We know how exciting it is to wake up on Easter morning and find a basket filled with that fake green grass, chocolate bunnies, colorful plastic eggs filled with all kinds of assorted candy and other candies wrapped in foil.
Now just imagine seeing about 100 baskets, filled with just about anything you could imagine, all around the big open room at the Bektash Shrine Center. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Unfortunately, unlike your Easter basket at home you won’t be able to tear through these ones, but you can walk around and look at them – and enter for a chance to win one or many.
Let us explain.
This weekend, Friday through Sunday, the Shriners building (189 Pembroke Road) will be transformed into an Easter Paradise. It’s the inaugural Easter Eggstravaganza, put on by ConcordTV, and the hope is that this is the first of many. It’s going to be like the Shriners’ annual Feztival of Trees – only with Easter baskets, of course.
“We’ll have kids baskets and ones for adults,” said Chris Gentry, ConcordTV’s programming/IT director.
The event is being held as a fundraiser to help purchase new equipment that ConcordTV can use during its many community classes (that’s with all of you) and with any hope a nice chunk of change will be brought in this year. But like with any new fundraising endeavor, the real goal this year is to have a lot of people check it out, and put on a good show that will make people look forward to it again next year.
“The decor is going to be really cool. We want this to be a really great family experience,” said ConcordTV Executive Director Doris Ballard. “We’re setting the ground work for an annual event.”
The Eggstravaganza will be held Friday (3 to 8 p.m.), Saturday (9 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and Sunday (noon to 5 p.m.). So you really have no reason not to go to at least one of those days. It’s not like your social calendar is that busy.
And here’s how it all works. It costs just $5 for adults, which includes children 13 and older, $4 for seniors and children 12 and under are free. If all you seniors out there can wait a day after the opening, you can get in for free on Saturday. But it is after all a fundraiser, so there’s no harm in using four of those George Washingtons.
Once inside, there will be a lot of Eastery stuff to look at. The people at ConcordTV are expecting about 100 baskets with the Easter Bunny contributing about 30. Talk about a sweet score. Maybe we’ll drop off a few extra at our houses this year, too?
“It was a very generous Easter Bunny,” Ballard said.
The Easter Bunny will be there all weekend, although there will be breaks built into each day because there is kind of an important holiday just around the corner. And don’t forget your camera to take some pictures (or use your smart phone) of the bunny or baskets.
“There will be fun little toys for the kids when they visit the Easter Bunny,” Ballard said.
The Shriners will be handling the food, which is not included in the admission fee, but it will certainly be worth the extra cash.
So you can just pay the entrance fee, walk around and look at all the baskets and go home without spending any other money.
“It’s all about the experience,” Gentry said.
But where’s the fun in that? For just another $5, you can get a sheet of 25 tickets to put in the bucket next to any Easter basket you choose. You can even put all 25 in for one specific basket if that’s the one you have your heart set on. And there’s no rule against buying 50, 75 or 100 tickets. It’s all based off the Feztival of Trees model, which has worked pretty well in its 15-year run. Plus it is a fundraiser, so the more tickets you buy, the more money ConcordTV brings in.
There is also another set of tickets you can buy for the 50/50 raffle, a basket called the “Tower of Tools” and another one filled with all kind of great toys. Those tickets are one for $1, six for $5 and 12 for $10. And we can’t forget to mention the silent auction items.
Two of the regular baskets will have a golden egg containing $50 in cash, but you won’t be able to see them as you walk around.
“They’re buried,” Ballard said.
There will be music playing over the speakers during the event, along with live entertainment. On Friday at 6 p.m., The Dueling Murphys, a duo piano couple, will play. Jonathan And Joshua take the stage at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
On Sunday, the N.H. Ballroom Dancers perform at 1 p.m., followed by the Concord Coachmen at 1:30 p.m., and the final act of the event is Myschyffe Managed, a madrigal a cappella group, at 3 p.m.
“The atmosphere of the event is something you can immerse yourself in,” said Josh Hardy, production/training coordinator for ConcordTV.
Entries into the coloring contest will be hanging for event goers to enjoy.
There will be awards given to basket creators for most beautiful, best theme, most original and people’s choice.
Plus, there will be a few surprise activities as well.
“There are a few things we’re considering that we haven’t told the public about,” Hardy said.
And now you might be wondering when you’ll find out if you’ve won the basket of your dreams. Well, three tickets will be pulled at 5 p.m. on Sunday. That’s because if the first person doesn’t answer, the next person’s ticket will be called. Since everything has to be out of the Shirners and cleaned up by 8 p.m., they need to have people get their baskets pretty soon after the event ends. So in other words, right down a number you’re definitely going to be at and turn your ringer on high.
And for those of you who’d like to put in a basket, you can do so up until Friday morning. Just email jim@yourconcordtv.org or call 226-8872 to let them know.
“We’re going to take baskets up to the last minute,” Ballard said.
For more info, visit yourconcordtv.org. And they’ll be posting photos and videos on social media all weekend, so check out facebook.com/ConcordTV, @ConcordTV (Twitter) and concord_community_tv (Instagram).
“People might be able to see themselves at the event or what they missed,” Hardy said.
