by Debbi | May 2, 2011 | Events, Jukebox, Pub Crawl, Stories
The event the Sandbar crew has waited for for years happened last weekend: Jimmy Buffett's return to Kansas City with the "Welcome to Fin Land" tour.
The party started early Saturday afternoon at the Sandbar. We had a pre-party with boat drinks, parrothead hat-making supplies and Ted cooking beer brauts on a grill outside. The bar was full of partiers by 2 p.m.- most of them were parrotheads with spots on our party bus to the show, but teams on a local charity pub crawl taking place downtown also detoured from their route and stopped by.
Peach had fun making a party hat for the concert, and bartender Andrew and his girlfriend Jamie decorated their brand-new commemorative concert shirts.
Our two party buses pulled up at 4 p.m. We had nearly 80 people signed up for a fun ride to the Power & Light District! Passengers ranged from staff and regulars to hard-core Parrotheads of all ages. We loaded up our buses and headed for Kansas City.
It was such a beautiful day in downtown Lawrence to be on our patio! If you were there, we'd love to see your pictures. You can email them to us at sandbar@thesandbar.com, or upload them to our Facebook page.
More stories to come…
by Debbi | May 1, 2011 | Events, Good Things
For the second year in a row, the Sandbar sponsored a team in the annual Walk MS, a fundraiser for the National MS Society.
Unfortunately, a number of our friends and regulars suffer from multiple sclerosis, so we're happy to help support research for a cure.
All of our team members who raised at least $25 got a free green Sandbar T-shirt to wear, and everyone who showed up to walk sported their new shirt.
We walked a little over 3 miles on a beautiful day in west Lawrence. Our team has raised a total of $2796- second place among the participating teams!
And, the Sandbar will donate an additional $100 to the total from our Foursquare check-in special. Every check-in at the Sandbar on Foursquare during the month of April was worth a $1 donation to the cause. We had slightly under 100 check-ins, but we're rounding our donation up.
After the walk, our team members moved on the Sandbar for a post-party with cake, snacks and fruity drinks. Join us next year!
If you couldn't walk with us or donate, remember that bartender Danny also raises money for the National MS Society. Every year he rides in the MS 150, and Danny and his team do some serious fundraising. You can check out his fundraising page here.
by Debbi | Apr 29, 2011 | Events, Good Things, Jukebox, Social Media
Saturday's a big day for the Sandbar crew!
Some of our staff and friends are participating in this year's Walk MS, a fundraiser for the National MS Society. This is the second year we've put together a team for the Walk, and so far I think we've raised more money than last year. But, in my recap of last year's event, I failed to mention our grand fundraising total, so who knows.
We've raised $2,636 so far! You can still donate if you're so inclined.
And this year, we added a new twist for our social media-obsessed friends: for every check-in on foursquare through April 30, the bar will donate a buck to the cause. We're close to $100!
Our walkers will descend on the bar afterward for a post party, which will morph into a pre-party for the event of the season: Jimmy Buffett's return to Kansas City!
We've chartered two buses to carry parrotheads to the show, and our pre-party officially starts at 2 p.m. We'll have food, drinks and parrothead hat-making supplies, and the buses will leave at 4:30 p.m. for the Sprint Center.
We even printed special commemorative T-shirts for the event! They're available in red, orange and green, and in a variety of sizes, for $12 each. The Sandbar logo is on the front, and a great graphic of "Stage Diving with Jimmy Buffett" is on the back.
We'll have plenty of stories after this weekend!
by Debbi | Apr 26, 2011 | Cool Stuff, Events, Pub Crawl
Jimmy Buffett returns to Kansas City this weekend!
We reserved a party bus to take us to the show, and our seats sold out before we could even advertise them. There's still been a lot of interest in our bus, so we decided to rent another one. But we've only got a few spots left, so if you want one, you better hurry.
Now, our first bus is a "luxury coachline" according to Peach. Our second one is not. But it will still get you to the show, and it will still be fun.
Here's the details:
- $25 per person
- Bus leaves the Sandbar at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday
- Bus returns after the show
- BYOB allowed on the bus (small coolers, please)
If you signed up on the first bus, there's no need to sign up again. Also, if you've already signed up on the first list, don't worry, you'll be on the "luxury" bus.
A sign-up sheet is available at the bar. Payment is required to reserve your spot. You can sign up in person or call the bar and pay over the phone.
We'll have a Buffett pre-party at the bar that day, too. Food, boat drinks and parrothead hat-making supplies will be available, so even if you're not riding our bus, come by for some fun!
(People on our e-mail list were notified about the second party bus first. If you want to get our news before the rest of the world, sign up for our email list.)
by Debbi | Apr 21, 2011 | Downtown, Events, Newsworthy, Social Media
Moving the Kansas Relays elite shot put event downtown, and more specifically, in front of our building, was pretty much the greatest idea ever.
The weather was great (if just a little bit chilly) and the crowd was estimated at 2,500 people. We were thrilled to be able to watch the shot put area construction right outside our window:
I even taught Dave how to post pictures on Twitter so he could keep Sandbar fans updated with the progress all afternoon. He did a great job!
We set up a trailer and portable bar behind the shot put area. Sandwiches from Sandbar Subs were available, and beer was allowed in the street. Our patio was full all night. The shot put event only lasted about an hour, which is shorter than we expected, but it brought out a great crowd for an event that most people have probably never seen before.
The shot putters were great, too. They stuck around all evening, signing autographs and taking pictures and maybe even putting a few shots somewhere else.
Here's a few pictures from our friends Wendy and Phil:
The night was a huge success!
Here are a couple other cool things to check out:
Nick Krug from the Lawrence Journal-World made an amazing time-lapse video of the entire event, including construction. His camera was on our roof.
Our Twitter buddies at Larryville Life wrote a recap of their shot put experience.
Dave was interviewed by the Kansas City Star on the roof of the bar. And by interviewed, we mean asked one question.
We wish we could keep the sand triangle. Who needs a street? As our Twitter friend @fxdgear said "Not me! Just a swimsuit, flippy-floppies and a drink with an umbrella!" We couldn't agree more.
by Debbi | Apr 19, 2011 | Downtown, Events, Social Media
We're really looking forward to the Kansas Relays and the elite shot put event that takes place downtown tomorrow. The lines have been drawn on the street, and tomorrow morning they'll start setting everything up.
Here's a little bit about what will happen:
- The competition begins at 6 p.m. There's a field of eight throwers, who are all ranked in the top 25 in the world. The fact that these guys are elite professionals makes us feel a little better about the safety of our patrons. And our windows.
- The shot put weighs 16 pounds. Some of you could probably barely lift that, let alone throw it 70 feet.
- The event requires 18 dump-truck loads of crushed limestone so that the shot put doesn't break the street. We're kind of intrigued to see how long it takes to haul all of that away.
- There will be beer in the street. We'll be selling canned beer for $3 and Shark Attacks for $4. You still have to be 21 to drink and be prepared to show two forms of ID.
- Our friends from Richards Music next door have a band, and they'll be playing some music outside after the shot put event.
- We're also hosting a monthly Lawrence Tweetup tomorrow night, so there will be lots of folks on their smartphones, tweeting and Facebooking.
We're excited to see how this event goes! What a great event for downtown Lawrence. Apparently, this is the first time a shot put competition has been held on city streets in the United States. We're hoping for a great turnout so that Kansas Relays will continue bringing events downtown.
*Some of the details in this post were provided by this article on KUSports.com.
