There was a time when an elaborate New Year’s Eve party meant donning a gown or tux, swilling champagne while blowing on a noise maker.
That’s the kind of party Peter Acworth was hell bent on avoiding when he laid plans for a New Year’s Eve bash inside San Francisco’s historic Armory, the 1916 former National Guard facility which houses Acworth’s adult website, Kink.com.
“This place used to be known as the Madison Square Garden of the west,” Acworth said while surveying the building’s massive 40,000 square foot drill court which was presently filled with paintings, art pieces and circus-like contraptions.
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After dumping $3 million on a new wood floor, and sound insulation, Acworth was ready to show off the spruced-up digs with an elaborate party.
He tapped the Burning Man community to bring an arts-themed New Year’s celebration to the space.
Aside from art pieces by the likes of Michael Christian, Peter Hudson and Lee Harvey Roswell, performance troops like Vau de Vire Circus troop were set to entertain the 3,800 expected revelers.
“The enjoyable part is bringing these communities together,” Acworth said. “There’s so much excitement, everybody’s smiling, everybody’s really excited to be putting this party on.”
The bash represents a new breed of Bay Area New Year’s party, where visual artists and performers have been granted the space and green light to open the creative barn doors.
Annual New Year’s events like Sea of Dreams have been mixing bands, arts and performance for a number of years into a not-your-parents’ style celebration.
“These are people that put their entire year, they think about it 365 days a year,” said Robbie Kowal, one of the organizers of Sea of Dreams. “Then there’s a one night payoff.”
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Tickets for Sea of Dreams were running $100 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Tickets for Acworth’s bash, billed as New Bohemia, were sold-out at $65 each.
Acworth’s said his first foray into the world of party planning was a mixture of excitement and terror. He strode briskly through the site, examining little details and summoning crews to attend to last-minute concerns.
“This is stressful as hell putting something like this on,” Acworth said scanning the room. “My email has never been so full.”
