Busy Labor Day Weekend Ahead
Hotels, motels, and all types of lodgings are expected to set occupancy records over the coming Labor Day weekend, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Phoenicians are hard pressed to call this the end of summer when temperatures are forecast to remain in the 107 degrees Fahrenheit/42 degrees Celsius range throughout the weekend. Sky Harbor International Airport's projected rise to the 9th busiest airport over the Labor Day holiday, up from number 15 last year, seems to indicate more visitors will be baking with the locals in 2007.
If you are going to be in town this weekend and aren't spending all of it at the pool, here are a few places and activities you might want to add to your to-do list:
Top chefs from across the Valley will put their culinary talents on display for charity at the 3rd Annual Phoenix Cooks! Ticket prices range from $80 to $95 and proceeds will benefit Phoenix Children's Hospital. Three ballrooms at the legendary Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa will be filled with exhibits, classes and, best of all, samples on Saturday, September 1. Chefs will compete in the "Battle of the Phoenician Chefs" on the Two Cooks in the Kitchen stage as well as share cooking tips and secrets from the Signature Dish stage. More information is available online at www.phoenixcooks.com or by calling (602) 374-6210.
The Action Sports World Tour brings the world's top pro skateboarders, BMX riders, and inline skaters to Jobbing Arena in Glendale to compete for World Championship bragging rights and more than $100,000 in prize money. Fans of home-town BMX riders John Parker and Danny Williams can watch them shine along with Chad, Kagy, Sandro Dias, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, Kevin Robinso and other X-Game and LG Championship athletes. This two-day event run Saturday and Sunday, September 1 & 2. Tickets (prices range form $20 to $50) can be purchased online at the Jobbing Arena website.
Hot weather inevitably brings out the tiki music. For those who didn't get enough of the stuff poolside or are seeking rewards for another year of labor can journey back to the roots of this quintessential summer experience when DJ Horsepussy serves an eerie cocktail of surf, garage, rock and punk music up with all the tropical accoutrements every Thursday night during at Shayna's (formerly Cat Eye Lounge), 2017 N. Scottsdale Rd. in Scottsdale.
If live music is more your style, The BellRays, Blackmarket and Necronauts will be raising the roof at one of the Valley's newest dive bars, The Ruby Room (717 S. Central Ave., Phoenix) on Friday, August 31 beginning at 8 p.m. Anyone born after 1965 will find something familiar and enjoyable in the music of this California band. The powerful, decidedly strong, vocal personality of Lisa Kekaula, is spectacularly supported by pulse pounding drums, soaring guitar riffs and a subtle bass line that sneaks ups and wraps around you before you even know it's there. I'm at a loss for assigning them to any one musical genre, so I'll go with them all and say "jazzy rock with just enough punk and funk to shake the audience out their fugue and take over their imagination".
Occupancy rates in the Phoenix metro area hover around 50 percent (averaging 49.8 percent in August and 52.5 percent in September) , far below the 69.1 percent anticipated nationally this weekend by PwC. Still, it is not the percentage but the number of rooms occupied, 3.12 million, that will be record-breaking. The addition of 0.4 million rooms without a significant increase in the overall percentage occupied rooms reveals that more rooms have been built, which is good news for the Valley because we are going to need them in February when the Super Bowl comes to town.
