BAR was bustling Wednesday for the second annual Play bash. It was a double celebration — of the youth-lifestyle weekly newspaper’s birthday, and of the Crown Street nightclub’s survival after a recent fire.
As of 7 p.m., just as the party was getting going, the crowd seemed well on its way of fulfilling Play editor Jon Cooper’s goal of drawing 500 people. Several hundred people already circulated through BAR’s back room, navigating the narrow spaces between the live music and the pizza. Entry was free and signified by a shiny red smiley face stamped on the back of everyone’s hand, a choice that made each new pizza look as if it were being swarmed by an army of Teletubbies. And a voracious army it was: every 10 minutes or so a brave BAR waitress would sail through the crowd, a pile of hot trays hoisted high above her head. The crowd, to its credit, would wait respectfully until she had finished setting them down before closing in. The word “feeding frenzy” was used several times, usually by people towards the back of the horde.
