If you go
› What: Electric Shuttle Disco Bar Crawl› Where: Six downtown restaurants› When: 8-11 p.m. Saturday, April 1› Admission: Free bus ride, buy your food and drink› For more information: www.facebook.com
A new event is launching Saturday night, April 1, that promises lots of movin' and groovin' to disco music on a tricked-out party bus.
Chattanooga Emerging Urbanists is partnering with CARTA, Hip-Hop CHA and six downtown restaurants to create a bar crawl like no other: the Electric Shuttle Disco Crawl.
Partiers will board one of two electric shuttles decorated in lights and disco balls, with DJs from Hip-Hop CHA in the back of the buses playing music to set the party mood.
Catch a CARTA bus for a bar crawl? Here's how it works:
Participants may park in either Shuttle Park South (1398 Market St.) or Shuttle Park North (215 Broad St.), where they'll pick up a free "passport" to ride the Electric Shuttle Disco Crawl. Buses will run their regular CARTA routes from the Chattanooga Choo Choo to the Tennessee Aquarium.
The passport will list six restaurants along the shuttle's route. Fill out the passport by getting a server's signature at each of the six stops, and you will be entered to win a prize package of gift cards from each of the participating restaurants.
The six downtown party stops are: Easy Bistro & Bar, Big River Grille, Lupi's Pizza, Pickle Barrel, The Social and Stir.
Riding the bus is free. Individuals will be responsible for their own food and drinks at each place they stop.
Not only is the Electric Shuttle Disco Crawl a way to help celebrate CARTA's 25th anniversary, upcoming in June, but it's a reminder to Chattanoogans of the accessibility in catching a CARTA shuttle to spots downtown.
"People often think these shuttles are for tourists, so this is a way to get local people to rediscover them," says Ryan Sandwick, event organizer.
The beauty of the party shuttle is that riders can hop on and off at any of the crawl's stops. Stop at one or all six restaurants, spending as much time as you want at each.
Sandwick says the buses will stop running at 11 p.m., so partiers need to be on board to return to their cars by 10:30 p.m. Sandwick adds that in addition to the two buses decked out in lights, there will be two more CARTA shuttles running the route that will not be decorated, in order to accommodate everyone more quickly.
Plans are already underway for more downtown crawls in coming months.
"We're doing a bicycle-themed one in May, another one in summer and fall," Sandwick says.
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.