38th annual Noel Night Saturday, December 4th

http://www.freep.com/article/2010120...idtown-Detroit

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The 38th annual Noel Night will take place today, Saturday, December 4, 2010, from 5:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. in Midtown Detroit's Cultural Center Area. Over 60 Midtown venues, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Science Center, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Historical Museum, and the Detroit Public Library, amongst many others, open their doors to the public free of charge during this Cultural Center-wide holiday "open house."

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We had a great time--they need to make this an all day event to see everything!!

Awesome time! This was my first time going and it was a blast. I am really glad they closed off Woodward Ave between DHM and WSU welcome center. I agree that the event needs to start earlier and last longer. But within those couple of hours my friends from WSU and I went to Shargri La for dinner, DHM, DIA, MOCAD and got coffee at Biggby Coffee and stopped off at Detroit Artists Market to end the evening. So much fun! Can't wait to do it agian.

We never made it out of the Motor City Brewery during Noel Night.


Dropped in to see Melvin Davis with McKinley Jackson on keyboards...backed by an entire band of young white dudes who very clearly have Motown flowing through their veins...they rocked out the house.

We hung there for a bit, imagining that we might be able to get some food, but they were too busy.

We then decided to stay for the next band, which was a mystery. Nobody had seen a listing of who was going to perform.


Turns out my girlfriend and I met and talked with the leader of Grupo Escobar and his lovely friend at Slow's Fifth Birthday gathering in front of the train station. Steve Jarosz gathers a mean group of musicians around his considerable gifting...and boy can they make a crowd MOVE!


Next time anyone gets the chance to witness either Melvin Davis or Grupo Escobar...do it. You won't be disappointed.

Cheers

I also agree that is was WAY too short a time...but it was really great to feel that energy in the city. Midtown was ALIVE...everything was so copacetic and joyous.

I went down there around 630P and circled around the area for 15 minutes looking for parking but traffic was too much so I bailed and went back home. It's too bad they don't expand it to a couple days instead of concentrating everything in such a short time span.

Maybe the musems and such can not afford to have more than one day free of admission. If that is the case this entire first full weekend in December should be Noel weekend with free admissions on Friday and maybe have Saturday and Sunday be discounted.

Another reason that maybe it is only one night is the closure of Woodward Ave. It may be hard to get approval to close a state road.