It's almost time for our fourth annual birthday block party!

This year's extravaganza will be held on Saturday, Aug. 11. The fun starts at 7 p.m. with live bands, a beer garden and tropical drinks.

Around 9 p.m. we'll have a special surprise: the unveiling of a brand new Sandbar hurricane video! We're also attempting to create the first outdoor hurricane in Lawrence. Mark Valentine and his band will play afterwards, starting around 9:45.

We're also putting together a slide show of Sandbar pictures from the past year. If you have pictures you'd like to have included, email them to us at sandbar@thesandbar.com. We'll do our best to include all the photos we receive!

There's a $5 cover charge for the beer garden, and you must be 21 to enter the beer garden and/or the bar. Alcohol must be kept within the beer garden. Otherwise, everyone young and old is welcome to join the party!

We've had some questions about the shark slide from last year. We weren't able to reserve the slide again this year, someone else beat us to it. So, it won't be there this time.