OC Weekly’s First Ever Artopia Event – Food, Culture, and Entertainment!!

Last week I was fortunate to attend a fabulous event in Santa Ana, California. The event was called Artopia and it was put on by the local magazine, OC Weekly. In honor of the release of the first People Issue for OC Weekly they held the Artopia event at the Yost Theater on March 22^nd. The event included local artists, a bikini fashion show, acrobatic dancers and food and drinks from several local businesses. This event cost $20 to get in for regular tickets & $50 for VIP tickets & the event was held from 7:00-10:00 pm. For those of you that know me, I am a deals fanatic, so naturally I found a way to get our tickets for $10 each. I bought out tickets through Voice Daily Deals which was presented by OC Weekly.  I never believe in purchasing items or tickets for full price. There is always a deal out there, you just have to be willing to search for it! 🙂

Upon arriving at Artopia there was a nice large sign presenting what the event had to offer which included art, culture, music and food. This was a pretty special event in that it was the first year that it occurred.  Upon entry to the Yost Theater, we saw barbers cutting men’s hair outside from a local haircutting shop called, “Hawleywood’s Barber Shop & Shaving Parlor.” My husband loved this feature as he said they did a fabulous job and it reminded him of an “old school

barber shop with funk & style.” Hawleywood’s Barber shop currently has locations in Costa Mesa, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, and Sydney, Australia.

As we entered Artopia, there was a fun wall to get our picture taken and we felt like movie stars. 🙂 I always enjoy walking the red carpet..hahaha. 🙂  The Yost Theater was a great location for the event in that it was multilevel and a large atmosphere to cruise around and check out the scene. Normally the Yost Theater is a nightclub, that also features special events and concerts and they have a yummy gourmet restaurant with many fabulous goodies made by head chef, Kerri Cacciata Minton.  We got to sample some of her fabulous crostini trios which featured spring pea & bacon jam with crispy shallots, house made Meyer lemon ricotta, balsamic roasted strawberries, and toasted almonds, and the last crostini

featured was curried vegetable puree with coconut mint yogurt and coconut. My favorite was the one with ricotta & strawberries.

Some of the other food and alcohol booths included Hendrick’s Gin which featured a “cucumber gimlet” made with Hendrick’s gin, lime juice, simple syrup and cucumber…yum & the “bee’s knees” with Hendrick’s gin, honey syrup, and lemon juice, Milagros Tequila, Pacifico Beers, pork belly from “The Surfin Cowboy,” Reyka Vodka, and more.

I was very excited about the Reyka Vodka as I had an opportunity to check out the map and see where the Vodka was made (I have been wanting to travel to Iceland for awhile now…will have to be one of my future trips) and I got to meet the fabulous distributor, Clarke Boyer and chat with him for a great while about Reyka Vodka as well as things to see and do in Iceland.  This was an awesome experience for me as he brought out the map and showed me where Reyka vodka was made and what there was to do in the local area.  I hope to personally go visit the puffins one day and to go for a pony ride around the gorgeous landscape, and of course go to the Reyka Vodka distillery in Borgarnes, a small village rich with Viking history.  A fascinating fact about Iceland is that in the winter the daytime is filled with darkness and in the summer,

the nights are filled with daylight.  Reyka vodka is distilled using lava rocks because they are an abundant natural resource in the area, and are quite porous which make them useful for a filtration system. For more details about how Reyka Vodka is made and for some more interesting facts about Iceland, visit their website here: Reyka Vodka. At

the Artopia event we walked around and checked out some awesome artwork. See pictures in this post.  We also got very lucky in that we enjoyed the pleasure of one of the only 2 couches in the place that was not the VIP area. We met an adorable couple that was recently engaged that had the one other sofa in the place across from us. We watched each others’ sofas the entire night so we could have a place to rest our legs. See picture for the recently engaged adorable couple that was debating on doing Africa or Italy for their honeymoon…Hmm…romantic gondola or rugged safari?? 🙂

Last, but definitely not least, we got to watch an amazing acrobat come out of the ceiling in a sheet/ropey fabric.  She was so agile and was amazing to watch as she waltzed around in her sheet to music. See pictures for the fabulous performance.

Overall, Artopia was awesome and we will definitely go back next year again if the event is offered. If you live in the local area, stay tuned to OC Weekly posts and subscribe to their newsletter to check out all of the awesome events that take place in Orange County, California. For those of us that live in this area, we are truly blessed to live in such a fabulous place with so many things to do and for those of you that live afar, check out Orange County, California! It is a great place to visit! Thanks for reading. 🙂

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