Like a bride at her own wedding, Thursday night’s Brooklyn Blogfest at the Brooklyn Lyceum is mostly a blur for But it was also an incredible gathering of a vivacious "tribe" of New Yorkers.

Brooklyn bloggers.

As I said in the Blogfest video by Blue Barn Pictures, Brooklyn bloggers are a smart, ambitious, entrepreneurial, creative, opinionated and enthusiastic group and they’re a lot of fun to hang out with.

The Blogfest back story is just as fun as the event. For months, there’s been lots of  behind-the-scenes planning and organizing by a large group of bloggers drawn from the Brooklyn Blogade, an constantly expanding group of bloggers who meet monthly all over Brooklyn. My co-producers Eleanor Traubman and Mike Sorgatz of Creative Times, Adrian Kinloch and Petra Symister deserve the lion’s share of the credit (their links are below). 

20 bloggers showed up at 6 p.m. to do whatever needed to be done. Bloggers set up video equipment, chairs, tables, food, beer; they made name tags, signs, manned the money table and more. It was a sight to behold.

You can be sure they did it with gusto. I thank them all. 

When Amanda from Brooklyn Fudge showed up with her signage and her pretty cake plates I wanted to kiss her. She helped set up the "hospitality area" along with Angela of Red Mango Bakery, the folks behind much of the vegan baked goods at many Brooklyn cafes and Danielle of Habeas Brulee who runs Jack, an occasional restaurant that is open for one seating per night every other week or so.

I was equally thrilled when Bierkraft delivered the 17 cases of beer, that were paid for by Outside.in, the company that is fast becoming an essential resource for place bloggers.

Pre-show, I had no idea what to expect. On Thursday I started to get the feeling that the event might be well-attended. But I also had my doubts. I always have doubts and lots of worry.

What if nobody comes?

By 8 p.m. I knew we’d have a crowd. A very good crowd.

As is often the case at special events, there were some pre-show technical challenges (video, ah video). Still thanks to a great crew spear-headed by Adrian Kinloch (Brit in Brooklyn), Morgan Pehme (Brooklyn Optimist), the guys from Blue Barn Pictures and two incredibly helpful guys from the Brooklyn Lyceum, we were ready to go by 8:20 or so.

While the crowd filed into the downstairs performance space, that used to be a bath, DJ Solo P from Groovalicious Entertainment entertained the crowd with a great selection of groovalicious music including calypso favorites and other fun stuff.

The Lyceum was full of friends and strangers when the video, Place Matters; Blogging My World filled the enormous screen.

Blue Barn’s video was, as expected, fantastic and it contained the biggest talking heads in High Definition video you’ve ever seen, who conveyed something of the feisty spiritedness of the small group of Brooklyn bloggers, who were interviewed.

The video, which included an appearance by NY Shitty’s mascot, Hannah the Hardhat, was followed by short, consistently interesting speeches by a diverse group of bloggers and journalists:

Eleanor Traubman of Creative Times spoke about the community that formed around the planning of Blogfest

Petra Symister of Bed-Stuy Blog, spoke about the need for diversity in the Brooklyn blogosphere, especially in the realm of place blogs, which, she said, are very homgenious in terms of race and economic class.

Greg Sutton, Megan Donis and Narina from Brooklyn Community Access Television spoke about their new series, A Walk Around the Blog and showed a short trailer.

Miss Heather of the blog, New York Shitty talked about the interactivity of blogging, "I am not merely putting something out in
the world for people to read. My blog is not a monologue; it is a
dialog with my readership," she said.

"Keep the dead rat stories coming," she said in closing.

Gowanus Lounge’s Robert Guskind, in his sonorous, low radio announcer’s voice, suggested that the word blog has less and less meaning because there is so much unique content online. He urged those who are "thinking about starting a blog to stop thinking about it and to start doing it." especially in underblogged areas like Sheepshead Bay and Sunset Park.

WNYC talk radio host and recent winner of a Peabody Award, Brian Lehrer, appeared in a video personally reaching to bloggers to send stories for his CUNY-television weekly news show. After Lehrer’s clip, Gersh Kuntzman, editor of the Brooklyn Paper, wondered aloud about the future of blogging and the destructiveness of mean-spirited blog comments.

Heather Johnston, producer of a wonderful food blog called sogood.tv talked about her evolution as a video blogger and delivered the Top Ten Tips for New Bloggers.

Big gratitude to Morgan Pehme of Brooklyn Optimist for his  Tribute to Brooklyn’s Photo Bloggers, a montage of photographs by some of the best, including Fading Ad Blog,  Joe’s NYC, Flatbush Gardener, Bed-Stuy Banana, Park Slope Street Photography, No Words Daily Pix, Brit in Brooklyn, Forgotten NY and many more. All I can say is WOW. It was a beautiful tribute to these hardworking and creative folks, who are capturing what’s going on on the streets and skylines of Brooklyn.

Chris Kreussling of Flatbush Gardener talked about the Brooklyn Blogade as an opportunity to attach a face to a blog at monthly meet ups. This group is constantly looking for new recruits: those who blog and
those who are thinking about blogging. The next one is on June 22 at
noon at Root Hill Cafe on Carroll Street and Fourth Avenue. Come one,
come all.

Finally, Rob Lenihan, the wonderful blogger behind the very well written Luna Park Gazette, told the crowd it was time for the Shout Out, everyone’s chance to announce their blog to the world.

Imagine my surprise when 50 or more people lined up for the microphones. Thank goodness  we had that timer/buzzer with us (operated by my daughter).

In the next few days I will post a list of all the bloggers who did the shout out; it was a high point of a great evening.

The party and the schmoozing went on until around midnight. A good time was had by all. For me it’s a bit of a adrenaline blur.

But I loved it. I really did. More thoughts to come…

Pix by Flatbush Gardener