One of our very favorite downtown events is coming back this year for the third time- the Kansas Relays shot put! It's also one of the most unique events to take place in Lawrence.
We hope you'll join us next Wednesday, April 17, at 6 p.m. in front of the bar. The street will be closed all day so the crews can set up the giant sand pit, bleachers and everything else needed for a downtown shot put contest.
We'll be selling drinks outside, and the inside bar will be open. Be sure to get down here early so you get a good seat! This event draws thousands of people downtown, especially if the weather's nice. Several of the world's top throwers will be competing.
Wednesday's event will also include prize giveaways and inflatables for the kids.
And the next night (Thursday, April 18) features the elite women's long jump event, also on 8th Street just across Mass Street.
Click here to get more info about the events. See you there!
Click here to read our post about the very first downtown shot put.
It's a cocktail of social, web and tech advice, combined with fun people and customer service. Oh, and actual cocktails.
Our friends at Philsquare, a Lawrence-based web development company, are hosting their second Webtini event at the Sandbar on Wednesday, Mar. 20 from 6-8 p.m. It's a casual and relaxed event, so feel free to drop by (as long as you're 21, of course).
The Philsquare team will be there to answer your questions about social, web development, blogging and other related topics. And, they're fun to hang out with, so even if you don't have questions come by and say hi.
You can check out Philsquare online at www.philsquare.com or their newest site, www.websiteworkbench.net, which is a go-to place for web education, tutorials and resources.
St. Patrick's Day is our favorite holiday of the year, and we spend a lot of time, money and effort making it fun not only for us, but for the community. We're proud sponsors of the Lawrence St. Patrick's Day Parade, and our staff and friends participate in many of the fundraising events and on the committee.
It all culminates on March 17 each year with the annual parade.
This year, we built a float around a theme we've considered for many years: Gilligan's Island. We've talked about this one for a long time now, but we've never been able to put together a building plan. It all came together this year.
Our building crew created half a boat called the S.S. Minnow, a giant boulder that it "crashed" into and a beach. We had the full cast of characters and a boat load of Gilligans. We even had the golf cart, native islanders and the golf cart!
Here's a couple pictures:
There's more pictures on our Facebook page, you can check them out here. (You have to be logged into Facebook to see our page.) And we'll have more to add in a few days.
Also, here's a short video made with Vine from Twitter user @uh_burton:
Sunday night was the 11th annual Pub Quiz trivia event to benefit the Lawrence St. Patrick's Day Parade, which benefits local children's charities.
Eleven years already- wow. The Sandbar has had a team in this event for at least most of those years. Our former bartender, Scottie Mack, puts the event together. We actually won last year, believe it or not.
This year we had nine smart people on our team who could cover topics ranging from military history to celebrity baby names (that's my area of expertise and I'm not ashamed to admit it).
We're sad to say, however, that we missed this question:
"John Hampton claims to be the first male to portray this downtown Lawrence character."
Got an answer? We didn't. It wasn't our question, but the team who got that one couldn't answer it, so everyone had a chance.
We didn't win the trivia game, but we finished in the top half so we're proud of that.
Yesterday the Sandbar was the site of an event new to us: hosting an author to talk about his book.
We opened up early around 3 p.m. for the Lawrence Public Library's event with Tim Dorsey, a Florida author who writes humorous crime stories with main character named Serge Storms. Yes, really.
How did this come about?
Well, the Raven Bookstore wanted to bring Tim in but they didn't have the space to set up an event. So they called the library, who said "sure!" Except that the library is currently located at the old Borders building (we like to call it "Free Borders") while renovations are taking place at the library building.
Turns out, the library had a storytime conflict with the time that Tim was booked…but those creative folks at the library figured out the perfect solution and called us.
We love the library and thought it would be fun to host a different kind of event. So we opened early for a crowd of around fifty people, some who even drove in from Topeka, many of whom are devoted fans of Tim and some who weren't familiar with his books but thought they sounded interesting.
Instead of just reading an excerpt from his book, Tim took questions from the crowd and performed more of a stand-up comedy routine. Afterward, he signed books and took pictures. We gave him a couple T-shirts. Tim, if you're reading this, take a Sandbar shirt with you next time you go someplace cool and take a picture with it for our wall of fame.
The event was a huge success, and we'd love to do something like this again! The library is a great partner and a wonderful resource for Lawrence, and the Raven is a fabulous local bookstore.
Our founder Peach also owns the Plaza Grill and Cinema in Ottawa, a movie theatre-slash-bar and grill that's been renovated into a great place to spend the evening.
In addition to showing the latest and greatest movies, the cinema also features live comedy, concerts and other events.
This Saturday night, January 5, is another opportunity to enjoy a live comedy show with Mike Baldwin and Jim Stout, followed by a concert by local country musician Travis Marvin.
Tickets are just $15 for the entire evening, and there's only room for 100 people. The comedy show starts at 8 p.m. and you must be 18 or over to attend.
This is a great deal. Only $15 for TWO comedians, plus a concert? You can't beat that anywhere!
