Nashville is BACK.
The city has been slowly loosening restrictions for a few months now, and Broadway has been bustling recently as tourists flocked back.
But yesterday, for the first time in over a year, Nashville fully reopened with no capacity restrictions and no mask mandates.
And, well, people were ready to party.
Let’s take a look at how the reopening went, courtesy of one of my favorite Twitter accounts, @ScanNashville.
The party got started early, with somebody passing out in the bathroom at Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar at 2:30 in the afternoon.
And of course the party wagons and pedal taverns were out in full force – and at full capacity.
And so was this guy…
It seems COVID was the furthest thing from people’s minds as they celebrated the return to normal.
The news was even on hand at Acme Feed + Seed to cover the party.
And it was definitely a party, as people packed into the bars and rooftops.
The city of Nashville also announced yesterday that several bars will be giving out free beer to anybody who shows their COVID vaccination card.
So @ScanNashville decided to see how many “punches” we could get on the vaccination cards, and punching the card every time police were called to a particular location.
Jason Aldean’s and Ole Red were punched on the card early in the day.
And as the night wore on, the calls for people who were partying a little too hard started rolling in.
Even the Uber drivers seemed to be celebrating, which is a pretty shitbag move even if this guy wasn’t actually driving for Uber at the time.
But then we had calls for people who had a little too much to drink at FGL House.
And the WKND Hang Suite, a bar and hookah lounge in midtown Nashville, just a few blocks from Broadway.
And Loser’s in downtown Nashville, where the callers were too drunk to tell police where they were even at.
I get it, to be honest. I’ve been there too.
The drunks also found their way off Broadway to nearby Church Street.
And we had some fighting at the Hard Rock Cafe. Man, and I thought that was a family place.
We had people passing out at Honky Tonk Central…because of course they were.
And falling down at Ole Red.
There was a fight at Nudie’s.
And a guy at the Valentine who was so drunk he needed an ambulance.
Even the usually-well behaved AJ’s Good Time Bar got in on the action this time around. I don’t think Alan would approve of this behavior at his bar. I guess she was “way down in her whiskey.”
Then we had ANOTHER person falling down drunk right next door from AJ’s at the Mellow Mushroom.
And a fight at Jason Aldean’s, back where it all started.
Then just before closing time, we had an unconscious man at Kid Rock’s. Honestly surprised it took that long to get a call from there. Kid Rock’s is, as we all remember, the same place where a man was arrested a couple weeks ago for removing his colostomy bag and swinging it at police officers.
By 3 AM, when the bars shut down, we ended up with seventeen punches on the card.
Yep, Nashville is back.
And that’s just the first night.
