Bars old and new prepare for NYE
Dec. 30—CHAMPAIGN — New Year's Eve falls on a Sunday this year, combining a great holiday for most bars with one of the slowest nights of the week, but Esquire co-owner Paul Higgins said that's not going to make too much difference from any other NYE.
"It's always a pain," he said, referring to getting everything stocked and ready to go for the night. "Most people have New Year's Day off anyway, so it doesn't make like a huge difference."
The Esquire is stocking up on all their drinks — the priority being infused tequila for pineapple margaritas — and will stay open an hour later than usual.
This year will be a bit longer of a party than usual, though, with 12 straight hours of live jazz and blues from local artists Candy Foster, the Vine Street Syncopators and Kilborn Alley.
Higgins said they kind of expect people to more "fancy" venues for NYE, but the Esquire is ready to serve drinks before and after those more upscale parties.
"It's not quite as big of a day for food for us, but we're hopeful people will come in and eat anyway," Higgins said.
After a slightly later night than usual, the Esquire will be closed for New Year's Day.
While NYE parties are old hat for the Esquire, this is the first new year for the Gallery in Urbana.
Co-owner Jonah Weisskopf is looking forward to the evening's events organized by Kenna Mae, one-third of the band Sweetmelk, who has already performed a few times at the bar since it opened in September.
Sweetmelk will provide the improvised rock soundtrack for the night, but Jake Metz and Matt Harsh will provide the projected visuals signature to the Gallery.
The effect is hard to describe.
"We can almost change the wallpaper to anything we want," Weisskopf said.
The projections cover every wall of the Gallery in moving images, but the walls also feature art from a different local artist each month.
To avoid covering that art in whatever visuals are being projected, each piece is individually mapped out to be highlighted in its own spotlight.
"Seeing is believing," Weisskopf said.
The Gallery came together because Weisskopf, Harsh and Metz had done some work with projections before, but only for one-off events.
Putting up and tearing down all the necessary equipment was a lot of work, so they sought out a location where everything could be installed more permanently.
Their vision was to connect to artists and the local community in a way they consider pretty unique from other things offered in Urbana.
"Creating a space for the community to congregate and converse is important to us," he said.
While Weisskopf felt they were filling a hole that had been left empty in the community, he didn't want to disrespect longstanding bars and venues like the Rose Bowl, which are similar in some ways.
"They're doing their thing. We're kind of this other planet in the galaxy that is Urbana," Weisskopf said.
Over the last year, from setting out to make the Gallery a reality to actually opening and starting to host events and serve customers, Weisskopf said they've evolved into the space, which he hopes will be a warm and inviting atmosphere with or without the projections.
This was just the first opportunity, but Weisskopf hopes to put together New Year's Eve events in years to come.
"We're stoked!" he said.
