Opening Weekend: Game Night and The DC Black Bar Crawl
Hey y’all, Jason here. I’m assuming y’all missed these vibes because this past weekend was intense between Play at Spin and The BBC and I loved every minute of it, here’s my recap.
BET means Black Entertainment Trivia. I’ve talked about the origin story of trivia night many times, so I’ll spare you but the current state of “Play” is a super healthy event experience. On a regular Friday, once a month, we expect 250 or so RSVPs and 100-150 real attendees which is a very above average game night experience and we’re proud of that. This month, we had 428 RSVPs and that didn’t include 80 Black members of BEN-DMV, so it was the biggest game night ever for us.
The night started at 7pm so I arrived at about 6:40pm to set up (I’ve been doing this event for 7 years, I know the flow) and there were already people waiting for us to get started. We filled up that room to standing room only before 8:15 and we promptly started trivia night at 8:30pm with 47(!) teams playing. I host the trivia, so I sped up the game to open up the rest of the venue to our people.
We ain’t really here to play no games, girl. I joked in my marketing that Game night is one of the best events for flirting and um, I was right again. I love seeing people connect and make the attempt to connect with others so while games were being played, game was being laid (that was corny but it felt good to write).
BBC means Black Bar Crawl. Having the crawl immediately after game night was a blessing and a curse; a blessing because of the momentum of one feeding into the other and a curse because of the tremendous drain on our social and physical bodies. At this point for all of our events I have to find my inspiration and set my intention and while I was tired from game night I decided to have fun and be fun for people at the crawl. Physically that looked like an all pink Living Black History fit, I was channelling my inner Cam’ron. I got to the crawl at 2:30pm for a 3pm start time and was happy to have staff already on site and people waiting to crawl.
Faces in the crowd. It’s fun to see how people arrive at the crawl, some were at game night, some local to DC and others traveled from New York, New Jersey and other places. I was expecting a slow check-in but people were ready and the first guests were waiting for us and greeted me by name after remembering me from last year. Despite all these events we do, I’m still tickled when people speak to me from a past interaction, it’s great and makes me feel like all the extra care is worth it.
Big Black Energy. The Crawl is basically a walking day party and people had the proper energy for the vibes. They took the shots, were ready to dance and did the flirting over the course of a 9 real-life hours of partying and that carried me through the day. We had a time and the DJs did the job at a high level, the flirting happened quite a bit (I’ll write about that in another entry) and the businesses were supported.
Final thoughts on opening weekend. I love our events, there’s a commitment to the culture that is all in the DNA in all we do and it’s what compels me to keep pushing. Both of these events (and The Set) feel special and feel like valid contributions to the social tapestry of not just our Black community, but any Black community. I’m pleased with the start of our 2024 season of events, I hope you can make it out some time!
