So for weeks I had been seeing posts on Facebook about a launch party of a new beer garden in Bangkok. This one was set to open in RCA (Royal City Avenue), a prominent street, famous with Thais, expats and tourists for its “happening” nightclubs, bars and restaurants.

The ads were indeed intriguing as it promised to give traditional beer gardens a run for its money with a modern twist. If you’ve been to a beer garden in Bangkok, they are mostly makeshift areas with plastic chairs and tables, loud music and flashy ambiance. BeatGarden was set to be nothing like that. This was actually going to be a legit outdoor garden serving imported craft beers combined with food trucks, quality chill-out music and an even a connecting indoor cinema.

Are you getting as intrigued as I was? So anyways, after weeks of anticipation and excitement, I finally made my way to Beatgarden’s launch on 30th September. Now the doors were set to open at 7 pm and knowing that they had a 2-hour window of free flow drinks and BBQ for the first 100 guests, I was there 20 minutes early. This was good, for more reasons than one, which you will know in just a minute.

While waiting, I took some pictures of the place knowing that I might not be able to get them later with my friends and the place crawling with eager guests.

I also got a chance to speak to one of the co-founder and creative director, Sascha Jochum, who was kind enough to explain the entire concept of BeatGarden.

It’s more than a beer garden here he explained as he showed me around. The outside area was a patio that resembled a garden with beach chairs and wooden furniture decorated with drinking games. As we walked in the indoor room there was a small but cozy cinema that shows documentaries and alternative movies. Going deeper in a third room is their nightclub for the party go-ers. All three venues combined makes up Live RCA, an ultimate destination for events.

“At nightclubs it’s hectic. People get drunk and get crazy. Here at BeatGarden we want to promote a culture where it’s about people coming together, talking about things like movies, playing intellectual games combined with a bit of drinking. It’s a mixture of education, culture, quality music and fun and that’s the kind of mood we want to create”

Just as Sascha was finishing up the tour, my (but mostly his) worst fear came true – it started raining…HARD! Not the best scenario for an outdoor event. Funny thing, it was exactly 7 pm, the time that the event was suppose to start.

I go over to the bar, which was glowing purple and ordered my first free drink while waiting anxiously for my friends to arrive. It starts pouring even harder. Lucky I came early! You would think that the event would be a bust and no one would show up…but…I was shocked and awed. People started coming in slowly, wet and all.

By 7:30, there were close to 70 or 80 people who were originally suppose to be spread out across the entire outdoor area but were now packed under one small roof, right next to the bar. By 8 pm, there were more than a 100 people overcrowding the venue. The music started to get a bit heavier with DJ playing some top-notch deep house that turned non-fans such as my wife into a believer.

We spent about 3 hours at the launch, grooving to the music, munching on BBQ delights, getting a bit buzzed and rubbing elbows against a very hip crowd. It was a decent event, a great turnout considering the rain and we’ll surely be going back there to  lounge about on a warm, sunny afternoon during the weekend – whenever that is.