The stage was in place, the beer garden was ready, and people were arriving rather quickly and much earlier than we anticipated.
One of our great surprises for the fans at our birthday party was our Master of Ceremonies- Captain Jack Sparrow. He's made an appearance at The Sandbar before, a couple of years ago when the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie opened. We loved his character so much that we sort of promised him that our next St. Patrick's Day float would be a pirate ship and he could travel down Massachusetts Street with us...but we all know how that goes. Whatever we decide to do outside of a month beforehand is definitely not going to be our float the following March.
Anyway, we redeemed ourselves with Captain Jack by throwing the party. We promised to build a pirate ship stage and give him a microphone. He even brought another pirate with him this time, and if you were there I know you'll agree that they were the real deal!
They spent lots of time mingling with the crowds, taking pictures with babies and children and, probably more frequently, grown married women swooning over "Johnny Depp."
But the pirates weren't the only special surprise guests we had...
Our fantastic neighbors at Richards Music Company helped us out tremendously with this party. They provided the sound systems, electricity, and even the opening band- Stomper. Some of the guys who work at the store play in the band, and we were excited to give them some exposure. The crowd loved them and we can't wait to see them play again.
The Bar Band was up next, much to the delight of the crowd. We're very proud of the fact that the Bar Band began at The Sandbar, started by one of our very own former staff members over a decade ago. It's a small splinter group of the KU Marching Jayhawks (not officially sponsored by KU, of course). They travel around to various bars the night before home football and some basketball games, usually decked out in Sandbar shirts that we've provided to them. Of course, we still have Bar Band members on staff.
The band members looked pretty sharp in their matching blue shirts- and we were frankly surprised that Tyler was able to round up so many of them to play at the party. They played for about thirty minutes- the KU fight song, the alma mater, and some other popular game day songs.
The Bar Band was so great we were sad when it was over! But there was much more to come at this party...as the crowd just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
Tomorrow: More music and dancing and an enormous crowd of people!
