Eugene Weekly : Arts : 9.27.07

Happy Silver to Hult
As summer ends, excitement heats up
BY SUZY STEFFEN

Maybe you missed all of the free Hult Center 25th anniversary party concerts this summer, even the Misty River performance on one of the last gorgeous days of summer on Sept. 15. But there’s more to come at the Really Big Party.

First thing you need to know is that it’s sold out. Or rather freed out, since the tix to the Hult Center’s humongous Friday, Sept. 28 gala “Another Evening of Memories: Resident Companies in Concert” didn’t require a credit card or cold hard cash, only some shoe leather in the line for the tix that were snapped up within a very few hours by the glitterati of Eugene. (Slightly more expensive tix, at $135 apiece, get you a “Gala Dinner” at the Hilton and a ticket to the show.)

Second thing you need to know is that if you’re missing the performances, you’ll probably get the chance to party down with the assorted musicians, actors, singers, dancers and Important People afterwards at the post-concert party where the Hult Center’s lobby stays open really, really late (for Eugene) with music and a no-host bar. Or, if you’re not quite old enough for that whole no-host bar thing, there’s the Eugene Rocks! dance party for 6th-8th graders at The Studio that night.

And the next day, the building — which perhaps, in the winter, could use those paintball splashes Opus6ix’s longtime arts supporter Robert Canaga always suggests — throws open its doors with a daylong open house and tons of activities, including a cake decorating contest, a performance from Ballet Folklórico Infantíl, drumming from Eugene Taiko and what Hult Center marketing director Billie Moser describes as the awesome and passionate DAC Nooners. Backstage tours complete the package — see if you can spot the signatures of Bonnie Raitt or the full cast of My Little Pony on the walls!

We note that silver anniversary gifts suggested on About.com include purchasing tickets for a concert or the theater; the Hult wouldn’t look askance if you carried out that assignment at its newly remodeled ticket kiosk in the lobby.