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Bringing crowds, energy downtown

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published December 14, 2005

It was well after 9 p.m., but there were still throngs of people moving from one venue to another. Businesses were staying open past their closing hours.

You almost could hear Petula Clark singing about forgetting all your troubles and cares.

Yes, for one night in June you could go downtown and, as her song says, find everyone waiting for you. Yes, I'm talking about that same downtown Tampa where they typically roll up the sidewalks after 6 p.m.

"I had never seen that much energy in downtown Tampa," Eric Sturm said.

Sturm is one of the driving forces behind Downtown After Six, a loose coalition of young professionals groups looking to repeat the success on Thursday.

The idea of Downtown After Six is fairly simple: stage a series of simultaneous cultural, entertainment and networking opportunities throughout the core in the hopes folks will walk from one venue to another.

Each venue is backed by one or more of the city's young professionals groups. For example, the Tampa Museum of Art's Avant Garde group will team with its Dali Museum counterparts, Zodiac, for music, appetizers and a cash bar at the museum.

At the same time, the Tampa Theatre's Balcony Club will offer finger foods at the theater. Next door at the Hub, the Tampa Jaycees will have fortunetellers. Meanwhile, Una Voice and Crescendo will have carolers throughout downtown.

A total of 17 venues and nearly 30 groups plan to take part, including the Tampa Bay Young Republicans at the Old Tampa Book Co., the UF Young & Involved at Coonfares and Ad2 Tampa Bay at Got Pizza.

The mission: foster cooperation and awareness among the groups while supporting downtown businesses.

"Downtown is really the center of Tampa, and no one actually owns that territory," said Sturm, a purchasing manager for Odyssey Marine Exploration. "It's the cultural heart and history of the city, and, quite frankly, it's empty a lot.

"Downtown Tampa is a neighborhood that everyone in our town and our region has a stake in. The young professional class wants to stake a claim not only in downtown Tampa, but in Tampa Bay as a whole."

June's event featured nine venues and 14 groups, and brought more than 700 people to downtown. With more venues and groups, organizers hope for a larger turnout, despite competing with the holidays.

The first event was so successful that the young professionals forged ahead with a second one even though Verve, the organizing group for the summer event, disbanded in October.

Downtown After Six begins at 6 p.m. Thursday. For a full list of venues and participating groups, go to www.downtownaftersix.com

Kudos to Metropolitan Ministries for allowing the children of its homeless residents to attend a Broadway musical at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center tonight. The kids will have a pizza party and sing a song previously taught to them by the artists in residence at the Patel Conservatory. They also will participate in other activities before actually seeing the show at 7:30 p.m.

And what musical will they see? Annie, the longstanding tale of hope. Surely, A Hard Knocks Life will resonate with the Metropolitan Ministries kids. Maybe a few even have heard Jay-Z's hip-hop version.

More important, I hope their sun truly will come out Tomorrow.

That's all I'm saying.

Ernest Hooper can be reached at 813 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 14, 2005, 00:13:09]