HighBall was *amazing*
Nov 1, 2008 The Story of My Life
I’m not awake enough to put actual words in my head and make them come out of my fingers onto the computer. I am so tired!
My first job was selling beer tickets with a very nice young woman named Ashley. We were both wearing feathered Mardi Gras masks, which was so smart of us to be matchy-matchy even though we’d never met until we were standing next to each other trying to memorize drink prices. How it worked is that people would come to us and say, “I want enough tickets to buy this many beers” and we’d have to do math (beers were four bucks — four tickets, which were a buck apiece — and other drinks were other prices) and then they’d give us their money and we’d have to do math again and also check IDs, give them bracelets that showed their IDs were approved, count the tickets out and get the change all while in feathered Mardi Gras masks with little peripheral vision. But it was fun because people are in a good mood when they’re dressed up and buying drink tickets. Plus I was working while the Floorwalkers were playing and they were terrific. (Ashely decided she was in love with them after their set. She said this repeatedly; that’s how true it was.) We were in the Haiku parking lot, right where the High Street barrier was set up so we also got some foot traffic from people who weren’t sure what was going on. Most of ‘em were pretty excited to find out there was going to be this enormous street party right where they were already hanging out.
Ok, so that was from 5:30 to 8:30pm when it was slow. Mostly I got to watch the costumes, which were pretty great. People took their dressing-up very seriously. When my shift was over I got to finally see the rest of HighBall on the way back to the volunteer tent.
The street was packed and everyone seemed to be dancing or at least bouncing up and down to the music. Nina West was working the stage and people were cheering and screaming and I really wanted to just stop and watch but onward! I had to get to my next volunteer gig.
So from 8:30pm to midnight I poured beer at the truck near the stage. I didn’t get to see any of the fashion show though because the people? The people can drink. And what they like to drink best is Bud Lite. Gallons and gallons of Bud Lite. The music was really good and I was working with a gorilla, Joe the Plumber, a large hot dog and a woman who looks great in a bikini. We were kept going pretty much non-stop, especially the hour before last call when Joe and I just stood next to each other and pulled cup after cup while everyone else jumped, dodged around each other and slammed the beer down in front of happy customers.
Most of the customers were very nice and pretty patient (although some were frustrated to find out that they had to stand in line to get tickets before we could pour them beer). There was one annoying kid who called me “sweetheart” even though I’m pretty sure I’m old enough to be his mother (if I’d had him when I was Bristol’s age) but that’s youth for you — full of hubris.
After HighBall shut down, I stuck around for another couple of hours helping pack stuff up and doing some mindless standing around looking at the carnage. Spirits were still high although the volunteers looked generally hammered. We think the turn-out was pretty good, especially for the first year. The police there said that next year we should have double the crowds and we certainly learned a lot doing it this first time.
It’s amazing though that Charly and John basically made this thing up and then made it happen. It was hugely ambitious and they pulled it off!
I feel lucky to have been part of it and have an insider-view of the event. I also had a great time getting to know some new folks in Columbus. I’ll miss the Two-for-Tuesday meetings, too, even if Madison won’t miss getting “babysittered” while I was there.
Anyway, I’ll share some pics when they show up in flickr (they’re starting to trickle in) because it really was spectacular. I said on the Short North blog entry today that it’s the Halloween event that Columbus didn’t know it was missing. Truly, a city as creative and artistic as Columbus needs a Halloween event like this and I hope/believe it’ll become an institution just like the monthly Gallery Hop, (which is tonight by the way).
I’m glad it was a success!
I so wish we had something like this. Was this an adults only event? There seems to be nothing for teenagers to do for Halloween a lot of times. Rory trick or treated with friends (all in costumes, all polite) and Mallory went to a party that turned out to be mostly older college kids, so she and her friends left. I wish there was a community thing were they could dance, see entertainment, etc. Something halfway between trick or treating and going to bars in costumes.
LisaV, it was pretty adult. There was a dog show early on when things were calm but it got more adult as it got later. I probably would have gone when I was 16 but then I was going to bars when I was 16 (fake ID). But the plan was always to make something that was for folks who’ve grown out of going on campus for Halloween but wanted something more interesting than a run-of-the-mill party. (The Short North is our arts district and lots of neat stuff happens there, which reminds me that they had some street performers in the crowd, too, like folks on stilts and professional dancers.)
I wish I could have gone! But I got the “Halloween is for the family” talk.
So glad you had fun! Wish I’d been there for the inaugural event. Maybe in 2009.