Post #579070 by Mai Tai on Sun, Mar 6, 2011 2:43 AM

On 2011-03-02 22:37, JOHN-O wrote:
It might be nice to get input by people who ran the Nor Cal Tiki crawl on lessons learned.

Okay, I'm willing to throw my hat into the ring, and help organize this idea/event, and/or give advice and observations from throwing the Tiki Central Tiki Crawls in the S.F. Bay Area.

Right off the bat, the first thing to know is that running a Tiki Crawl with a chartered bus on multiple days with bands and other hired entertainment is a break even situation - at BEST. I'm only working a part time gig right now (it was two part time gigs, but now it's down to one), so I can't afford to bear the financial responsibility of covering a tiki crawl's finances, especially if it's going to be in the red (which it most likely will be). Some costs can be covered by some sponsorship, which I could set up and secure, but it is much easier to obtain free stuff such as rum and juice for the bus, than it is to secure money, or get people to perform for free. And letting people know that the event that you are throwing isn't a "for profit" thing, that it's break-even at best, doesn't really help the matter, no matter how honest and noble your intentions are.

Second, if you have a bus for a good three days, say a Thursday-Friday-Saturday, then you will not sell all the available seats on all three days, especially on Thursday. People will tell you how you need extra seats on those days, because they are coming, and bringing so-and-so, but when it comes to everyone actually buying all those available seats, it's a different story. Plus, people are either broke from this economy, or can't risk getting hammered enough on a Thursday that they either show up hung over for work on Friday, or have to call in sick. And people do end up getting hammered on a tiki crawl.

Third, people can only really handle a good four stops per day on a crawl. No matter what they say, our experience in throwing extended tiki crawls for the past four or five years is that by 11pm or 12 midnight, people are DONE, and want to go back to their hotel. There will be a small handful of people that will make one last stop together until close to last call, but there is usually only around 5 or 6 of them on a consistent basis, everyone else is fast asleep at the anchor hotel by that point.

Fourth, you can't please everyone. You will hear constant criticism of "Why did you pick THIS place???" and "I wish you would have gone to THAT place instead!" "Why can't we go to that bar that is all themed about toilets?" or "Such-and-Such is the latest mixology rage, we should go there, even though it has nothing to do with Tiki". So be prepared for more than your fair share on that. You basically have to figure out itineraries for certain areas, and make the best fits for those areas.

Fifth, it should really only be you and one or two other people at most that helps plan out the itinerary. Too many cooks spoil the soup. If you have too many people that try to plan things out, then there will be disagreements, and perhaps compromises that you or others will regret later. If you have more than a couple of people help you out in planning an event like this, you better be sure that all of you will be on EXACTLY the same page. Hanford and Martin and I all got along well and communicated our wants and desires when planning out our Tiki Crawls, but we still had our squabbles and disagreements, though they were all pretty much very minor.

Sixth, You can't hit all the tiki bars in one day, or one weekend, even though we all would like to try! :) And Southern California is so large in scope as compared to the Bay Area, that some places would be spread really far apart from each other. I think a big part of the success of a bus chartered bar crawl is not spending hours on a bus, but instead having relatively short bus jaunts that lead to enjoyable stops at each location.

Seventh, the people throwing the crawl will not have time to enjoy it themselves. Ever see Otto and Baby running around like crazy addressing all kinds of issues at Tiki Oasis? It's kind of like that. No, it's EXACTLY like that. Just a few of the many items that you will have to deal with are making sure you have secured all the items for the goodie bags, handing them out, making sure that your bus driver knows how to get to each location, making sure that everyone starts settling up their tabs in time to catch the bus and not slow down the schedule, then herding them all into the bus in a timely fashion, etc., which gets harder and harder at each stop as people get more and more sloshed. Throw in the sale of an official tiki crawl mug to that mix, and all of the other additional things that it will require, and you will really have your hands full. Telescopes, I don't want to be a kill joy, but if your intentions are to throw this tiki crawl so you can hang out and catch up with your buddies, including friends from out of town that you haven't seen in a while, then you're probably not going to experience that. But if you know in advance what you're in store for, and are cool with that, then that's a different story. :wink:

Eighth, and final point for tonight, you are going to need several friends to help volunteer to keep things flowing smoothly. Not just one or two friends, SEVERAL. They are going to help you stuff goodie bags, make punch for the bus, carry heavy cases of water, hand out goodie bags, make sure people get name tags and wrist bands, check people in, sell mugs, break up skirmishes and non wanted amorous advances, and stay sober enough for the whole event each day to manage a bunch of fun lovin' tiki folks. Basically they are going to be your designated "Cat Herders". And they are going to wonder if it was worth the free bus ticket you comp'ed them to put up with all of that. Needless to say, they are going to have to be a good friend, and someone you can trust, and who can trust you.

So, that's a lot of food for thought. But it can be done. Jeff pinged me when he was thinking about throwing a Southern California Tiki Crawl. I thought he had a good idea, and had a good list of places. But it takes a lot of effort to coordinate such an event, especially when you figure how much work you will have to do for a break-even situation at best. I kicked the idea around with Boris a couple of years back, and even pitched to him the idea of "The Amazing Tiki Race", where we hit EVERY tiki bar in California in a weekend - with a designated driver or two, of course. Needless to say, Boris brought me to my senses on that one.

If you want any more info, or have any further questions, just let me know, and I'd be more than happy to answer them. I guess I could come on board to help things out, if it was wanted or needed. Okay, hope this info helped in some way! Cheers,
-Mai Tai