Sure, concerts and theater shows can be fun, but how about a healthy dose of fashion, performing art, live music, exciting auctions, surprise guests, and charity?
Mark your calendars for May 20th because you and all your friends can make your way to Glitzburgh for a fashionably fun evening to benefit the Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh! This is the third year for the event, and it just keeps getting bigger and better… In the last two years of this event, Glitzburgh was able to double not only the people in attendance for this event — but also the amount raised for the Children’s Hospital!
We interviewed Rachel Kernic, co-founder of Glitzburgh, to find out more about the big night, what she is looking forward to, and how ShowClix is going to help to make this year’s event awesome.
What is it like to have an event at Whim? Whim is awesome! It’s primarily known for more of a nightclub atmosphere, but it is such a great venue for so much more. The managers are flexible and easy to work with, and the space itself is great because it gives you a lot of room to work with your event. When it comes to décor and how youd like things to be laid out for your event the staff says, “This is your event, so this is now your venue — you can do whatever you want, however you want.” Which I think is awesome. We couldn’t think of a better place to have Glitzburgh 2012!
How do you plan on handling admissions on the night of the event? For advance tickets at a discount price, guests can purchase their tickets online until the day of the show. At the door, guests will be able to purchase tickets with cash, check, or credit card. ShowClix has a really nice point of sale feature called Crowd, which makes it easy for us to type in guest info when they purchase their tickets at the door. For events, nothing can be more stressful than ticketing, especially the day of the show, but ShowClix makes it so easy for us, which gives us more room to stress about other things.
What were some of your favorite moments from last year? I think it goes without saying for the whole team that our favorite moment was when we reached our goal of $20,000 for the Children’s Hospital and beat our attendance number from the year before, from 250 people to 500. There were so many great moments though: seeing our guests have a great time; watching our models rock it on the runway; watching Pittsburgh celebrities take time out of their day to help a great cause…
Our guests loved that James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers conducted the live auction, and others really loved seeing These Lions tear down the house with a killer set. Overall, it’s hard for us to really pick just one favorite moment, because when you work on an event like Glitzburgh, it certainly becomes a part of you. It becomes so much bigger than what you imagine, and at the end of the day, we are just happy we can help raise money for children in need and their families.
What is something you always need on the day of the event? Red Bull… and Dom would probably say Starbucks… but honestly, I would say volunteers! The setup is the hardest part to me, and it makes a huge difference to have all the help we can get, especially backstage. Once all of the models are ready and the venue is set up to look amazing, you can take a step back, take a deep breath, and get extremely excited for the show.
What does Glitzburgh mean for Pittsburgh? Glitzburgh for Pittsburgh is simply our tagline: Glamour Meets Giving. When Anna and I had the idea in 2009, we wanted to showcase Pittsburgh fashion. I believe there are so many great fashion designers and local boutiques in Pittsburgh that need a place to work together and show people how great Pittsburgh fashion is.
I truly don’t believe there is another event in Pittsburgh quite like Glitzburgh.
The show gives people something fun and unique to do while giving back to a great cause, The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh. The Glitzburgh team has always supported philanthropy, going to as many charity events as we can in the offseason. We believe that it makes fashion that much better when you can give back at the end of the day, and Glitzburgh brings the community of Pittsburgh together: businesses and community members join to help us raise money. Models, actors, TV personalities, athletes, celebrities, and musicians are all models in the show, and they help us bring in even more money for a wonderful cause. We are so humbled every year by the growth in support we keep receiving.
On behalf of the entire Glitzburgh team, we want to say Thank you Pittsburgh! We hope to see you all in May!
For more information about Glitzburgh, visit their official website, and you can get tickets right now through ShowClix. While you’re waiting for the event, be sure to check out the awesome video below.