave is president of the board of DLI! So be sure to come out and support the annual sidewalk sale tomorrow.
And we're back. After more than five years of posting here 4-5 times every week, it's now been over two weeks since our last post. We've been busy.
But we have news.
This weekend, the Tour of Lawrence is back. It's the very fun event with downtown bike racing. The street sprints take place this Friday night at 7 p.m. at 7th and New Hampshire. If you haven't seen this before, don't miss it- the cyclists are very, very fast and it's exciting.
And afterward, there's live music in our block! The Twang Daddies will play after the bike races end, and we'll have drinks for sale in the street.
On Saturday, the bike events take place on the KU campus, and on Sunday the events are back downtown.
Last Wednesday featured another successful Kansas Relays shot put event in downtown Lawrence!
An estimated 3,500 people flooded the streets to see world-class shot putters compete. The bar itself was rather empty during the competition. The weather was beautiful and we had a bar set up outside, so there wasn't much reason for people to be inside. A small group gathered upstairs in our beach to watch out the windows. Here's a picture from the second floor of the Sandbar:
Another small group, mostly our staff members and their significant others as well as some local photographers, gathered on the roof. Here's what the view looked like from up there:
It's really amazing how the city crews can get everything set up and torn down in one day. According to the local paper, a lot of the materials will be recyced and used along the river trails. (I would link you to the article with more details, but I can't find it on their site at the moment.)
The next night, the women's long jump was held on 8th Street on the other side of Massachusetts. The crowd wasn't as large, but it was still really fun.
We definitely hope the city and KU Athletics continue holding this event downtown. It's a great activity for families and is something unique for our town. The only thing that could make it better? Bring the pole vault downtown!
One of our favorite events from last year, the Kansas Relays shot put, is coming back this week!
Join us this Wednesday on our block- 8th St. between Mass and New Hampshire- for a fun time. Officials will set up a throwing area, platform and spectator viewing area during the day. The shot put event will begin at 6 p.m. and it's pretty much right in front of the Sandbar.
Some of the top throwers in the world will participate, and there will be prizes and inflatable games for kids.
We're also pulling out our St. Patrick's Day float and setting it up as a stage for several bands- the Magentlemen for sure, and maybe another one- to play after the event.
Alcohol will be allowed in the street (only on that particular block, not all over downtown) and a bar will be set up outside.
Don't miss this! It's one of the marquee events of the 85th annual Kansas Relays. Come back downtown on Thursday for the long jump event, also on 8th Street on the other side of Mass, and head to Memorial Stadium this weekend for additional track and field events. And the world's largest plate of nachos.
