You came, you saw, you ate, you drank… and you were awesome. We were awesome. All the vendors and volunteers were awesome. The Arden Theatre was awesome. Basically, what we’re trying to say is that the Drink Philly third anniversary First Friday art show and festival last week was a roaring success — even more so because we raised $3,000 to help Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation fight childhood cancer.

The event took place in the bi-level lobby of The Arden Theatre, and from 5 PM on, crowds lined up at the door and trailed down North Third Street. Most folks made the optional $5 donation to Alex’s Lemonade as they stepped inside to look at local art for sale and hear live jazz music by Tom Moon and Ensemble Novo.

To go with cocktails that included Green Street Coffee spiked with liquor from Philadelphia Distilling and beer from Evolution, Victory and Yards, party goers noshed on a lot of great food. Brauhaus Schmitz brought assorted German sausages; The Victoria Freehouse brought beetroot deviled eggs and treacle tarts; The Continental brought mini cheesesteak eggrolls and beet and goat cheese crostinis; Slice brought assorted pizzas; and Nick’s Roast Beef brought the famous roast beef and also pork sliders.

Extra special thanks to those last two restaurants, who stepped up at the last minute to donate food. Thanks also go out to Punch Media, Aversa PR and Philly Food Dude for helping us find all the generous vendors. Altogether we had more than 600 people come through the doors, and we couldn’t have pulled it off without all the volunteers that helped in so many ways that night.

Click through the slideshow to check out some photos from the party. Here’s to another three years of First Fridays!

Check out the all the photos from the Photobot3000 photobooth here.

More great photos from Al B For Photography here.