20 DECEMBER 14, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Barbers will turn Maspeth's Knockdown
Center into 'hair-adise' this summer
BY HANNAH FRISHBERG
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Prepare your hair: A barbers
convention is coming to
Queens.
Barbercon, now in its third year,
is an industry festival and gathering
of barbers from around the world in
the name of their shared craft. This
year, Barbercon will be expanding
to two days and will take place at
Maspeth’s Knockdown Center, located
at 52-19 Flushing Ave.
The past two years of the festival
were held at Manhattan’s Webster
Hall, which is currently closed for
renovation.
“There is a culture surrounding
the craft of barbering that has really
grown over the past several years,” the
festival’s founder, Lee Resnick, said in
a press release, going on to emphasize
Barbercon’s purpose as an “educational
opportunity for aspiring barbers to
learn from the best in the business.”
The festival was created as a
real-time event to complement
Barbershopconnect, a social site
exclusively for barbers which
was also launched by Resnick
in 2016.
The hair-cutting convention won’t
take place until this summer, on
Sunday and Monday, June 10 and 11,
2018 from 3 to 10 p.m. Barbercon will
feature live haircutting tutorials,
product demonstrations and education
classes across three stages; an
indoor and outdoor Barbercon Marketplace;
the Barbercon Awards; a
barber-themed art gallery; food
trucks; drinks; music; games; and a
VIP lounge.
Previous Barbercons have had
celebrity appearances, although
organizers haven’t yet announced
if there will be any notable cameos
this year.
Interested barber and cosmetology
industry vendors are encouraged
to reach out to organizers at the
Barbercon website.
Tickets run from $35 for a one-day
pass to $180 for a two-day VIP package
and are available for purchase
online. Photo courtesy of Barbercon/Stephen Esguerra Photography
Nowadays opens indoor venue in Ridgewood
BY HANNAH FRISHBERG
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Ridgewood celebrated the opening
of a new indoor space by
the venue Nowadays this past
weekend.
The sprawling, outdoor venue
poached Brooklyn’s nomadic Mister
Sunday and Mister Saturday Night
rave parties beginning last summer.
In March, the Misters’ owners, Justin
Carter and Eamon Harkin, launched
a Kickstarter to help create an indoor
space for the parties at Nowadays
(56-06 Cooper Ave.), which they also
announced would be their new, permanent
home.
Anyone who’s visited Nowadays
has probably noticed a large, under
construction structure off to the side
of the outdoor space and entrance.
The structure was opened on Dec. 8
with a party, followed by an indoor
Mister Saturday Night at the venue
on Dec. 9, and the fi rst ever Planetarium
– a live music series with a
stoner-chic bliss aesthetic – on Dec. 10.
The indoor space permanently
opens tonight, Thursday, Dec. 14, and
will be open seven days a week. Photo courtesy of Nowadays
