Monday, August 8, 2011

Aspen First Thursday...Not so much....


First Thursday in Boise is a big deal. Lots of shops and galleries and restaurants and all manner of businesses downtown are open late, have special deals or special events, offer wine tastings, snacks and live music. Not to mention all the familiar faces and friends to be seen on every corner and in every venue.

So when I happened to be in Aspen this last week and saw a banner across the main street in town, touting First Thursday,  I was like " WOW," this is gonna be great!

Now we weren't actually staying in Aspen, so this required a special trip back into town for the festivities. I first went to the tourist "information booth" and this should have been my first clue that something was up, when I asked her about information for First Thursday she looked puzzled and disappeared into the back for a minute and then handed me the generic map pictured above. Stating "Tonight and every First Thursday beginning at 3pm."

So I set off for the first gallery. I walked in amidst, piles of wrappings and hammers and saws and packages and I said "are you open?" and they said oh, yes, excuse the mess, we are getting ready for an opening on Saturday. and I said, Oh, I saw you on the First Thursday map and they said " oh, is that today? Well we are busy getting ready for this big show coming up...."

On to the next gallery...we walked in- nice art, saw one show coming down and another going up... asked the gallery owner about First Thursday. Her response, "Oh, is that today? We really don't pay any attention to it as we have customers all the time and don't really need to do anything special to draw them in."

Next gallery, "oh I don't think that starts until 5..." Strange but we were the only ones visiting most of the galleries that afternoon.

Well, my husband and I went on and saw lot's of nice art ... but nary a glass of wine, nor cheese, nor cracker, nor live music was to be found.  I'll take First Thursday in Boise any day.





1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I went to the Art walk in Boerne that they do monthly back in April. It was really nice, all the shops had wine and food and some great art. Too bad the one in Aspen was nothing much.