Thank You for Saranac Thursday!

If you're from Utica, NY than you know what Saranac Thursday is. For a lot of us Uticans Thursday is the day we get paid, and in the Summer Thursday is the day we are all scratching at our desks to get out, and the generations before me, played golf, drank at bars and did what ever they were into, but right around the time I was turning 18 or 19, the Matt's brewery in Utica, NY decided to open their gates and throw a party, a weekly party, a party that met the needs of the youthful citizens of Central New York. I know it I said I was 18 or 19 so I shouldn't have been participating in this event, and for the record Saranac Thursday is 21 and older so please don't try to follow me in unless you are at least 21. 

It would be nice to throw some dates into the mix here, but another thing about Saranac Thursday, is you tend to forget stuff. It's most likely the well crafted beer they serve or how the party now carries over to Varick Street after the brewery for all the Saranac Thusrday after parties. Either way... When the brewery started this event I was in heaven. I finally had a place to go where I could hang out outside under a hot Summer sun and down a couple of Saranac Beers with my friends. To top it off they had live music, mostly lame local bands but with the help of the youth moving into play and telling the brewery people what they liked that has improved and I have seen some great bands make their way through the stage, The Budda Hood and Sam Kininger to name a couple.

I remember when this event was first started it was almost a dead event, I remember some Thursdays it being just me, the band and the brewery workers pouring the beer. Now its the people that are pouring... out of the party spot, into the yard and out to the road. I have watched this event grow from someones good idea into a staple for the working man after a hard week of work, or the meeting place for single men and women. It is one of the Single best events we have here in Utica.

I know they know me at the brewery, because I have been attending these Thursday Night parties since the creation, but they don't know that I thank them for it. In a city that everyone complains about what to do, the Saranac Brewery gave us something to do. Now when the negative people speak out and say Utica Sucks there is nothing to do. I tell them to lighten up and remind them of this event, and that their participation will help decision makers create new things to make Utica a fun and exciting place to live and work.