Night Wave weekend is now behind us. The entire weekend was a
success, in my opinion, but there were a few moments that really
showcased the potential. Friday night, especially, made downtown Santa
Fe feel and look completely different (in a good way). But the success
of the project proves that we have work to do in front of us. I want to
run through some observations about last weekend, and offer some
possible solutions.
A true data packet from Night Wave will be compiled and turned into The City of Santa Fe in the coming weeks. These are just some quick thoughts.
Event Programming
It
became clear to me that Santa Fe’s nightlife can really only be
improved when promoters, business owners, and venues start to offer
better programming that can reach diverse crowds. A quality nightlife
in Santa Fe starts with quality programming. Night Wave attempted to
build a weekend line-up that would attract many demographics to the same
area -- theater, comedy, dance, hip-hop, top-40, techno, disco,
dubstep, metal, etc. This sort of diversity needs to be strived for.
Instead of fighting over a piece of a tiny pie, venues, owners and
promoters need to learn how to bake a bigger pie.
By offering diverse and quality programming, we will attract diverse and quality audiences.
Promotion
Tourists
and locals alike need to know what is happening on any given week. I
believe that the shared promo we did for Night Wave worked in everyone’s
favor. This should be a regular occurrence. But ya know what? This
takes professional communication between nightlife establishments,
owners, promoters, and DJ’s. Some promoters -- like Johnny Pink with
The Underground -- was fantastic at communicating and securing his
lineup ahead of time. Other businesses were changing their lineup the
night of the event. In order to have promotion that has legs and carries
integrity, we need business owners and promoters who are professional
and communicate like professionals.
Shuttle
Supposedly
we only had 20 people ride it. But I suspect that that number is low.
Either way, the shuttle proved to be the toughest piece to communicate,
not surprisingly. Public Transportation is something that needs
consistency, repetition, and solid PR campaign. NIght Wave simply did
not have the opportunity to do that.
I don’t think the
Shuttle needs to be free. I think $1.00 rides is totally fair. But if
we build something for the longterm, we gotta have a system that
interacts with a smartphone app. If someone can look at their phone and
know where the bus is, they will be more likely to ride it. The
thought “well what if it doesn’t show up?” kills the system.
Additionally,
I think a late-night shuttle route should drive right down San
Francisco St. and pick people up in front of Evangelos/Skylight. This
was my personal mistake. In hindsight, the shuttle needed to be present
to all the people who were on the corner.
Food Trucks
On
Friday night, it seemed like all aspects were clicking. And because of
that, downtown Santa Fe felt like a completely new city. The three
food trucks were huge components of this. It was so obvious to me: The
positive vibes that we felt downtown could largely be contributed to
the fact that people were enjoying food. Aggro heads are calmed with
tasty tacos.
And I loved the trucks that were at the event,
but in the future we need to have trucks that want to stay open until
2:15am. This may mean new entrepreneurs starting up their own food
truck (Jonah, looking at you man!). Dr. Field Goods and Street Food
were total champs, but they didn’t seem too psyched that they had to
stay until the early morning. Staying open until 2:15am is really
important.
I also wish there was more dedicated street space for trucks and seating. (I will touch on this more later)
Outdoor Visuals/Night Time Art
The
work that Lumenscapes, Benji Geary, and Dave Mcpherson put into the
outdoor visual component really made the weekend feel special and
vibrant. The projection on The Lensic was awesome as it hovered over
our makeshift nightlife zone. And the moments of colored lamposts
created a festival atmosphere. I would love to see the city commission
summertime visuals on an annual basis that coincides with weekend
nightlife events.
Police Presence
The
SFPD handled Night Wave so well. They had control, but were not
overbearing. I hope SFPD keeps this spirit as we move forward. As
police grow aggressive, it escalates the aggression of others, we know
this. And watching SFPD have fun while being police officers really
made the mood of the event feel so positive.
Buskers
More
performers should get busking licenses and more performers should
perform up until midnight around the bars. It felt magical to walk out
of a club and stumble upon random brilliance.
But, it would
be great if the city had some better lighting in some key places. Burro
Alley, for instance, is a great place to busk but the lighting is not
thoughtful. It would be great if there were some “busking stages” of
sorts, where anyone could set up, flip a switch, and have a nice public
outdoor space to play.
Galisteo St.
So, it
seemed like most of the chaos the Night Wave weekend was caused by
traffic heading up Galisteo and turning either left or right on to San
Francisco. That corner (in front of Evangelo's) is where so much foot
traffic ends up crossing and congregating. It seems like the obvious
choice to close down Galisteo on Friday and Saturday nights during the
summers. This will allow for food trucks to be parked down Galisteo,
buskers to perform, and outdoor seating to be placed.
City Cleanup
At
the end of the night on both Friday and Saturday I realized that
someone needed to do cleanup. Since Night Wave was out of the norm for
the city, I did not expect our city workers to handle the extra mess.
And the last thing I wanted was business owners to wake up in the
morning with overturned burgers and squirting ketchup packets on the
sidewalk. So I put on rubber gloves and cleaned.
But it
dawned on me that having extra trash cans and cigarette receptacles is
not enough. If Santa Fe is going to have a dedicated nightlife
district, we need to allocate extra city resources to cleanup. A
nightlife zone will only work if the daytime businesses are assured and
shown that cleanliness is a top priority.
Conclusion
Night
Wave was a tremendous success and starting next summer, I would love to
see Night Wave happen every weekend from Memorial Day to Fiestas. It
was clear that -- contrary to popular belief -- Santa Fe actually does
have the demographic to support a vibrant nightlife.
I see us
moving towards a consistent Night Wave model, activated every weekend
from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with road closures, vendors, food,
outdoor art installation, etc. I think we can significantly grow the
size of the pie instead of fighting over crumbs. The audience exists to
support this.
But lets be clear about something: We will
not sustain an audience if the quality of the programming does not
increase. Venues and promoters and owners need to produce consistent
and quality nights of entertainment that will draw diverse crowds who
start their nights earlier. We need nightlife business from 7pm - 2am.
We need a nightlife audience that includes Baby Boomers, tourists, and
those of us who don’t want to listen to top-40. We need a nightlife
that represents the diversity of our city. And that is not something
the city can do for us. That is OUR responsibility -- the promoters, the
venues, the business owners -- to step our game up.
I want
to thank everyone for helping out. I already mentioned the city
employees in an earlier post, but others deserve recognition too: Megan
Burns for organizing food and buskers, Katelyn Peer (Creative Santa Fe)
for helping with licensing and permits, Shannon Murphy and Katherine
Morgan (AHA) for the data collection, Emily Montoya (Dirt Girl) for all
the promo, Maggie Thornton (Mindshare Studios) for the website, Jo Dean
and Jimmy Heil (Lumenscapes) for the beautiful lighting elements, Benji
Geary, Dave Mcpherson, and Jake Snider (Meow Wolf) for video and light
installations, Mike Baca for running sound at the last moment, Paul Feathericci, Augustine
Ortiz, Dominick Gonzales, Isaiah Rodriguez, Max B.K., Johny Broomdust,
Patrick Noble, Victor Romero, Sol Bentley, John Luna, Johnny Pink, and
Charlie Parker for booking events during Night Wave.
**Please add your comments and suggestions below. Thank you all!! <3
