SantaCon is scheduled for Saturday... ahead of that, DiMassimo Goldstein, an NYC-based ad agency, along with Crew Cuts, a broadcasting and media production company, launched a #SitOutSantaCon campaign. (The website notes that the campaign is also brought to you by "Decent People Everywhere.")
And there's a video, described this way:
This year, tens of thousands of people will flood the streets for SantaCon in cities across America. Like every year, adults will see overserved Santas, inebriated elves and reckless Rudolphs.
But what will the children see?
The #SitOutSantaCon website features a variety of posters and GIFs to share...
Not taking part in SantaCon is one thing. It's a choice. One problem with SantaCon, depending on where you are, is that you don't have much of a choice of being surrounded by it if you decide to venture outdoors.
As Jason Gilbert wrote for the Times in 2013 (in calling for a ban):
Perhaps most distressing about SantaCon is its size and the way that it shuts down and befouls dozens of blocks. Any East Villager (I am one) can tell you that the event makes doing absolutely anything beyond one’s front stoop an impossibility, unless you own swamp waders and a riot shield.
And...
For a New York City event of its size, however, SantaCon is distinctive, and arguably impressive, in that it contributes absolutely zero value — cultural, artistic, aesthetic, diversionary, culinary or political — to its host neighborhood. Quite simply, SantaCon is a parasite.
As for SantaCon 2017, organizers have yet to divulge what neighborhoods they'll congregate in this year.
35 comments:
I fucking cannot stand Santa Con. It is such an embarrassing and unnecessary shit show of the fullest proportions that as a sane and normal person I cannot bare. I will be staying inside, watching Netflix, and ordering take out. Thank you very much :)
Whatever money the event is supposed to raise it never justifies the drunken march of SantaCon.
Lots of people still mad about the one time they ran into this between 2010-2016
I have nothing good to say about what the organizers end up putting-on every year but we're starting to get to a point where the actual behavior/impact is indistinguishable from the dozens of ad-hoc unofficial bar crawls held by tourists/visitors all the time. They're just easier to pick out due to all the costumes. For the last couple of years I've rarely even run into the idiots (anywhere from the East Village to Murray Hill) - they seem more scattered than ever, as if they really just come into Manhattan for the tradition and don't care about the organized march.
Maybe if we implement weekend "congestion pricing" for bar patrons in the East Village people will be less inclined to go on a binge here.
I'm sorry but this is strictly an East Village thing/problem. Everywhere in Manhattan west and below the EV is Santacon-free.
That said, the fault for SC lies in the EV bars who facilitate it. All EV bars should refuse service to anyone dressed like a Santaconner (SCer.) If all EV bars did that, SC would end, but they don't so it continues.
I know alot of you want to read this but the problem isn't the SCers, it's the bars who serve them - blame them.
This isn't a damn frat party, this is our neighborhood. The event itself is bad enough, and with warm weather it is bound to be even worse, but it’s all of this phony secrecy and fake charity nonsense that the event planners hide behind that makes us resent them even more. Their entitled attitude to be secret and have zero transparency about who is really behind this (and we know it is the Bro Bars) proves that SantaCon is white privilege at it's worst. If this was Black Lives Matter there would be a whole police contingent on motorcycles complete with helicopter surveillance overhead. People would be arrested for marching in the streets or blocking traffic. And someone would be held accountable for all the litter.
SantaCon’s adolescent refusal to release the locations until the last minute is inconsiderate to people who want to avoid it. And that’s the whole point, all this patented manufactured “excitement” for bored suburban millennial alcoholics; the people making money off of the mayhem (the Bro bars) just want this lame event to seem like a free-for-all every year, which just adds to the general sense of chaos.
In the end it is all manufactured excitement, as if we don't know the drunk Santas are all going to all end up in the East Village. But the Bro Bars don't seem to realize that they lose more business throughout the year from all of us who boycott them knowing they support this one day drunkfest that leaves a big mess behind that the organizers refuse to pay to clean up. The bars should be fined for not cleaning up this mess.
As the TV ad shows, it’s the kids who have to witness thousands of drunk, rowdy Santas who are also traumatized, or worse, trained to believe that this is normal kidult behavior, and that they too will one day dress up and be a drunk Santa. Sane and normal people don't act this way. Friends don't let friends do SantaCon.
In a masochistic way I kind of want Santacon to keep on keeping on, if only to reinforce the point that NYC 2017 is dead, lame, corny, mainstream, squaresville, etc. NYC is a joke now, it's the asshole of the world. I don't identify with this city anymore so if it wants to make a fool of itself be my guest is what I say.
Don't really appreciate the use of kids as props in this fight. The 'Con is unfortunate for kids but let's face it, the ones who are really offended are the adults.
The bars facilitate Santa Con, I suppose it is their Black Friday and great for their bottom line. Is it time for a counter Santa Con? We know the Mayor has asked the NYPD to back off completely as our neighborhood gets trashed each year and taxes from liquor sales fill the city's coffers.
Please, Santa has been a con all along #WheresMyBikeSanta
This... event is why I'll NEVER support Figment NYC or ANYTHING Costume Jim Glaser is involved with.
I hate SantaCon too, but this neighorhood is a horror show on a typical Thursday / Friday / Saturday night. With the drunks screaming on the sidewalks and tons of angry, honking traffic from their personal cars, Ubers, and Lyfts, we're a playground for the spoiled 20-somethings who don't even live here. I'm on the young side myself, and am scared to go out at those times, because of the horrible (and potentially dangerous due to the traffic) experience that awaits right outside. So SantaCon itself doesn't upset me much more than the status quo in the neighborhood, frankly.
Yep, an hour or so at the Cookie Walk and then home to Netflix and call out for Thai food. Can't wait.
That one time in the year when the juvenile kidult delinquents get a free reign with sexual assaults and harassment and trashing the neighborhood where do they not live in under the guise of holiday merriment and fun that's what the residents are mad about. How about holding this douchebaggery in your hometown in NJ, huh?
#metoo
Haha...HE SAID HE WAS TOO HIGH...
I will take lots of pics of drunk santa's this weekend.
The best ones are the ones of them getting tickets for drinking in public. The utter shock on their face.
The eleventh commandment: Thou Shalt Not Impersonate Santa Claus
No! I work in a bar and either were slammed, or dead. Half the Santa just want to use the bathroom/pee on the floor. NONE OF THESE FUCKERS EVEN TIP.I saw them climb a tree and jump on a branch until it broke off. WHY.
Any ideas for how the neighborhood could band together to talk to the bars about addressing lawlessness and misconduct associated with SantaCon? Maybe this should go before our Community Board (if it hasn't already or isn't currently being addressed by them). Do the local police precincts have an official stance on the matter?
You people are ridiculous. If you can't get beyond people getting drunk for one afternoon, the problem isn't with them, it's with you. I've lived through many santacons living in the east village and have never had a problem going about my day. I don't condone anyone breaking any laws or ordinances, and there are always a few rotten apples in the bunch that I don't stand for and would personally take action to stop. But, really guys, let people enjoy things. Stop whining about everything.
Jason Gilbert, if you're reading this, I hope to god you've grown up since 2013.
Enough. It’s time to fight fire with fire. It’s time for someone like EV Police Watchtower or EV Heave to set up a fake SantaCon twitter account and tweet out fake instructions to Santas. The feed can alert them all to take the F train out to Coney Island for the “SantaCon Beach Party Kickoff Extravaganza” — that should eliminate about a third of the Santas right there.
Next, the Twitter feed can tweet out fake contests, like the “Pee On The Bar Floor Contest” where the Santas that can make the biggest yellow puddle in the middle of any bar get a free case of beer. That should encourage more bars to decide not to ever participate again. Then maybe a contest to set the Guinness Book World Record for “Most Santas Mooning Oncoming Traffic at Union Square.” Or maybe a “Get Naked and Make Out At Your Favorite Chain Store” Photo Contest.
Most of these Santas are fairly dumb and ready to run wild, and even most of the smarter ones will be drunk, so using the right hashtags should easily fool them. Pick them off one by one using the power of social media. It worked during the last Presidential election, it could work again.
Last year the only cop I saw on a 15 block jaunt was a senior officer directing the vomiters on a line to get into the 12 step on 2nd. Wtf.. this sounds unkosher to me. What's it going to take for NYPD to take this seriously? A White riot? Some deaths?
To East Village Community Member
LMFAS. If they don’t go after an asshole exposing himself in Tompkins why would they even begin to do what you are asking.
@5:58pm: Who are YOU trying to kid? This isn't about people getting drunk ONE "afternoon" a year, as you claim!
It's about people getting egregiously drunk, starting before 10am and staying drunk until the bars close and/or they pass out, all supposedly in the name of (fake) charity.
You know who's really ridiculous? PEOPLE WHO DEFEND THIS CON, that's who.
I'd hate this CON even if it *were* only ONE day a year, but the reality is that the East Village is a drunk-a-thon on most Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, and that reality is a genuine problem.
I'm tired of MY neighborhood, MY stoop, MY front yard being pissed on and vomited in, just b/c some douches from NJ who are already brain-dead can't imagine anything more clever to do.
And I really wish the 9th Precinct would give a damn about those of us who LIVE HERE and hate how these jerks over-run our neighborhood. (I agree with the person who said if the majority of Santa Con participants were not white, the NYPD would have helicopters overhead all day & night, and boots on the ground.)
Yes, certainly a race aspect to this too. Just imagine if the SantaCon crowd, or really just the average entitled bros who overrun this neighborhood Thu/Fri/Sat nights, were not majority white. Screaming, puking, clogging up out streets in their Ubers & bullying local pedestrians & cyclists.
It's so upsetting to see 9th Pct cops drive (!!!!) around Tompkins Sq Park and sit in their squad car doing nothing every day, but when the neighborhood gets predictably overrun by entitled, largely well-off (and white) people, that's barely on the pct's radar.
SantaCon may be only one day a year, but it also happens to be the WORST day of the year to be anywhere in the East Village, and that’s saying a lot given all the falling down drunk, mayhem-filled weekends down here. But we are not alone. Other places have had similar problems with annual gatherings of large crowds with drunken rowdiness: Daytona and Myrtle Beach have had to cancel or crack down on their annual Spring Break parties after girls got molested on the beach, major fights broke out, and mayhem took over in the streets. Hoboken cancelled their St Patrick’s Day Parade because there were too many drunks making life miserable for everyone. So do you know what happened next? The bars got together and created LepreCon, which is basically SantaCon but with evenuglier outfits. Now they sell tickets to “control the crowds: but everyone still gets as drunk as possible. If SantaCon isn’t doing enough damage to your liver, you can get your 2018 tickets here: http://hobokenstpatricksday.com
I don't like drunk people. If the point of Santacon is to get sh*tfaced, then I hate it.
To "Anonymous" who wrote that most people complaining and discussing the disruption of SantaCon here are "ridiculous": You say you have lived through many a SantaCon. I'm curious how many that would be? It's fine if the craziness of the event doesn't bother you, but everyone who lives here has a right to discuss issues and the quality of life in their community. SantaCon clearly is a considerable annoyance to many people in the East Village, so you shouldn't disrespect their views. You can chime in with "I think it's fine," but no one would dispute the fact that the event has many detractors. Everyone deserves to be heard. All I'm advocating for is discussion of the matter. Can the Community Board provide some assistance here? Can the local precincts be helpful in addressing the concerns of the people who live here?
This is absolutely not strictly an EV event, 11:16, although even if it were, so what? It would still be a fungus worth exterminating.
I go to school in Chelsea, and last year on my way home I saw one Santa violently kicking the other's head in right around the corner from the 40/40 club, so that's the Madison Square Park area, and then there were huge lines of Santas outside the shittier bars of 3rd Avenue in the Gramercy/20s area. And yes, it only got worse as I made my way toward the upper EV. I wrote a report about it here. I'll also be leaving school this Saturday night at prime Sanatcon barfing hours so I'll be sure to report back!
“I will take lots of pics of drunk santa's this weekend.”
You're a better man than I am, Eden Bee.
We are going to the Frick or the Met*, then take a walk in the Park (UWS section), rain or shine, then have dinner at the UWS. By the time we get home, hopefully most of the damage will have been done. Very sad we have to evacuate our hood for the day but “It's the crappiest time of the year!”
*Staying out of the tourist heavy exhibits
Giovanni has the right idea. Just do it.
Let's not forget that when Santacon started in New York almost 20 years ago it was considered joyful performance art and many participants were from the East Village artist community. It's only become the suburban fratboy pub crawl/pukefest in the last 5+ years. Village Voice did an article about it in '14.
IMHO anyone who walks down the street and flicks a cigarette on the ground is disgusting. So, if any of you who are complaining about SC and you do that, you're no better.
1.23 PM.
"So, if any of you who are complaining about SC and you do that, you're no better."
Bogus moral equivalent. Big time.
Snow in the forecast for Saturday. Fingers crossed.
https://www.wunderground.com/hourly/us/ny/new-york-city/10009/date/2017-12-09
@ 7:41am, 11:16am here.
I wrote "Everywhere in Manhattan west and below the EV is Santacon-free." I meant to write "west OF and below the EV." Chelsea and Gramercy Park are not west of or below the EV. 'Sucks that it's made it's way all the way up there.
If you can afford it take a cab from in front of your school to your door so you can avoid these idiots.
1:45, this is the Chelsea school attendee (go FIT!!)
I can afford a cab from Chelsea to upper EV (sort of ... my kittens would prefer spend that $$ on cat treats lol), but I'm not taking a cab home on a Saturday night when the streets are clogged, it'll cost me 3x what it normally would, plus I like walking especially after being hunched over in a lab all day. It's a nice walk from 27th/7th to upper Avenue A (even when it's cold, like tomorrow will be), cutting through Madison Square, Gramercy, and Stuyvesant Parks.
But even more important, I refuse to change my life because of a bunch of suburban shitheads I specifically ran away from home to get away from decide to take over swaths of downtown drunk as hell, dressed uncreatively, shouting incoherently, acting the fool.
I actually hope I see worse things than the Santa drunks wandering into traffic, Santa bro fights, and Santa couple public molestations I did last year, just so that I can come back here and share these stories with all of you. If we can't get rid of these pests, at least let's treat them as the public laughingstocks that they are? I'm looking forward to the reports
Yours in pointing in laughing,
7:41
7:41pm, 1:45pm back here.
Now that I think about it and you're right bad idea to take a cab that route on a Saturday night (besides more $$ for cat treats : ) That's a nice long walk.
You're right, fuck these idiots you left home to get away from. Definitely keep us posted.
Hey you seem interesting. I live in lower Manhattan on the west side. Hit me up at tracexleft gmail (create a gmail to write me.) Coffee/hot chocolate/whatever on me. I'm a guy. If not all good peace!
Post a Comment