Watch Hollywood's biggest awards show and party with us
At last year’s Oscars, Ellen DeGeneres took a selfie that would become the most retweeted photo ever, John Travolta made an epic flub introducing Idina Menzel, and 12 Years a Slave won best picture. These were moments that we captured while livetweeting and by publishing articles in the Daily News and Inquirer — because that’s the way, we’ve often thought, we should cover an event for our audience.
**ENTER BELOW TO WIN TICKETS TO OUR PARTY**
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At last year's Oscars, Ellen DeGeneres took a selfie that would become the most retweeted photo ever, John Travolta made an epic flub introducing Idina Menzel, and 12 Years a Slave won best picture. These were moments that we captured while livetweeting and by publishing articles in the Daily News and Inquirer — because that's the way, we've often thought, we should cover an event for our audience.
But what if experiencing the event itself with the audience is the way a 21st-century media company should cover cultural moments like the Oscars, or the State of the Union, or the World Series?
Here at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, we're thinking about various ways to get together communities around what matters to them — whether that's 100 people watching the Oscars while drinking cocktails and gossiping about red carpet fashion, or a 1,000 people who listening to a mayoral debate and deciding how to vote. We're convinced that events themselves are as much a part of the conversation — and the content — as the traditional stories we publish online and in print.
To that effect, we're dipping our toes into hosting events with an Oscar's watching party. The idea came about while meeting with BarWithMe, a start-up that seeks to gather people around great television events — and drinking at bars. We quickly partnered with them and the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com to come up with a plan for a very fun event:
• Watch the Oscars with our staff and readers at the Hard Rock Café at 12th and Market, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22 ($20 admission).
• During the red carpet preview from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., we'll have free cocktails courtesy of Bluecoat Gin and free food courtesy of the Hard Rock Café. Happy hour specials all night long.
Jenice Armstrong and Elizabeth Wellington will give red carpet commentary while Amy Buckman and special guests from our newsrooms will engage the crowd during the program's commercial breaks.
• Dress for the party and get your photo taken on our red carpet by HughE Dillon.
RSVP now before tickets are sold out OR you can enter for a chance to win a pair of tickets (we're giving away five pairs total) for you and a buddy – ENTER HERE (Contest ends Fri., Feb. 20 at noon)
The Oscars began in 1929 as a humble, 15-minute ceremony and private dinner and 86 years later has turned into a megawatt event. We'll start with this event and hope in the coming months, you'll see more events that keep getting bigger and better.