Long Beach bar owners back out of SantaCon

Pub crawl caught city officials ‘off guard’ after RVC event was nixed

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The organizers of SantaCon Long Island announced Sunday that its popular bar crawl would be moved to Long Beach’s West End this Saturday after the event was scrapped in Rockville Centre last week.

But two bar owners and a city official told the Herald Tuesday that the West Beech Street bars that had initially agreed to welcome the revelers with food and drink specials had all backed out of the event amid concerns from local officials and residents about crowds, safety, parking and other quality-of-life issues.

A SantaCon organizer said he would have an update on the status of the event late Tuesday, but one bar owner, who declined to be identified, told the Herald, “It’s not going to happen.”

SantaCon Long Island has attracted thousands of attendees to Farmingdale since its inception five years ago, and a portion of the proceeds have raised nearly $13,000 for Toys for Hope. This year, nearly 1,500 people donned Santa, reindeer and elf costumes to go bar hopping on Main Street last Saturday.

Hundreds were expected to turn out for what would have been the first official SantaCon Long Island in Rockville Centre on Dec. 22, before village officials expressed concerns about what they described as an increased burden on the local police, fire and public works departments. The backlash prompted organizers to relocate the event to Long Beach.

Unique Bar Crawls, the company that organizes SantaCon Long Island, estimated that the Rockville Centre pub-crawl would have attracted no more than 500 attendees.

After Mayor Francis X. Murray, the Rockville Centre Chamber of Commerce and Police Department expressed concerns about safety and quality-of-life issues, bar owners — including RJ Daniels, Parlay Gastropub, Dark Horse Tavern and Bucket List RVC — pulled out of the event.

“It’s not safe, it’s disruptive and it’s not fair to our business owners,” Murray said.

But Mike Marra, president and chief executive officer of Unique Bar Crawls, disagreed. He said he planned to hire a dozen security guards from APB Security and another dozen event staffers to direct foot traffic, but ultimately decided to move the event to Long Beach after the village bars backed out. On SantaCon’s Facebook page, organizers called the village a “bunch of Grinches.”

“Those are the biggest bars that would make this an event, so we deemed it not worthy of our attendees’ time to continue with it,” Marra said.

He added that the event in Farmingdale has been well organized and supports local businesses and charity.

“We decided that as [Farmingdale SantaCon] was growing, maybe we’d mix it up a little bit and go to western Nassau,” he said. “I’ve been to Rockville Centre not just for the nightlife but for restaurants and so many styles of food. We figured why not bring a good cause there and saw it as a good opportunity for the village. It’s a shame that the event was shut down because of a common misconception.”

SantaCon originated in New York City and has spread to towns across the tri-state area — a quick Google search shows large groups of people in red suits, some seemingly drunk, passed out, fighting or being arrested. Marra said that SantaCon in New York City, a separate event, has a bad rap.

“Everyone hears ‘SantaCon’ and there’s a negative connotation given the reports from Manhattan,” Marra said. “We take pride in the way we run our [SantaCon Long Island] events.”

He added: “Directly with our event, we’ve never had any problem with the Nassau County Police Department or the Village of Farmingdale.”

Marra said that he expected no more than 300 people to turn out to the event in Long Beach based on ticket sales for RVC and after issuing refunds following its cancellation there. He and some others said it would help give West End businesses a boost in the off season. According to the event’s website on Tuesday, SantaCon is set to run from 1 to 5 p.m., followed by an after party at Minnesota’s. The event urges participants to drink responsibly, use public transportation or designated drivers. Marra also said that the company was working on offering participants discounts with Uber and Lyft.

“Our main purpose for events like this is to help the charity that’s affiliated with us, and make sure people come out and have a good time in a safe and well-run environment,” he said, adding that a number of bar crawls have been held in Long Beach. “We had every intention of reaching out to the municipality — especially the Long Beach Police Department — it was just a matter of timing, and people started hearing about it before we reached out to them.”

Still, Long Beach officials and members of the West End Neighbors Civic Association questioned the number of people that Marra said are expected to turn out for the event, saying that they believed the crowds would be larger. They shared similar concerns with RVC officials after organizers announced on social media that it would be held in Long Beach.

“It’s a little disappointing that they didn’t take the time to notify us,” Long Beach Police Commissioner and Acting City Manager Mike Tangney told the Herald on Monday, adding that he only learned about the event that afternoon. “The fact that it was released on social media before we were made aware of it caught us off guard.”

A city official said that of the seven businesses that agreed to participate in the event, the Inn, the Saloon, Swingbellys, Minnesota’s, Lilly’s, Jetty and Speakeasy had all backed out by Tuesday.

“We’ve gotten some calls from residents who are concerned about quality-of-life issues, and [we are] concerned about a lack of planning and preparation for this event,” Brendan Healy, chairman of WENCA’s committee on standards and quality of life, said Monday. “We feel like it’s being rushed. We’re encouraging the bars not to participate.”

Like Rockville Centre, Tangney said that organizers did not require a permit to hold the crawl in the Long Beach, but said that the city had little time to prepare for the event, unlike Irish Day and other big events. He added that residents expressed concerns about the crowds — especially during a busy holiday shopping weekend — and said that Long Beach has never had a bar crawl as large as SantaCon.

“We don’t have the space to handle that [in the West End],” he said. “I plan on meeting with a couple of the participants to find out the scope of the event so we can be properly prepare, and if we think it’s going to be out of control, we can stop it from continuing.”

“I’ve never heard good publicity about SantaCon,” added WENCA President Bill Tansey. “You don’t just decide you’re going to do a bar crawl that attracts 1,000 people and not run it by the city administration. It was poorly conceived.”