Access Atlanta > The Newcomer > Archives > 2008 > May > 03 > Entry
What’s Georgia’s biggest party?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UPDATE: See what I mean? I watched Derby on Saturday and, as usual, it’s breath-taking and horrifying. I hardly know what to say about it, except to add that the same words can be used to describe most of the Derby parties.
It’s the first Saturday in May, and I plan to relax by writing, working, visiting and if I’m feeling really organized, hanging some of the posters and paintings propped against my apartment walls.
If I still lived in Kentucky, there would be two things on my mind: Derby and sleep deprivation.
The Kentucky Derby is busy, elegant, drunken, decadent, diverse, suspenseful, pretty, tacky, exciting, exhausting, somehow too long and too short at the same time. I covered it three years in a row with my Herald-Leader pals. (Rather, I covered the hoopla around it. The race itself was best left to the pros.)
Whatever you’ve heard about the Derby, well, I’m sure it’s true. It’s that kind of experience.
I tried to finish my celebrity interviews or slice-of-life stories before the big race. I wanted to stake out a good view before the crowd quieted down and broke into My Old Kentucky Home. I watched Giacomo, Barbaro and Street Sense win. That’s a lot of anticipation for two minutes, which is why there’s so much madness the rest of the day. It’s worth going once in your life just to take it all in.
My job usually started the night before, at one of the black tie parties in Louisville or Lexington, and it would usually end hours after the race, at another formal gala. But that’s nothing like the backside of the track, which is nothing like the infield, which is nothing like the nearby sports bars, which is nothing like the media center, which is nothing like the space behind the food vendors stands or the posh celeb quarters. People who never come together mix and mingle during the Derby. For two minutes at least, it all evens out.
Is there any tradition-steeped event in Georgia as sporting, drinking, partying, formal-dressing, spotlight-grabbing, hat-wearing, pie-eating? Or maybe we’ve got something more low key, but more us. Surely there’s something.
The first Saturday in May is sacred; any other day, I’ll be there.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Uniquely Georgia
Comments
By Alisona
May 3, 2008 8:16 PM | Link to this
Aww, miss you ‘round these parts, JamieG.
By Alison
May 3, 2008 8:36 PM | Link to this
Guess I had too many mint juleps. I can’t even spell my name anymore!
By DB
May 4, 2008 7:16 PM | Link to this
Well, (she says, doubtfully), there’s always the Steeplechase?
By Noelle
May 4, 2008 10:22 PM | Link to this
The Masters is the sporting equivalent, much more refined (and exclusive).
We export our sport-related partying to Jacksonville, when the Dawgs play the Gators every year!
By Hans Apology
May 4, 2008 10:27 PM | Link to this
How swank! Do the horses have to wear black ties too?
By Constance
May 4, 2008 10:58 PM | Link to this
Who needs refined - or exclusive? You could cross the border to ‘Bama for the Iron Bowl or Talladega. There ain’t no kind fun like redneck fun!
By Jeff
May 5, 2008 9:05 AM | Link to this
Well, as has been said, there is the GA-related - though not exactly IN GA - “World’s Largest Cocktail Party”. Of course, while the center of this party is in Jacksonville, FL, there are branch parties in nearly every neighborhood in GA. Go to your local sports bar on the day of the Party, and you’re likely to find a few dozen of your closest friends ready to have a brew or two - or two dozen - with you over the Big Game.
Steeplechase - I personally would NEVER go, but more because I am a Bartow native and know what the traffic is like to get to Kingston Downs.
But going back to Football… go out to UGA any Saturday in the fall when the team has a home game. You’ll find their aint NO party like an SEC Party! (I know, your friends in the Big Tweleven THINK they know how to party… just trust me on this one, and go to an SEC party!) Which is what makes the “World’s Largest Cocktail Party” the world’s largest: Ya get two of the bigger SEC schools playing each other, particularly at a neutral site, and craziness is BOUND to reign!
By faye
May 8, 2008 11:35 PM | Link to this
Jamie - I was there Saturday, in the infield - we were all celebrating Big Brown’s amzing win (whom I didn’t have money on - remember Bellamy Road? I thought BB was going to be a repeat of that).
Anyway, we’re all excited, talking Triple Crown possibilities, and a woman near us got the phone call. We were devastated - it really put a damper on something that has been the highlight of our year for the last 9 years.
We stayed in Lexington - ate at The Cheapside Bar & Grill - bet on the Oaks at Keeneland on Friday.
Next year we’re thinking about switching things up - going to the Oaks at Churchill Friday, and hanging at Keeneland for the big party on Saturday - any advice or sugestions on that?