Richmond's Carytown & Museum District news events in Richmond Virginia

Awesomer than The Fan.

google
yahoo
bing

December 24, 2008

Carytown New Years Eve 3.0

Posted by Sam @ 8:57 am |

29 Comments.

And the purpose of the wristbands would be…what? To determine which citizens have made the optional $2 “donations”?

Jen @ December 24th, 2008 at 10:41 am
That’s too funny …..

Pat @ December 25th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Carytown NYE last year (2nd year) completely lost the homegrown feel that RVA Magazine set the first year. A victim of getting too big too fast. Kudos to them for having the balls to start this thing when no one else would try. Too bad it’s grown into a monster with a bunch of rowdy “county folk” spewing racism, hatefulness, sloppy amateur drinking habits, and the corporate sponsors instead of the proud, organic moment of city residents gathering, smiling, and celebrating local culture and unity. My friends and I have decided to avoid this like the plague, especially since the original folks behind the helm are no longer involved.

John @ December 28th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
wristbands are an op. for crowd control as well…but I am wondering why the parking decks have not been advertized for parking as a first choice before neighborhood streets.

Fiona @ December 29th, 2008 at 8:15 am
2 Bucks for a wristband…what a bargin…

bopst @ December 29th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
from RTD :

“Last year, the event cost $98,000.” This year: $125,000 to $130,000 — including nearly $60,000 for security.

This year they’re paying $30K to RPD and hiring private security, and will have a temporary emergency vehicle lane down Cary Street. You don’t see that in Times Square.

5th District rep Jewell said “I’m just a little dumbstruck and confounded.” No joke.

Sam @ December 29th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Cary street is narrow enough without an emergency vehicle lane thrown in. Planners need to choose a wider street or larger area for this event. It’s not like it does that much good for Carytown businesses anyway.

Brad @ December 30th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Wow..The past two years ive gone & had a blast. Sounds like to me that now this is about making money after they realize how many people come out to the New Years Celebration. Why pay $5 for a beer, When u can get a 24 pk from krogers! Not the mention the 2 to get in. also they are blocking access to Cary St. except for the entrances they make. Fun-Suckers!!

cassie @ December 30th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
The issue is paying 2$. My issue is paying 5$ for a lil plastic cup of beer. That’s a Rip!

cassie @ December 30th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
What i meant to type was paying 2$ to get in isnt the issue…The beer is…

cassie @ December 30th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Anyone else laughing/angry that they are trying to charge money to enter our OWN NEIGHBORHOOD? F that. I’m not paying $2.

I mean, certainly it makes sense to attempt to better secure and organize the increasing masses of people. Is it really more money than they spend on Times Square?

Holly @ December 30th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Does any of this money go to the Harvey Foundation anymore?

Robin @ December 31st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
How is it any different than the Church Hill St. Patrick’s day event…Private institution(s) putting on a public shindig for a reasonable price, charging modest admission to access an event on public streets…I look at it as an opportunity to support a positive event for our community. It is totally privately funded (I think) and in an effort to keep event goers safe they had to take on extra expense. I would rather see the $2 fee than no event.

To be frank, I think the huge emergency vehicle lane down the middle of the experience is a bigger buzz kill than the $2, but again, if that is what it takes to keep the event going, I am game

Enjoy your NYE neighbors! Have fun, Celebrate responsibly, and watchout for those who don’t…it only take one idiot to spoil it for the crowd!

While you are out there celebrating, be kind to all those RPD crowd management team members that are stuck babysitting us all instead of bringing in the new year with their buds.

Fiona @ December 31st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
To echo John’s comments from earlier, there was definitely a subset of attendees last year that appeared to be there to whoop it up, misbehave, and drink like beach week. I would hate to see this behavior, regardless of who it is from (urban, sub-urban, or “country folk”), continue to cause event planners to have to further restrict the event.

Let’s be real, what will make or break this event this year is the behavior of the attendees, not the vehic. lane and the $2 admission.

Fiona @ December 31st, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I thought the $2.00 was a donation? Maybe I’ve heard incorrectly. I’m debating on the walk over there. I went the first year and its one of my favorite NYE memories.

libby @ December 31st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Well, if they behavior of the attendees is like last year then it’s done. My friends and I were appalled at the fights, the disrespect for each other, gay bashing, blatant racism, people throwing cans, stealing alcohol, etc. Also it seemed like the RPD decided to let all the “trigger happy” rookies work that night and at midnight they rode through the crowds on horses that ended up stepping on people or knocking them over while yelling rudely for people to “get the fuck out of they way and go home”. Kudos to them for making the situation much worse and chaotic. Last year felt like a bad Times Square where instead of the “tourists” that go there we had our own
“tourists” and they didn’t know how to act. most of the people that I know that went the 1st year (the city residents that walked over) avoided last year when they heard the projected number-20,000 people.

The 1st year was the opposite. It had a wonderful feel. Lots of smiles and cheers, people from all walks of life and demographics walking over from the different neighborhoods and coming together for a beautiful, homegrown event. It felt right, historic, and unifying. It felt like a celebration of local culture, local music, local creativity. It felt great that this was happening in Richmond and it didn’t have Phillip Morris or Ukrop’s attached to it.

Last year felt very very wrong. I fear for this year and most people that I know are now looking at this event with cynicism and scoffs.

John @ December 31st, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I think it’s telling that RVAMag is no longer involved.

I think it’s also telling how much security is being stressed. I think they’re scared to death about how many people are going to be there. It’s gotten too big too fast. But it also goes to show much Richmond needed something like this.

At least the townies got to enjoy it the first year. When it was a Richmond event.

Robin @ December 31st, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Yeah, just like the city to take an event that could’ve been great-the first year was amazing-and put a price tag on it and bring in all these generic, non-progressive sponsors. Next things you know it will be called Ukrop’s NYE with crap bands like Carbon Leaf playing. I read a quote in Style that Carytown Merchants Association want it to be a family event. Who the hell brings young children out on the biggest drinking holiday of the year? Shame on the CMA.

Sheryl @ December 31st, 2008 at 7:57 pm
@ John: The picture you paint of the RPD’s action is a gross exaggeration!
“they rode through the crowds on horses that ended up stepping on people or knocking them…”
Stepping on people? knocking them over? doubtful. Being the RPD haters that they are, the RVA media would’ve jumped all over this and no doubt everyone would’ve heard. It’s true that the RPD quickly shut down the event, but the reasons were sound and obvious, the event got out of hand.

So I didn’t go to the NYE celebration this year (I attended the first two), how was it? I came back to see the streets were cleaned a bit better than last year, but still doesn’t seem like they did a terrific job.

daniel @ January 2nd, 2009 at 10:21 am
I think the cold had a huge impact on the turnout on the streets but the restaurants seemed filled through the evening. Have no idea how the VIP area turned out. We opted for a mix and match…quiet dinner in the Fan, then a hour of so of frozen NYE celebration in Carytown. I have no complaints about this year’s event.

Fiona @ January 2nd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
@Daniel re: John – The RPD’s mounties did exactly this last year. John was apparently there (as was I) and this is exactly what I saw with my own two eyes. You can doubt it all you want to, but there were tons of witnesses to this. The horses riding through the crowd WAS noted by local media. The event was *not* out of hand, the RPD was.

There had been a fight at the New York Deli (which could have happened at any bar in the city) and the medics needed to get a golf cart to the bar to get someone who had been injured out. Instead proceeding calmly and effectively, the RPD jumped at the opportunity to wield power in a blatant display of stupidity. I was on top of the Byrd theatre during this, watching it all with a great point of view. There were officers- good people, mind you- on the roof with me. They told me what was happening (they had radios). The RPD’s idea was that if they rode their horses through the tightly packed crowd, it would create a path for the ambulance cart.

This is utterly inept. The idea that after forcing their way through the crowd, the path they created would remain for more than a split second, belies their lack of knowledge of crowd control. As soon as the horses had passed, people filled in the gaps. Does a stone thrown into water create a path of air that leads to the surface? Perhaps, for a moment. But it fills in immediately.

This action by the RPD was grossly negligent for the safety of the crowd, and did more to incite panic than anything else. It is unfortunate, because outside of this one terrible decision, the RPD did a fantastic job the entire night.

I work for RVA Magazine, as a disclaimer. Again, the RPD did a *great* job with the event last year, save this one completely bad decision. I did not attend this year’s event.

ian @ January 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
@ ian @ me re: John – I was there too, saw nothing of that nature. I saw mounted cops getting people off the streets, but nothing that drastic. Perhaps it was a different section of c-town. Or, it was just my undying biased support for the RPD (fueled by the fact that everyone else loves to hate them) showing through.

daniel @ January 5th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Ian wins. Here are the photos from last year, with the horses, and one of them even with a baton…

http://wotbn.net/carytown-new-years-amazing-pics/

Sam @ January 5th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
@ Sam – I recall the batons. I recall the horses. wotbn’s coverage doesn’t mention anyone being trampled, nor do any of the comments. In fact, you said yourself that you just missed the cops “almost trampling people.”

I re-up my comment in the very same post:
I hope 2008 (now 2009) brings RPD less grief from the residents it serves and protects.

daniel @ January 5th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Why the RPD whipped out their batons in a non-threatening situation continues to boggle my mind.

Sam @ January 6th, 2009 at 12:32 am
What was the attendance figure for this year? Does anyone know?

Ross @ January 6th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
@Ross – The RTD has posted an attendance figure that you can also find via 10 S. Boulevard.

Sarah @ January 6th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
RTD says 20K saw the ball rise, while up to 27K were there at some point during the evening.

However, I think only half the people paid.

Sam @ January 6th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Sheesh. Well, all I did was go to the NYD from about 9-10:30 because I didn’t want to get stuck in an unmoving wall of 20,000 people. That’s for the youngsters and tourists.

I did pay my two bucks, for the cause, as it were.

Well, the event has grown up and out, as these sorts of things are supposed to, but Richmond has this ambivalent attitude about public celebration, yet, things can go well — look at the Richmond Folk Festival.

Problem is, I don’t think the Carytown merchants can possibly have the resources, and that’s why the city sort of stepped in with its excessive police presence and the chowder-headed decision to run an emergency lane down the middle of the street.

The merchants aren’t event planners or producers necessarily, Watermelon Festival the exception — but they’ve been doing that for years. And its in August during the day.

I guess what needs to happen is some kind of professional outfit that knows what its doing should be contracted — but, since the 2 buck admission fee idea sort of didn’t work, I don’t know where such money could come from.

If Carytown is able to organize itself as a special tax district, to pay for, say, a Carytown version of Clean and Sweep, and info booths in the parking decks maybe, perhaps some sheakles can come out of that for a New Year’s fund, or get a corporate sponsor to underwrite the whole New Year’s deal, though putting a company logo across a public event is kind of, well, hincky.

Finally, 2008 had some engine trouble, too, and not just the mounted police. The VIP area ran out of food, and was doing things like not charging women for drinks, but more for men, etc. As for getting people off the street at the party’s end, there’s really not much of a nice way to clear the way. If you’ve ever watched the end of Mardi Gras or the Times Square hullabaloo, police move in en masse and start shooing people away.

Also at the 2008 event, there was a half-hour rambling monologue on the part of the emcees that prevented Black Cash from playing all but two songs. So, the 2009 solution? Move the stage away from the natural congregation point, then not publish the bands until, I think, the night of the event. This said, whether intentionally or not, that the music isn’t important, but a beer truck (!) and armed guards were

After recently visiting New Orleans, and also seeing more events reclaiming Richmond’spublic spaces, Richmond needs to lighten up and learn somethings about the care and feeding of public celebrations.

I, too, witnessed fights and random slugging — one woman in front of the Deli just started wailing on anybody who was near by. I think she was acting out on her claustrophobia.

Harry @ January 7th, 2009 at 1:43 pm