by Debbi | Apr 28, 2011 | Downtown, Newsworthy, Social Media
I spotted something cool on Facebook this morning: the Lawrence Top 5 City Guide. I love Facebook's way of telling us the pages that our friends liked; 9 times out of 10, that's how I find new, cool Facebook pages to follow.
The page is just what it says: a guide to the top 5 spots in Lawrence in several different categories like restaurant, bar and places to play. We're proud to be chosen as the #4 bar in Lawrence, and we're in excellent company among some of our favorites!
The page explains that a group of 30-something Lawrence residents who love Lawrence, so they got together and picked their favorite places. It's not scientific, they didn't poll the world and your opinion is likely to be different. Face it, favorite places are very personal and very subjective!
It's a very cool and beautifully designed photobook, highlighting some great places in Lawrence! Thanks for including us!
Image borrowed from the Lawrence, KS Top 5 City Guide Facebook page. Isn't it fabulous?! Go like it.
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 14, 2011 | Downtown, Events, Newsworthy
We LOVE events taking place in Downtown Lawrence, and we especially love events that take place in our block.
This year, the Kansas Relays is trying something new: they're bringing three track and field events to downtown Lawrence!
April 20:
The elite men's shot put will be on 8th Street between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The street will close at 6 a.m. to allow for set up of a shot put area. The competition starts at 6 p.m. and will end around 8 p.m. The street will reopen at 11 p.m.
We love that they chose our block for the shot put. We've already made all kinds of jokes about where we'll be putting our own shots that night.
Our friends from Richard's Music next door will also be playing a concert later that night, and beer will be available for sale also.
April 21:
The elite men's long jump will take place on the other side of 8th Street, between Massachusetts and Vermont.The street will close at 11 a.m., the competition starts at 6 p.m., and will end around 8 p.m. Again, the street should be open by 11 p.m.
Also that day, the Kansas Relays Street Mile will start in the 700 block of New Hampshire at 5:30 p.m. and finish in the 700 block of Vermont.
This event will impact several areas of Downtown Lawrence. The route wll go down New Hampshire, turn right onto 11th St., cross Massachusetts, and turn right on to Vermont. The intersections will temporarily be closed until all the runners pass through. The organizers anticipate the event should be completed by 5:45 p.m., and all streets will be reopened at 6:15 p.m.
We're super excited about these unique events being held downtown. The Kansas Relays take place every year, but many people in Lawrence never have a reason to be involved or even know it's going on. Bringing some of the events downtown is a great way to involve the whole community, and it gives us all something different to do for an evening!
We hope you'll all come out and help support these great events!
We got a nice mention in a KUSports.com column about the event by Tom Keegan today. Check it out!
by Debbi | Mar 19, 2011 | Newsworthy, St. Patrick's Day
Another St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, and we're still recovering from all the fun. The weather was perfect, the crowds were great and we had as much fun as we always do!
This year, we got back to our roots and designed a tropical-themed float complete with a working volcano and lots of tiki heads, grass skirting and floral accents:
Above: our float lined up on 13th St., hours before the parade started, and the float and all its riders at the Flamingo Club after the parade.
We had a great time singing and dancing down Massachusetts Street to "Hot Hot Hot," "Volcano," and "Scatman." Dave led the float crew and the crowd in a massive sing-along. We even had a bongo player front and center on the float.
Here's a short video of our float, shot by our friend Wendy:
We found a couple other videos online:
- This one, by Mark Boyle, who used to work for Channel 6 in Lawrence and actually helped build our 2009 float, the Love Train.
- 6NewsLawrence included our float in their parade highlight video.
- And, the LJWorld included our float in their video. You can see us around the 1:20 mark.
We have a few more video clips we'll share later. Some of the float, and some of the shenanigans on float day.
The annual parade ended at the Flamingo Club in North Lawrence, where food, drinks and the awards ceremony awaited. We're proud and excited that once again, we won the grand prize traveling trophy!
If you're on Facebook, you can check out our St. Patrick's Day photo album for pictures of float-building and the big day. (You have to be logged into Facebook, and 21 or older, in order to view our page.)
We'll be posting the pictures to our Flickr page soon, also, for those of you who aren't on Facebook.
by Debbi | Mar 15, 2011 | Newsworthy, St. Patrick's Day
The other day I searched for "Sandbar" on the LJWorld.com site to see if anything interesting came up. I used to do this on a more regular basis, but the search results didn't seem to work very well. The search results still seem to be funky sometimes, but occasionally they work for me.
It was a stroll down memory lane checking out the LJW archives.
They've got a picture of almost every St. Patrick's Day parade float we've built:
And so much more. More float pictures, block party pictures and videos and random pictures from New Year's eve celebrations and the cardboard boat race parade that used to take place downtown.
We love looking back at floats from the past to see how far we've come! Every year Dave wants to build something bigger and better than the year before. We can't wait to show off this year's float- we think you'll like it!
by Debbi | Feb 22, 2011 | Cool Stuff, Events, Jukebox, Newsworthy
Fun event coming up this Friday! The KC Limits radio show will be live on the air from 7-9 p.m. at The Sandbar, celebrating their 100th show.
The Sandbar might be known for its island Jimmy Buffett music, but there's a special place in our hearts for the music known as red dirt or Texas country. We have a little bit of it on the jukebox, mostly in mix/compilation CD's, but Dave has an ample amount on his iPod and he'll kick it on for special occasions.
This is one of those occasions.
Our friend Justin hosts the weekly KC Limits show on 106.5 The Wolf radio station, from 9-midnight every Sunday night. He plays the best of red dirt country music, along with some of your favorite outlaw and legendary country artists mixed in.
Many of these artists play in Lawrence and Justin always comes up for the shows, usually meeting us at the Sandbar beforehand. We like to think we've become an unofficial pre-party spot for Lawrence's red dirt shows.
This Friday, Robert Earl Keen comes to town. Don't know him? His college neighbor was Lyle Lovett, so if you like Lyle's music you'll probably love Robert Earl Keen. You can read more about him here. The Josh Abbott Band opens the show at the Granada. Tickets are only $20 in advance, and that is a steal.
Come on out to the Sandbar on Friday to see what a live radio show is all about, and then head to the Granada with us for a great concert!
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