Some friends and I pulled in to downtown Tulsa and were able to quickly find parking in a free lot, a big surprise as I’m used to paying for such premium parking during large events. We began our adventure at the Mexicali Border Cafe, a Mexican restaurant located two blocks southwest from the Guthrie Green and smack dab in the middle of all the action. It was a decent atmosphere for a nice dinner with friends, but perhaps not the most intimate location for a date night. Unfortunately, Mexicali was not hosting any live music during this art crawl, but nevertheless the food was quite impressive. I had the Three Amigos, a triple set of enchiladas topped with queso that were extremely good. A friend had an entree of guacamole and seemed quite happy with the results.
After dinner, we walked around aimlessly trying to find the next thing to do. We passed several street performers standing around promoting all sorts of different music and talents. First was a display of firebending as two performances danced, thrilled, and threw hoops of fire all around. Not even a block later, we passed a violinist playing outside of a local club. Finally, the bagpipes players appeared, their music echoing down the streets even amongst all the traffic and people. Every performer was surrounded by a throng of people watching and experiencing the different types of art style each one had to offer.
Unfortunately, we showed up pretty late to the district and were quite tired from a day of exams, so we only made one stop after walking around at the Hardesty Arts Center, located just one block south of the Guthrie Green. Just from the outside you could see the sheer amount of people walking around and looking at all the art. The coolest part was the different people walking around; people dressed fancy and people dressed like a college student dragging themselves to an 8 a.m. Most of all, people were just there enjoying all the different kinds of art being displayed.
The coolest part of the First Friday Art Crawl is just how so many people gather for such a simple thing. The collaboration between all the local business is incredible. Sadly, we planned our outing quite poorly and didn’t have a lot of time to spend out and about looking at everything. However, I could easily see myself spending the entire evening there walking about and just experiencing everything there is to see. If you’re interested in checking out the art crawl, I strongly recommend preparing to spend an entire evening and night at the arts district. To help with the planning, the district posts online a flyer of all the local events going on, which can be found at their website, thebradyartsdistrict.com. I would totally go back again, and plan to in December, hopefully with more time and energy to spend!
