Night Wave -- Looking back

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