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The Annual Post-PAX Party Returns! [Cancelled]
Coldbrew
Down in Front ProductionsLake Stevens, WARegistered User regular
Down in Front ProductionsLake Stevens, WARegistered User regular
CANCELLED
Leaving the post in-tact for reference and such. See page 4 for details.
Leaving the post in-tact for reference and such. See page 4 for details.
Get your tickets here!
Please either print them out and bring them or show your photo ID on the way in so we can check you off.
You may see a pet services name on your payment receipt, that is just the business I personally own which is tied to my PayPal Business account. The account isn't actually used for anything, so no worries. Anyway~
The annual Post-PAX Party is an event held every year on the final evening of PAX Prime, after PAX has closed its doors for good. We sell tickets (because we have to pay for reserving a venue, having live music, providing complimentary food and drink tickets, etc.) to a couple hundred people or whatever amount the venue allows us. We provide a location and atmosphere for people to come hang out with their friends and meet other fellow nerds, geeks and PAX-goers, and just have fun, party it up or kick back and unwind. It's always been an increasingly popular event and definitely worth bringing back in whatever capacity we can.
Here is a link to the thread for the last big party we did in 2013.
Our venue this year is the Parlor Live Comedy Club. Unlike our previous location, the Parlor is hardly a single block away from the convention center; right next to The Taphouse on 6th Ave. We are reserving the entire downstairs section, which includes a full service bar, multiple pool tables, plenty of TV's fully capable of having consoles connected to them, plenty of tables and chairs for seating and tabletop games, stage and DJ booth for live music, etc..
This will be an all-ages event, though there will also be a full service bar for anybody over 21 who wants to get their drink on. As for food, we have decided on a snack bar including chips and giant pretzels. These will be provided in an unlimited capacity during 8-11pm and is included in the ticket cost. If that's not enough or just not your thing, the kitchen will be open for full orders as well if you'd like. The party will begin around 7pm, so that will give you some time to unwind a little bit after PAX closes its doors before heading over. We will go until at least midnight.
The ticket cost will provide some snack food and otherwise pay for renting the venue and having some musical guests. Otherwise, any extra entertainment will be up to you! We have had professionally-hosted Rock Band in the past, and I would love to set that up again, but I honestly don't know who to talk to about that. If anybody has the connections, or can even bring their own setup, please feel free to step on up and let us know! Same with anything else, if anybody wants to bring consoles or tabletop games to play, feel free! I personally might bring a WiiU with Smash Bros. and a Gamecube controller adapter, but we'll see. We have plenty of TV's and projectors at our disposal, so let's make use of them!
As for the musical guests, I have been in contact with two people so far, and they're a couple of big names! It will all be music you can dance to, stuff that is fitting for a party, so no worries about serious vocals or any kind of concert setup. I can't say who they are yet though, as they're both tentative at the moment.
Here are a few photos of the space we will be reserving. I am planning to do an on-site visit some time, and I'll try to take some of my own.
Straight-forward list of details:
Date and Time: Monday, August 31st, 7pm - midnight
Location: The Parlor Live Comedy Club downstairs, 1522 6th Ave.
Ticket Cost: $30 (plus possible PayPal fees) Get your tickets here!
Snack Bar (included in ticket cost): Giant Pretzels [with stone ground mustard] - House Fried Potato Chips [served with sea salt and malt vinegar] - Churros - (snack bar provides an 'unlimited' supply during 8-11pm)
All Ages?: Yes! You must bring a photo ID with you so you can be provided with an appropriate wrist-band. This is to ensure that minors are not allowed at the bar. This is normally a strict 21+ venue so we're lucky to be able to do this.
Dress Code (including cosplay which IS allowed):
Original post is under here, probably not very relevant anymore.
Please either print them out and bring them or show your photo ID on the way in so we can check you off.
You may see a pet services name on your payment receipt, that is just the business I personally own which is tied to my PayPal Business account. The account isn't actually used for anything, so no worries. Anyway~
The annual Post-PAX Party is an event held every year on the final evening of PAX Prime, after PAX has closed its doors for good. We sell tickets (because we have to pay for reserving a venue, having live music, providing complimentary food and drink tickets, etc.) to a couple hundred people or whatever amount the venue allows us. We provide a location and atmosphere for people to come hang out with their friends and meet other fellow nerds, geeks and PAX-goers, and just have fun, party it up or kick back and unwind. It's always been an increasingly popular event and definitely worth bringing back in whatever capacity we can.
Here is a link to the thread for the last big party we did in 2013.
Our venue this year is the Parlor Live Comedy Club. Unlike our previous location, the Parlor is hardly a single block away from the convention center; right next to The Taphouse on 6th Ave. We are reserving the entire downstairs section, which includes a full service bar, multiple pool tables, plenty of TV's fully capable of having consoles connected to them, plenty of tables and chairs for seating and tabletop games, stage and DJ booth for live music, etc..
This will be an all-ages event, though there will also be a full service bar for anybody over 21 who wants to get their drink on. As for food, we have decided on a snack bar including chips and giant pretzels. These will be provided in an unlimited capacity during 8-11pm and is included in the ticket cost. If that's not enough or just not your thing, the kitchen will be open for full orders as well if you'd like. The party will begin around 7pm, so that will give you some time to unwind a little bit after PAX closes its doors before heading over. We will go until at least midnight.
The ticket cost will provide some snack food and otherwise pay for renting the venue and having some musical guests. Otherwise, any extra entertainment will be up to you! We have had professionally-hosted Rock Band in the past, and I would love to set that up again, but I honestly don't know who to talk to about that. If anybody has the connections, or can even bring their own setup, please feel free to step on up and let us know! Same with anything else, if anybody wants to bring consoles or tabletop games to play, feel free! I personally might bring a WiiU with Smash Bros. and a Gamecube controller adapter, but we'll see. We have plenty of TV's and projectors at our disposal, so let's make use of them!
As for the musical guests, I have been in contact with two people so far, and they're a couple of big names! It will all be music you can dance to, stuff that is fitting for a party, so no worries about serious vocals or any kind of concert setup. I can't say who they are yet though, as they're both tentative at the moment.
Here are a few photos of the space we will be reserving. I am planning to do an on-site visit some time, and I'll try to take some of my own.
Straight-forward list of details:
Date and Time: Monday, August 31st, 7pm - midnight
Location: The Parlor Live Comedy Club downstairs, 1522 6th Ave.
Ticket Cost: $30 (plus possible PayPal fees) Get your tickets here!
Snack Bar (included in ticket cost): Giant Pretzels [with stone ground mustard] - House Fried Potato Chips [served with sea salt and malt vinegar] - Churros - (snack bar provides an 'unlimited' supply during 8-11pm)
All Ages?: Yes! You must bring a photo ID with you so you can be provided with an appropriate wrist-band. This is to ensure that minors are not allowed at the bar. This is normally a strict 21+ venue so we're lucky to be able to do this.
Dress Code (including cosplay which IS allowed):
All costume weapons must be peace bonded. Masks will not be allowed to be worn. In accordance with Washington State Liquor Laws, all “private” body parts must be covered. Weapons not peace bonded will not be allowed in the venue.
What You Need: Yourself and your photo ID! Print your tickets if you can, otherwise we should be able to check you off the list.Original post is under here, probably not very relevant anymore.
As many of you know, the Post-PAX Party didn't really happen last year. Or, it kinda did, but it wasn't the same. Well I for one really missed it and would love to bring it back this year. However I can't do this on my own, so I'll be asking for help. We'll go over venues below, but I also want some volunteers to help manage this thing. We're talking about on-site help (get there semi-early with me, help set things up, etc.) as well as help scope out (if necessary) and contact venues when the time comes. I will take care of contacting and booking musical guests, but feel free to make suggestions.
First thing's first, we need a venue. Jillian's / World Sports Grille is out, there's a note on that below, so we'll need to find something that can still suit the needs that Jillian's always filled. Games, TV's for consoles & Rock Band, tables, bar, some food that can hopefully be covered in ticket cost, live music (solo artists and DJ's are fine), capacity for at least 200-300 people, etc. Doing a raffle of some kind is always an option too but I would prefer that somebody else handle it.
Now let's look at some venue options. I'm going to list a few that I know of, though I won't be able to speak for how viable they may be for this. I'm just listing some to get us talking about what would be good or bad, what would work and what can't work, etc. I will list pros and cons as we discuss them. Also please suggest any other venues that I haven't listed that you think could work.
My venue of choice at the moment, provided they can accommodate us properly, is Gameworks. But this is a community-run event, so let's get discussion going.
Palace Ballroom
Gameworks
Hard Rock Cafe
Taphouse
The Crocodile
Parlor Live Comedy Club
Narwhal/Unicorn (ruling this one out now)
Art Marble 21 (formerly World Sports Grille) (formerly Jillian's)
EDIT 3: Learned that this place is again under new ownership, called Art Marble 21. It is now more of a restaurant than a sports bar, but it could still very well support this party as far as I can tell. Maybe next year we can look into revisiting this place if we want to.
EDIT 2: Let's just look past this place and move on.
EDIT: I've seen some reports that this place is closed. It also has pretty terrible reviews just about everywhere so maybe we should just move on. Also their website just forwards to Gameworks. Anybody know what's up with this place right now though just for clarification?
What other options are there? Anything up on the hill?
I'll edit and clean up this post when things start coming together, sorry I know it's kind of a mess.
First thing's first, we need a venue. Jillian's / World Sports Grille is out, there's a note on that below, so we'll need to find something that can still suit the needs that Jillian's always filled. Games, TV's for consoles & Rock Band, tables, bar, some food that can hopefully be covered in ticket cost, live music (solo artists and DJ's are fine), capacity for at least 200-300 people, etc. Doing a raffle of some kind is always an option too but I would prefer that somebody else handle it.
Now let's look at some venue options. I'm going to list a few that I know of, though I won't be able to speak for how viable they may be for this. I'm just listing some to get us talking about what would be good or bad, what would work and what can't work, etc. I will list pros and cons as we discuss them. Also please suggest any other venues that I haven't listed that you think could work.
My venue of choice at the moment, provided they can accommodate us properly, is Gameworks. But this is a community-run event, so let's get discussion going.
Palace Ballroom
Pro's - All ages - open space meant for events like this, close enough to WSCTC, capacity around 300 people, will provide their own catered food service, stage and in-house audio/video setup for live music and whatever else, cost to rent is much cheaper than a restaurant/bar like we normally use which means ticket prices will be significantly lower
Con's - Unsure if they could/would provide a bar for us, no in-house games or entertainment of any kind though I doubt they wouldn't have a problem with us setting up our own stuff (plus we could look into using this service)
Con's - Unsure if they could/would provide a bar for us, no in-house games or entertainment of any kind though I doubt they wouldn't have a problem with us setting up our own stuff (plus we could look into using this service)
Gameworks
Pro's - All ages - kitty-corner to the WSCTC, bar + food, tons of games to play, we can work out a deal to give everybody time cards or something
Con's - Not sure how they would feel about outside games, especially consoles or things like Rock Band. Live music may also be out of the question but I can't say for sure
Con's - Not sure how they would feel about outside games, especially consoles or things like Rock Band. Live music may also be out of the question but I can't say for sure
Hard Rock Cafe
Pro's - Close location that's easily within walking distance of the WSCTC, three-story venue that is frequently reserved for parties, multiple bars that can do special themed drinks, food, can easily handle live music
Con's - May be 21+, doubt it but we would need to find out - unsure of TV/console situation. I have seen industry parties bring in multiple computers to demo games before, so I'm sure we could work things out, I'm just not entirely sure what they have in-house
Con's - May be 21+, doubt it but we would need to find out - unsure of TV/console situation. I have seen industry parties bring in multiple computers to demo games before, so I'm sure we could work things out, I'm just not entirely sure what they have in-house
Taphouse
Pro's - 'Should' be all ages - very close proximity to WSCTC, bar + food, they have separate rooms that can be reserved for events, I believe we used this place for one of the PPP's though I wasn't there for it
Con's - The rooms mentioned are fairly small and likely wouldn't accommodate the amount of people that usually attend this, unless we can reserve more of the space. I'm not sure how that works. Also not sure if we could do any kind of live music. Plus I have a feeling the cost is going to be high.
Con's - The rooms mentioned are fairly small and likely wouldn't accommodate the amount of people that usually attend this, unless we can reserve more of the space. I'm not sure how that works. Also not sure if we could do any kind of live music. Plus I have a feeling the cost is going to be high.
The Crocodile
Pro's - All Ages - Fairly close walking distance (on 2nd and Blanchard) - Large open area in front of a stage which means full bands are possible - Capacity is apparently over 500 - In-house pizzeria for catering pizza, sandwiches, salads, etc. or they will accept outside catering - They are able to take some of the workload off of us in terms of planning, booking live acts and such (though we would just do it ourselves) - Three full service bars
Con's - The venue is made for concerts, so that's what most of it is. There is a pizzeria inside that is part of it all, which has booths and such, but it's fairly small, and very likely would not accommodate even close to as many people as we would need. I'm personally all for the live music as I'm sure some of you know, but this party demands much more than that, and I don't think this venue is suitable. Open to discussion.
Con's - The venue is made for concerts, so that's what most of it is. There is a pizzeria inside that is part of it all, which has booths and such, but it's fairly small, and very likely would not accommodate even close to as many people as we would need. I'm personally all for the live music as I'm sure some of you know, but this party demands much more than that, and I don't think this venue is suitable. Open to discussion.
Parlor Live Comedy Club
Pro's - Very close, less than two blocks from the convention center (next to the Taphouse) - The downstairs lounge (which we would likely be reserving) is quite nice, has a bar, plenty of tables and chairs, pool tables, TV's, etc. - Small stage with build in sound system that is meant for comedy acts but can probably suit solo musicians pretty well -
Con's - They schedule a lot of acts, so it might be difficult to reserve the place for a night, also seems like it could be fairly pricey. However I can't really get a lot of information from their website, but they do have a nice form that I can fill out that is meant for setting up special events, so I will probably do that and see what I can find out. Open to discussion, if anybody has any info about the place or has anything good or bad to say about it, please speak up.
Con's - They schedule a lot of acts, so it might be difficult to reserve the place for a night, also seems like it could be fairly pricey. However I can't really get a lot of information from their website, but they do have a nice form that I can fill out that is meant for setting up special events, so I will probably do that and see what I can find out. Open to discussion, if anybody has any info about the place or has anything good or bad to say about it, please speak up.
Narwhal/Unicorn (ruling this one out now)
Pro's - Close walking distance from WSCTC, though it is up-hill on the way there, arcade/pinball
Con's - Honestly I've never been and know very little about this place, so I'll leave it up to some of you to help inform the rest of us. Also I believe it is 21+ which I would like to avoid if possible
Con's - Honestly I've never been and know very little about this place, so I'll leave it up to some of you to help inform the rest of us. Also I believe it is 21+ which I would like to avoid if possible
Art Marble 21 (formerly World Sports Grille) (formerly Jillian's)
EDIT 3: Learned that this place is again under new ownership, called Art Marble 21. It is now more of a restaurant than a sports bar, but it could still very well support this party as far as I can tell. Maybe next year we can look into revisiting this place if we want to.
EDIT 2: Let's just look past this place and move on.
EDIT: I've seen some reports that this place is closed. It also has pretty terrible reviews just about everywhere so maybe we should just move on. Also their website just forwards to Gameworks. Anybody know what's up with this place right now though just for clarification?
Pro's - Good venue for the party, have used it a few times, they have everything we want/need, distance from WSCTC isn't great but manageable
Con's - New owners apparently made things more difficult for us, possibly raised cost (I don't remember), somebody at the last party in 2013 put a giant hole in one of their walls so it's hard to say if they would even want us back
Con's - New owners apparently made things more difficult for us, possibly raised cost (I don't remember), somebody at the last party in 2013 put a giant hole in one of their walls so it's hard to say if they would even want us back
What other options are there? Anything up on the hill?
I'll edit and clean up this post when things start coming together, sorry I know it's kind of a mess.
Coldbrew on
+1
Posts
clt
Just a nerd into anything Nintendo, anime, MCU, Star Wars, and board games/card games.
Also a computer scientist and a streamer.
Time/date is always the last day of PAX, which for Prime is Monday, so it would be that night after PAX closes down.
Ticket costs vary and there's many factors that go into it. If I remember correctly, they were somewhere around $40 last time, but it covered food, raffle and drink tickets, and things like that. I wish it wouldn't have to be so much but it's not cheap to rent out places for parties like this. It's too early to tell how things will turn out yet though.
4 Year Pax West Attendee
Unfortunately I can't think of anywhere else around that would fit that many people other than Gameworks.
Taphouse might be do-able though. I did go to a New Years Eve party there once
I wonder - are there any game rental places that will come and set up in an empty space like a hotel? Maybe finding a space and a separate entertainment provider would be the key, now that Jillians is gone.
Palace Ballroom might work, come to think of it... They'd be able to provide food too, and separate the 21+ space so the event could be all-ages.
EDIT: found a couple of services like this: http://www.mobilegamingseattle.com/pageEvents
EDITED EDIT: I think the challenge with Gameworks is that sometimes it's privately reserved by a Big Company on the last night of PAX.
That looks like a win to me!
<+Ravenger> you are talking to me
<@heels> oh god, what am i doing
Gameworks being reserved on the last night of PAX? I guess I just don't pay enough attention anymore to notice lol. But that's one reason I wanted to get this started early this year, so if we can figure things out soon enough then we can hopefully get a reservation in before the big industry parties come around.
EDIT: Just looked at the Palace Ballroom, that actually looks like a pretty good option. Looks like it's around 6 blocks from the convention center which really isn't bad at all either. I'm gonna put this on the list and probably ax the Unicorn.
The Hard Rock probably has the most limited space, but if we could get both the middle floor as well as the roof-top terrace, it wouldn't be so bad. Plus they have a nice big stage for music.
As for Gameworks, they have a "dining" area up-stairs that can be reserved where we can have all of the (in-house) catering, raffle, etc., then we would have the entire rest of the venue and access to all of the games and such. I'll have to see if they would let us put DJ's upstairs or something.
At the moment however it still seems like the Palace Ballroom would be the most suitable for this party, plus it will probably be a heck of a lot cheaper.
Good to know, and yeah I can do that.
Parlor Comedy Club is a bar/restaurant with a stage in the back room. It opened in the spot next to TapHouse. That back room stage also has a lot of TVs from what I was able to see when I walked past it on my way to the bathroom a few weeks ago. Since they wouldn't have a comedy show on Monday night, they might have the option to rent it out.
http://www.parlorlive.com/parlor-private-events-seattle.html
Stout is a brand new bar/restaurant up the hill on Capitol Hill. It has a lot of TV's and lots of wide open spaces. It's possible that they would let a crowd of our size rent out the whole place, but I don't see anything like that on their website.
http://www.stoutpubs.com/
http://www.thecrocodile.com/private-parties/
clt
Unfortunately I can hardly find any photos of anything but the stage part of the venue, so I'll have to look into it some more to make sure we would have plenty of room for people that want to sit down and eat/hang out/play various types of games with each other.
Thanks for the suggestion though, definitely worth looking into.
Has anybody here been there at all? What can you tell us about it?
I've been to the Bellevue location, not the Seattle one, but it's probably similar. Pros: Lots of space, food, drinks, games; perfect spot for a large gamer party. Cons: I recall it being pricey and the downtown one could be a little small. My understanding is that the Bellevue location was their flagship, and was created to cater to the corporate meeting and recreation needs of Microsoft and the rest of the Corporate Software Battalion on the Eastside (ergo the ownership understands exactly the kind of party you want to throw).
http://artmarble21.com/
Alright I might start emailing a couple places soon to get some more details, probably going to start with the Palace Ballroom and Gameworks, then go from there. Those are currently my two most desired venues for this, if anybody else has their heart set on some place else then let me know and I'll be sure to talk to them too, unless you want to go ahead and do it.
Also updated the OP and added a couple more venues from the thread.
I do want to chime in and say I went to Gameworks twice during Sakuracon, had never been before, and wasn't really impressed. Service was pretty meh, and the games they had were all just Dave & Busters/Chuck-e-Cheese-style stuff from what we could tell. It also seemed kind of cramped, but maybe we missed some backroom they have for parties? Also I agree that the Taphouse is way too small, even if they let us rent the whole place out it would be so hot and claustrophobic.
Sounds like someone didn't see the rhythm game section! I appreciate the fuck out of the fact that there's a Taiko Drum Master game there, I've never seen one anywhere else.
Trade me pins! - https://pinnypals.com/pals/TheAggroCraig
Haha yeah, I get used to playing one when I'm out at MAGFest, but it's nice that they have one at Gameworks too.
Either way I do agree the game selection at Gameworks has deteriorated over the years. They used to have F-Zero AX and Star Wars Pod Racer machines there and they were both amazing... As for reserving the place, we would basically be taking the entire venue. It has plenty of good qualities for us, but it's not the best in every area.
Art Marble is the venue we have used for a few years, just under new ownership for like the third time now. It has worked great for us in the past but I'd still like to look elsewhere for this year and maybe give it another shot next year.
I still think the Hard Rock might work out alright and be worth looking into as well.
It's probably a good idea to rule out the Taphouse and Crocodile at this point.
I say the Crock!
Also sorry for no updates, I did a little road trip to California and back over last weekend and have just been taking care of other things at home/work since then.
@LexiconGrrl Did you message/hear back from Palace?
I dropped them a note to expect to hear from you, but it wasn't a reply-ey kinda message.
Would be cool for sure, except for the 15/20 minute walk. But so much of PAX is spread out it isn't much of an issue, and comparable to last years venue in distance.
clt
As far as I'm concerned, if it's closer than Jillian's, it shouldn't even really be a concern. And The Crocodile is indeed closer.
Somebody spoke out against Gameworks due to it always being loud in there. That is a valid concern, but it's probably going to be loud anywhere we go due to the number of people plus the live music. Speaking of music, it will most likely be only DJ's this time around. That might be different if we end up at The Crocodile because they are more of a concert venue, but we'll see. You guys like having DJ's right? A_Rival seemed to draw a good crowd last time we were at Jillian's, at least more so than I've ever seen at this party. It's always possible we could just drop their volume a little bit too if enough people prefer that.
Anyway that's about all for now. Let me know what kind of concerns any of you have. I'm asking every venue if we can bring in consoles and Rock Band because even though I personally usually don't partake in that during the party, I know plenty of you seem to like having them around so it should be important. I don't want to remove anything we typically have every year, this should be open and welcoming to a large variety of people.
Also (I guess we could set up a poll for this) how much would you all be comfortable spending on a ticket to this? Previously at Jillian's they went for around $40 if I remember correctly. The cost we have will depend on the venue and the capacity, plus possibly some other things like if we want to include drink tickets or have in-house catering. The Palace Ballroom for example would be incredibly cheap for us compared to what Jillian's cost us. The Crocodile might be comparable, depending on how many people want to attend because they have a much higher capacity. The Parlor Live might be the most expensive of the three, but it also looks like a very nice place that already has plenty of tables, bar, billiards, TV's for consoles/Rock Band, stage for DJ's, etc. When I get info from each venue I'll be sure we have an idea what what tickets will cost per venue.
Okay that's enough rambling from me for now.
EDIT: Doing some math... even with the price that they gave to me, it's still likely going to be cheaper than it has been in previous years at Jillian's, which is good news. There are still some other things I will have to factor in, but I like the way this is looking right now. I might schedule an on-site visit/tour with them some time soonish, and I'd be happy to bring anybody else along that happens to be in the area if we end up doing it.
That's a pretty good point, but this party has always been on the final day of PAX which would be Monday. I can see the disadvantage you bring up but on the plus side, people could attend without missing anything at PAX. On the last day, PAX is always over around 6pm so there's nothing left there. Like you said though, anybody that isn't taking a more extended vacation might have to miss out. It's kind of a double-edged sword at this point though, because likewise if we did this on Sunday, PAX would still be happening so some people might still miss out because they want to do stuff over at the convention, or maybe they would rather attend an industry party or some other event, which there are generally less of on the last night.
For me personally, I'm usually working during the concerts at PAX, and I'd say it's pretty likely that concerts will be happening Sunday night so things just wouldn't work out so well. I'm sorry if we make any decisions that force certain people to not be able to attend, but like I said, it's kind of a double-edged sword.
Just my $0.02. I'll be attending even if happened to be TUESDAY night. That's the miracle of Vacation Time.
Hotel Booked: check!
Sitter for the kids: check!
Excitement level rising: check, check and triple check!
Yeah I always looked at this party the exact same way even before I was ever involved with it, and that's just another big reason I wanted to make sure it keeps going!