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Tiki event in Monterey???? |
Okolehao
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 03, 2006
Posts: 234
From: Monterey, CA
|  Posted: 2007-07-06 2:21 pm Permalink
Again, I really appreciate the feedback I've gotten so far. I hope people will keep this thread going.
I'll admit I'm an outsider here, but I have lurked a long time on Tiki Central. I'm looking forward to introducing myself at Tiki Oasis and hope that I might be accepted into the community. I'll bring my 15 year old Rhum Barbancourt and bottle of Okolehao and do shots with you.
Just to let you know a little more about me and my interest in this, I can tell you, sincerely, I'm not interested in making any money. The first event I ever planned was a Bluegrass Gospel concert series that was free to the public. I paid the bands, who were very generous with their time, with a collection that was taken up at each event. They made some more money selling their albums after their shows. I did all the planning an marketing. I actually spent my own money getting it together because it was something I wanted to do. I wasn't a part of the Gospel community. I just liked the music. I have the same attitude about doing a Tiki event. I just want to have something fun happen in my neck of the woods.
Something mentioned was cost. I just talked with a group sales agent at what I think would be a good place to hold an event where, with a small commitment of 50 people, I can make it break even. I could sell tickets at ~$40 a piece with a on site hotel rate of $99! And get this - that's on the Saturday of the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend. Now that's not going to allow me to book groups like Ape or the Blue Hawaiians, but I can get 3 local acts and maybe a D.J.(any volunteers?) If I can get 10 vendors willing to pay $50 a piece I can also get a banquet room for their sales. That's a lot for a vendor if their only buyers are the ticket holders, but I have contacts with the local press who will do some P.R. and bring in the public during the day. Here's the facility I checked into: http://www.bayparkhotel.com/
Now I know winter in Monterey isn't exactly like July in Hawaii, but a party is a party. And if I have some volunteers to decorate we could easily make their Safari Club Lounge into a nice Tiki Bar.
Again, I would want to work with you guys. I'd have to work with you guys. I'm not into boosting my ego, resume, or pockets. This is just for the fun.
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Okolehao
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 03, 2006
Posts: 234
From: Monterey, CA
| Posted: 2007-07-06 2:52 pm Permalink
I wanted to add, aquarj, that I think you have got the right idea about local history. I can't answer all your questions, but it would be fun to do the research. ; )
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JenTiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 16, 2006
Posts: 1817
From: An island in the bay
| Posted: 2007-07-06 2:55 pm Permalink
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On 2007-07-06 14:21, Okolehao wrote:
And get this - that's on the Saturday of the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend.
.....
Now I know winter in Monterey isn't exactly like July in Hawaii, but a party is a party.
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Another thing that the great tiki events have in common is the option of partying outdoors. I know you mentioned a "beach party" in your first post, but that's just not going to happen in Monterey in January! Too damned cold to even pretend in you're in a tropical locale. It's great to have an ocean nearby ... but what good is it if you'll get hypothermia just by sticking your toe in it.
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On 2007-07-06 14:16, aquarj wrote:
And, ahem, to any resident of Alameda protesting about a "long" 90 min driving distance to an event, I respectfully submit that your perspective is skewed by living walking distance from one of the best contemporary tiki grottos in America!
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As one of the residents of Alameda living within walking distance of Forbidden Island, I must respond to this. I believe if you poll the tikiphiles living in Alameda, you'll find that most of us are willing to drive 7-8 hours to a great tiki event ... and many of us will be doing just that in two weeks. But, yeah, 90 minutes is a bit much to ask for an event thrown together by an unknown entity, with unknown entertainment, in a less-than-tiki town.
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ivanchan
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2007
Posts: 114
From: www.ivanchan.com
| Posted: 2007-07-06 3:06 pm Permalink
I think your heart's in the right place, and as an event planner, I think it's in your instincts to gather--and create--a group of like-minded people for a lot of fun!
I, for one, would love a tiki event in Monterey--Santa Cruz would be even better. Sometimes it's not about the tiki that's already in a place, it's the tiki that tikiphiles bring to a place, and that can have a great effect.
Thanks for putting the idea out there!
Take care,
I.
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Mai Tai
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 21, 2004
Posts: 1430
From: Exotic Isle of Alameda
| Posted: 2007-07-06 6:21 pm Permalink
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On 2007-07-06 14:16, aquarj wrote:
And, ahem, to any resident of Alameda protesting about a "long" 90 min driving distance to an event, I respectfully submit that your perspective is skewed by living walking distance from one of the best contemporary tiki grottos in America!
-Randy
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But going to an event like that would entail leaving the Island, and what Alamedan wants to do that? Just ask Midite Tiki about the long and arduous journey to Alameda.
But on a serious note, unless I missed it somewhere in the above posts, I don't hear any Alameda folks complaining about going over to the Monterey Bay area for an event like this. I know that Coco Loco and I would go (after all, we drove all the way down to Vista to attend Monkeyman's lamp making class). I'm sure it's the same for most of the folks in Alameda, as well as the East Bay and other regions in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
In fact, there's quite a pool to pull from in Northern California. We've got folks spread out from Novato down through the Peninsula to Silicon Valley and the South Bay and back up through the East Bay and all the way out to the Central Valley and Sacramento and beyond. If the event is good enough, just about all of these people will show up. Hell, if the event is just okay to lackluster, they'll probably still show up - once. And if the event looks really promising, then you'll start to pull people from the Southern California region and beyond as well. Seems to me that what I just typed is common sense, and I probably didn't need to type it, but there it is as my opinion anyways.
Also as a caveat, there have been other events that had a fairly strong pull, but turned out just okay depending on what point of view you're looking from. Take the Tiki Invasion at the Mission Tiki Drive Inn down in Montclair, for example. Several of us NorCal folks made the trip down there, at least 5 of us were from Alameda, and we had a great time. There were great bands, like the Martini Kings, and the Ghastly Ones, and vending, and B movies, and a great cross pool of folks into tiki, rockabilly, vintage cars, etc. But the vending turned out to be kind of lackluster, not due to the fault of the vendors, but no one was really buying anything. The artists that were selling their wares didn't have much success, and I wonder if most of them even covered their vending expenses and gas, especially since a couple of them were from Northern CA as well. People like Monkeyman have commented that the Tiki crowd can be a frugal bunch, even at an event like Oasis.
So from a vending standpoint, the event was kind of a flop. From a purely tiki standpoint, the tiki crowd had kind of a low turnout. But the tiki folks that were there pretty much knew each other and had a great time. We rolled out astroturf and put a white picket fence around our parking spot, scattered around some pink flamingos, and ended up getting squeezed out of our own party space!
From a tiki event standpoint, it felt more like a smaller event, like HooptyLau. Have you checked out some of the threads here on TC about the HooptyLau events? Anyone that has ever been to a HooptyLau event can argue that it just might be one of the very best tiki events evar! We have that good of a time at the event, and people come up from Southern CA to attend. But one of the things that makes the event so good is all of the planning and legwork executed by the gratious HooptyLau hosts The Drunken Hat and TikiCleen. They do a great job of tying in visits to old tiki haunts like Minnie's and the Stockton Islander that now basically reside in the 'Hood. And we have fun partying at these places while we risk getting our asses kicked, lose various members of our crew, and have the gasoline stolen out of our van at the same time. The Drunken Hat and TikiCleen use their house as the base for the event, and most of us crash at a local motel. To me, HooptyLau is an example of an event that is a great success on the fun scale for the Ohana without bands and without vending.
As a final example, Tiki Farm will be having their Big Ol' Bash pretty soon. I'm basically unemployed right now (but not complaining), yet Coco Loco and I will still find a way to make that trek down to Southern CA to attend that event. Can you create an event that will have the same kind of draw? If so, then people will come.
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Coco Loco
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 21, 2004
Posts: 821
From: Exotic Isle of Alameda
| Posted: 2007-07-06 7:14 pm Permalink
Thanks JT! That's exactly what I meant. I wasn't complaining, but am not going to drive to a destination that's not of interest from a Tiki perspective for tiki. That's all. Mai Tai said it all. 
Uggg, now I have to walk to Forbidden Island. Ohhh, the pain. JUST kidding!!! It's not Weds or Thursday. And it's a good 3 minute drive ya know. 
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On 2007-07-06 14:55, JenTiki wrote:
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On 2007-07-06 14:16, aquarj wrote:
And, ahem, to any resident of Alameda protesting about a "long" 90 min driving distance to an event, I respectfully submit that your perspective is skewed by living walking distance from one of the best contemporary tiki grottos in America!
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As one of the residents of Alameda living within walking distance of Forbidden Island, I must respond to this. I believe if you poll the tikiphiles living in Alameda, you'll find that most of us are willing to drive 7-8 hours to a great tiki event ... and many of us will be doing just that in two weeks. But, yeah, 90 minutes is a bit much to ask for an event thrown together by an unknown entity, with unknown entertainment, in a less-than-tiki town.
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[ This Message was edited by: Coco Loco 2007-07-06 19:18 ]
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Okolehao
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 03, 2006
Posts: 234
From: Monterey, CA
| Posted: 2007-07-06 10:22 pm Permalink
I've gotten a few 'go get em' PMs from people that seem to indicate there is some interest in a small event here. I can see though that taking on something even close to Oasis is really silly for now. I can arrange it, but I see that it wouldn't be organic enough to be taken seriously.
But since I started this idea based on my love of the music, would there be interest in something really simple like a Tiki themed party at one of our clubs? I'd love to do something in a local Tiki bar like Hulas, but it's just too small; the back room only holds 34 people and there's no room for live music. Not that that couldn't be the starting point for dinner or something. What if I could book someplace like our major club, Sly McFlys on Cannery Row (where my boss is the booking agent)with a night of music that's not just a private party but one that's open to the general public? They charge a cover on the weekends to pay for their bands and a civilian crowd, besides the tikiophiles, could help pay for a quality Lounge, Hapa Haole, Surf line up.
There could be something like a preparty at Hulas, then entertainment at Slys. No one would have to buy dinner, drinks, or tickets to anything unless they wanted to. Get drunk at Hulas, get drunk at Slys, or don't get drunk at all but just hang out and meet friends. I know something small like this isn't going to get people from North Dakota flying in, but I would hope San Jose south might get fired up. And I could still get a hotel group discount, if there was enough interest, for people who'd want to spend the night and do the room party thing.
What do you think? Viable or not?? Worth it, or not???
At least you could go to the aquarium or take a whale watching tour the next day while recovering. :0
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RevBambooBen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 12, 2002
Posts: 7217
From: Huntikington Beach
| Posted: 2007-07-06 11:51 pm Permalink
I'm afraid of Seagulls
so sorry.
I can't make it, but have fun!!!
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TikiLaLe
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 09, 2006
Posts: 891
From: Largo, Floriduh
| Posted: 2007-07-07 3:19 pm Permalink
Flock of Seagulls !!
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Humuhumu
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: Aug 22, 2002
Posts: 3536
From: San Francisco
| Posted: 2007-07-07 4:16 pm Permalink
I'd suggest starting really, really small -- why not organize a dinner at Hula's in Monterey or Hula's in Santa Cruz? It's the best way to 1) get to know your friendly neighborhood tikiphiles, 2) get a feel for the local tiki vibe and 3) get some feedback from the very people who are most likely to be interested in a larger event.
It will be hard to predict what sort of turnout you might get for a larger-than-just-dinner event. As others have mentioned, an event in Monterey may not have a ton of long-distance draw. After all, traveling all the way to Northern California and not seeing places like Forbidden Island, the Tonga Room, Trader Vic's -- I mean, that'd just be weird. You'd have to come up with a really seriously unique draw to get any sort of serious out-of-town turnout.
To give you a general idea of the kind of turnout we get for events up here in Northern California, the Hooptylau event in the Central Valley that was mentioned generally draws about 30-40 people, the annual four-day Tiki Central San Francisco Tiki Bar Crawl generally draws anywhere from a dozen or so on Thursday or Sunday to a hundred on Saturday, and every now and then there'll be a local one-off event that'll attract a good dozen or two folks.
Forget making money: you're pretty much guaranteed to lose money throwing an event. The events in this crowd are truly a labor of love, and a lot of out-of-pocket expenses are incurred by those throwing them. Really, just think of it as a party you're throwing for your friends. Which comes back around to starting small -- it's a little weird to throw a party for friends you don't know (hence some of the skepticism on this thread), so get to know us! I'm always up for a get-together at Hula's.
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moondog426
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 26, 2006
Posts: 210
From: Carmichael, CA
| Posted: 2007-07-08 06:56 am Permalink
Well you do have the Monterrey Bay Aquarium going for you. What a draw that could be. Live fish to view. If you do something I hope you work in something with the aquarium. It's World Famous. Let's just hope they aren't playing any Jimmy Buffett that day or some people around here will lose their ''Fish Sticks''. I always root for the underdog, so I'm pulling for ya!
THE COAST IS CALLING
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Tiki King
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 13, 2002
Posts: 534
From: Lush tropical Santa Cruz, CA.
| Posted: 2007-07-08 08:36 am Permalink
I think it is a great idea. Put on a good party and it doesn't matter where it is. Before oasis, Otto put on several events in venues that had no "native" Tikis, but the decore was brought in. I say go for it!
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VampiressRN
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 23, 2006
Posts: 5137
From: Sin City Lincoln Hills (NorCal)
| Posted: 2007-07-08 09:51 am Permalink
Though you may be lacking in native tiki splendor in Monterey, you are rich in Oceanic and Landscape wonders. There is no way I would go to Monterey without a visit to the aquarium or a drive along the coast. Take advantage of the Pacific and nature by offering various packages that include activities like the Aquarium, 17-mile Drive, historic Cannery Row, Fisherman's Warf, etc., for the daytime. Then we need some serious drinking, Hawaiiana, Surf & Exotica music, and a tiki marketplace with affordable booths for the many great Poly-pop/tiki artists we love so much. Don't have your weekend extravaganza on the same weekend that another tiki event is occurring, so plan ahead.
Hotels are a personal choice and there are a huge variety to choose from in Monterey or Carmel. Some folks like to be pampered and stay in a place that offers top quality amenities and others just want the basics. Maybe you can help with group rates.
Monterey and tiki.....count me in.
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WooHooWahine
Grand Member (7 years) 
Joined: Mar 04, 2005
Posts: 2910
From: Mission (Impossible) Viejo, Ca
| Posted: 2007-07-08 2:34 pm Permalink
[ This Message was edited by: WooHooWahine 2007-07-08 14:35 ]
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TikiLaLe
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 09, 2006
Posts: 891
From: Largo, Floriduh
| Posted: 2007-07-08 5:48 pm Permalink
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On 2007-07-06 14:21, Okolehao wrote:
Again, I really appreciate the feedback I've gotten so far. I hope people will keep this thread going.
I'll admit I'm an outsider here, but I have lurked a long time on Tiki Central. I'm looking forward to introducing myself at Tiki Oasis and hope that I might be accepted into the community. I'll bring my 15 year old Rhum Barbancourt and bottle of Okolehao and do shots with you.
Just to let you know a little more about me and my interest in this, I can tell you, sincerely, I'm not interested in making any money. The first event I ever planned was a Bluegrass Gospel concert series that was free to the public. I paid the bands, who were very generous with their time, with a collection that was taken up at each event. They made some more money selling their albums after their shows. I did all the planning an marketing. I actually spent my own money getting it together because it was something I wanted to do. I wasn't a part of the Gospel community. I just liked the music. I have the same attitude about doing a Tiki event. I just want to have something fun happen in my neck of the woods.
Something mentioned was cost. I just talked with a group sales agent at what I think would be a good place to hold an event where, with a small commitment of 50 people, I can make it break even. I could sell tickets at ~$40 a piece with a on site hotel rate of $99! And get this - that's on the Saturday of the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend. Now that's not going to allow me to book groups like Ape or the Blue Hawaiians, but I can get 3 local acts and maybe a D.J.(any volunteers?) If I can get 10 vendors willing to pay $50 a piece I can also get a banquet room for their sales. That's a lot for a vendor if their only buyers are the ticket holders, but I have contacts with the local press who will do some P.R. and bring in the public during the day. Here's the facility I checked into: http://www.bayparkhotel.com/
Now I know winter in Monterey isn't exactly like July in Hawaii, but a party is a party. And if I have some volunteers to decorate we could easily make their Safari Club Lounge into a nice Tiki Bar.
Again, I would want to work with you guys. I'd have to work with you guys. I'm not into boosting my ego, resume, or pockets. This is just for the fun.
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40 dollar cover... 3 band and a DJ .... OUCH !!!!
Me thinks your in need of some sponsors and couple of SUGAR DADDYS.. you need to go to some events and write down cons and pros ...Your probably a good year away from turning out an event !!!!
'This is just for fun'
Having sex is fun
Throwing an event is hard work !!!
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