Cirque New Years Eve At the Fairmont

Unilocal serves me well 364 days of the year, but I’d like it to do well 365. I wanted to find a fun New Year’s Eve event this past year (2014 – 2015), and realized that Unilocal is grossly lacking in reviews for these types of events (which is too bad since they can get pricey). Here is my attempt to help remedy this.
Average Age of participants=mid thirties to early forties
Ticket price= bought mine for $ 65 per person (plus service fee) a few days before Christmas. This was for general admission. VIP tickets were also available for around $ 135 at the time. Cheaper tickets were available if you bought it even earlier.
Attire= formal
Time=9PM-1:30AM
I was in search of a non-​club, classy NYE event with a slightly older crowd (was trying to avoid the schwasted 21 year olds dancing to EDM). I have to admit that I’m too old to keep up with the young ones these days. As this event listed itself as 21 and up, but with a preference for 27 and up, I thought this would be a better fit. The crowd ended up being perhaps a little older than I was expecting, but they were energetic and fun.
Getting there using public transit wasn’t too bad. The boyfriend and I got off at the Powell Street Bart Station, and then took a shuttle bus that was replacing a cable car line for the night up to the hotel. It was only 0.7 miles to the hotel, but it’s all uphill and very steep. Upon arriving, we were given wristbands, and then waited about half an hour in the complimentary coat check line. The wristbands granted in and out privileges.
The event took place in three areas. They had an 80’s cover band playing in one room and a DJ spinning top 40 music in another ballroom. While the average age was perhaps 40 at this event, the top 40 dance floor was a slightly younger crowd. The Tonga Room was also open, but the line of people trying to get in deterred me from checking out that part of the party. One of the security people said that the line was to get dinner, but as I was unwilling to stand in it, I can’t say for sure what was going on in there. Dinner is not included in the ticket price by the way. There were a few cash only bars set up in the two ballrooms, but they were pricey. Most of the alcoholic drinks ran around the $ 16 range. Non alcoholic drinks (soda and water) were $ 7 each. Yes, $ 7 for a bottle of water. I’m not talking about Voss, or some other water with fancy packaging, I’m talking about a Crystal Geyser or Alhambra type of bottle.
The venue itself was beautiful. It had the classy elegant vibe I was looking for. The dance floor was crowded, but not packed to the point where you were constantly stepping on people’s feet or elbowing people out of the way to get off of it. I would actually say that it was optimally crowded, enough so that you felt comfortable dancing, but with enough room for you to get around on it. The event advertises cirque performers, but the performances were only a small part of it. I saw maybe 5 performers in total roaming around the top 40 ballroom. There was a stage with different acts, and then a few people walking around on stilts, and a guy on a unicycle.
VIPs had access to their own event check in, coat check, and a few seated areas and bars. I don’t think there was enough of a difference though that I would be willing to pay almost double the ticket price for a VIP ticket. There were still small tables where you could sit down and rest your feet if you were a non VIP, but they were limited. At midnight, there was a countdown and a balloon drop.
As my boyfriend and I were taking public transit home, we wanted to leave a little bit early to avoid missing the last Bart train, and boy were we glad that we did. The coat check line was once again super long, and then after having no shuttle bus show up for 20 minutes (the city streets were pretty congested), we ended up walking to the Bart (which was thankfully downhill) and caught the second to last train leaving SF for the night.