Bars, costumes and booze. You simply can’t get more Halloween than that. This past Saturday, bars on Chippewa Street in the heart of Downtown Buffalo banded together to host the seventh annual “Halloween Boo’zin Bar Crawl,” sponsored by Eventage. Thousands, including native Buffalonians, UB students and people from all over came together to make this event a smash hit.
Clad in Indiana Jones attire, I had a busy day ahead of me. The doors opened at 1:00 p.m. but I was there by 2:15 p.m. One could say I was fashionably late, but I knew I had no time to waste. The streets were packed and lines were getting longer.
First stop: Soho, a traditional bar with an open roof for some fresh air. The word bar is an understatement, as Soho has not one, but three bars. The energy inside was intense and the music was bumping. After about an hour inside, I found myself grateful for the open rooftop, which had not just a bar of its own, but also a great view of Chippewa Street and the crowded streets below.
Thirty minutes passed, and we decided to migrate across the street to VENU, a two-story nightclub. On the first level is a dance floor where people dressed in all sorts of costumes were dancing the day away. The second level, which also has a bar of its own, provided some room to breathe. It also provides not just a view of the dance floor, but also some great pictures for Instagram.
After about fourty-five minutes in VENU, we decided to head out, where we were provided Boo’zin Bar Crawl shirts. From there, we went to The Cowboy, a lively country bar known for karaoke and live music. As it is a country bar, The Cowboy primarily plays country music as opposed to EDM, and it was a nice change of pace after the time spent in Soho and VENU. After an hour, we decided to pack it up.
By the end of the bar crawl, I was worn out. Groups of friends drunkenly stumbled out of the bars and into the streets, which were littered with sequins and plastic cups. People were sitting on the curbs with their heads in their hands, while others filed into their Ubers. As I was surrounded by hundreds of people who had come downtown for the same purpose, it occurred to me that truly no other city does the boo-sy and boozy sides of Halloween quite like Buffalo. Although that could have been the Gin & Tonics’s talking.
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Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
