In the midst of CIAA week, perhaps Charlotte’s biggest event, considering it’s a giant, weeklong party that monopolizes the Q.C. nightlife, there were some outside-the-box events that took center court. Last Tuesday Michelob was celebrating the redesign of their bottles with a distribution party at the Levine Museum of the New South. I thought the museum party setting was a result of the CIAA claiming all the party venues, but Michelob went back to their old school bottle, hence their motive for serving their beers within a historical museum.
But it wasn’t exactly a history of hops … I went from a swank product party with cool lighting, cute cater waiters, a deejay, leather couches, free beer and photo booths to a historic replica of Charlotte in 1880. (And I am impressed to say that I am able to remember the exhibits, despite the free beer.)
The museum’s tag line is “Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers” but the party within was more like “sober to drunk,” considering the bar was free flowing with Michelob.
Novelty makes for good nightlife because as it turns out, drinking at a museum is wildly amusing. Can you imagine how cool the Discovery Place or Imag’on would be if they served beer at an after hours exhibit? Brew enhances the educational experience.
The party at the Levine Museum was, hands down, one of the swankest NYC novelty parties I’ve attended in my year of professional partying in Charlotte. But I still got bored with it, so I walked two blocks up to Fox and Hound for a football lecture from Virginia Tech’s Assistant Football Coach, Jim Cavanaugh. So essentially, my evening consisted of a night at the museum and football practice at a bar. “Cason-Point:” Take any activity, add alcohol, and you have a nightlife.
Now back to the weeklong party (slash basketball tournament) that is the CIAA.
The party typically started at 2:30 p.m. at the Fan Experience in the Convention Center with Biz Markie. Then every venue and bar had a giant party — from Coke’s party with Vivica A. Foxx to the constant parties in the Westin lobby to the EPMD reunion at Amos’ to the AKA party at The Forum. The Convention Center actually became the hottest spot in Charlotte between Thursday night at the Apollo with Boyz II Men to the Step Show on Friday. According to Power 98’s Tone X, CIAA is an acronym for “Charlotte invaded by African-Americans.” Hey, he said it — not me. I thought it stood for “Charlotte is having A lot of After parties.”
This article appears in Mar 14-20, 2007.
