Over the Rhine
March 8, 2011

Sigh… there are so many parties these days, and the search for a new and exciting venue in Cincinnati can be never ending. After all, who wants to go to the same old place? Surely not me. Well I bet that’s what the organizers of Krewe were thinking when they started looking at locations for this highly anticipated night of decadence. The pick–the former Cellblock Dance Club on 12th street in OTR for the party. The club’s been closed for years, but the space is ready-made for an event, and on March 5th, 500 people flocked there.

Krewe sold out a week before the party, a sign that the Bacchanalian Society’s really grown since it’s inception in 2002. In less than a decade this group for wine lovers has managed to raise thousands for charity and host some of the most glamorous parties in the city. All week I heard the rumblings... r u going to Krewe? Have u bought ur ticket. Where should I look for a mask? And I heard more than one person bemoan the fact that they’d wound up on the wait list. How’s that for buzz??

Krewe 2011 featured an open bar, Mardi Gras masks, a man doing tricks with a glow in the dark hulahoop, more feathers than a chicken farm, girls in tight dresses, men in tuxedos, food by Keystone Bar, and a DJ spinning club remixes from the late 1990s with the rap music of today. Somehow… it all worked.

We weren’t in New Orleans, no, but the party goers at this event could have been fooled. People danced the night away on the downstairs dance floor, and those not in the mood to boogie watched upstairs from the balcony. The music was just loud enough to create a theme, but not so loud that it was impossible to hear the other person.

Bacchus, the Roman God of wine, would’ve been proud.

| | |