This post appears courtesy of New Market Wilm. View the original post here.
If you’re not a regular concertgoer, your first visit to The Queen was probably for a wedding, or a networking mixer, or a really awesome Bat Mitzvah … and if you had a good time, you can thank Allison Wier. She’s been the director of sales and private events since way before Live Nation took over management of the Queen in 2017, but even before she started working there, she believed in the potential of this space on Market…
“I came here for the first time in 2011, when it first opened. I remember thinking ‘This would be a great place to see a show.’ But then my mind was also going, ‘This would also be a great place to have a party.’”
“We do all kinds of celebrations – weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, any kind of corporate event. We get the people who want something different. Your non-traditional bride and groom, they tend to come to us.”
“We did a really fantastic bat mitzvah this spring, where we brought cool white lounge furniture and Lucite tables. You felt like you were in a New York nightclub.”
“And then we did a holiday party – it was a company from New York, and their biggest client was one of the local banks, and they had essentially unlimited funds. They had this huge snow globe that could fit five people inside, and you’d go in and have your picture taken. They had magicians and circus acts. And they wanted to bring in a tightrope walker. Well, we couldn’t do that, for a couple reasons, but they were really committed to their theme.”
So what makes an event at The Queen different?
“There’s the lighting. When you go into a typical hotel ballroom, they’ve got lights on dimmers. The Queen has nightclub lighting. And a disco ball.”
“You don’t have to do a lot of decorating in the space. You can just throw some candles on the table and, you know, the decor is already there. For a private party, we have a huge bar, so there’s minimal wait time for your guests to get drinks. And the fact is … we have a huge stage for a band or a DJ, and a really nice area for dancing.”
“When people know exactly what they want, and just don’t know how to get it, I can introduce them to decorators or party planners, if it’s not something we can help them with them house. But for people who have no idea, who just know how many people they want to have and what their budget is, we can really help them facilitate a great party.”
“I think you either really like this line of work, or you don’t at all. Most of the events I’m helping with are celebrations. People are happy about something and they are spending money on a happy occasion. So I think that’s probably my favorite part of it, working with people who are celebratory and in a good mood and who want to have fun, and want their guests to have fun.”
What’s new at The Queen?
“We just added an outside patio to the building – and the bar, we’re hoping to open any day now. It will be great to take advantage of the nice weather and sit outside.”
“On the marquee, there’s always something fun written up there, whether it’s a concert or a party or congratulations to a bride and groom. There’s stuff going on weekly downtown, even in the middle of the summer. You can’t not have fun in this building.”