If you have ever been to Las Vegas you know that one of the best places to go is to a Hotel Pool on a Sunday morning to recover from a hangover. It’s the perfect mix, of warm weather, booze, killer tunes, and a pool to jump into whenever you want. Well the Hotel San Carlos has taken that killer formula and put it into an event that happens every weekend. On Friday nights during the summer (until Labor Day) is ‘Star Swim’ an evening oasis smack dab in the middle of Downtown Phoenix. On Sunday Afternoon into the evening it’s called ‘Adult Swim’.
As you enter the hotel you step into the elevator to the 3rd Floor and walk down a long hall. After paying the $5 cover charge you step into one of the coolest Pool Parties you have ever seen. The only thing that was missing from this oasis was a BBQ. Fortunately, there’s an Irish Bar Directly below the pool (see the first image below) with a full menu and full bar in case you get hungry.
As you can see from the second picture below the place was packed and it was only 9:30 PM – 10:00 PM at the time the picture was taken. The lower level of the pool area is the pool deck and entrance to the event. You step up stairs and you come practically face to face with the band and the bar (in the far back corner). It’s a really intimate setting for a band and is remnant of Las Vegas style pool parties. Also, even though it looks like there’s a roof over the pool it’s just a transparent cover to keep the sun out of the pool during the day.
The music was great unfortunately I came down with a touch of the Flu and went home after a couple of hours. I never got to see Black Carl as I thought they were the only band that was playing that night. When I paid my cover charge I found out that there were other bands playing before Black Carl (with a DJ playing in between the band sets). Needless to say I wasn’t happy about that as the ‘Star Swim’ brochures advertised only one band (see original flyer at the very bottom of this page and you’ll see what I’m talking about).
I gotta admit that this is one of the coolest ideas I have seen for an event since I moved to Phoenix. Why more people don’t come down and check this event out, I’ll never know.
The only problems I had with this event was 1) it’s for anyone 18 and over which is pretty lame and 2) in the advertisement for the Star Swim they only published one band that was playing that night. However, when you get to the event you find out that the one band that was playing was actually the headliner and there were other bands that played before the event. The promoters of the event have since fixed the problem with #2 so there’s only the problem with #1. Hopefully as the event gets more and more word of mouth publicity, they can raise the age to 21 and over.
Would I go again? Oh yeah! I’m already planning on hitting the Adult Swim in the coming weeks with some other people. The ‘Star Swim’ or any of the other events like this are a ‘MUST’ attend by anyone who not only wants to get out and do something cool and unique but a place to go kick back with a nice drink and watch all the other cool people hang out.
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