CALLING ALL BRITS

Party planners hope to bring together natives of Great Britain

Special to ViewAndy Walmsley, right, and Steve Lee are natives of Great Britain now living in Las Vegas who have organized the UKLV Party to bring together other British people across the valley. The party will be held on Monday at the Alexis Park Resort, 375 E. Harmon Ave. The party is free and will have musical entertainment, food, tea and gift bags. Americans are welcome to attend, too. Advertisement

The British aren't coming. They're already here.

Andy Walmsley and Steve Lee, both natives of Great Britain now living in Las Vegas, are trying to bring together some of their fellow Brits for a posh party from 7 p.m. to midnight on Monday at the Alexis Park Resort, 375 E. Harmon Ave.

The event is the duo's first attempt at bringing together British people living in Las Vegas -- of which Walmsley said he believes there to be around 30,000.

"Everyone seems to know there's a large British community, but they don't think to mix. For some reason, Brits don't do that," Walmsley said.

Andy and Steve's UKLV Party is free and open to the public, although guests are asked to RSVP on the Web site, www.uklv.org, before the event.

In addition to offering British people a chance to network, there also will be free food, tea, entertainment, gift bags and a raffle. Everything is free except drinks.

Walmsley and Lee worked with the resort to make the buffet as typically English as possible. Cobblestones Tea Room, 9151 Las Vegas Blvd. South inside the Antique Mall of America, sponsored the tea bar. British Foods Inc., 3375 S. Decatur Blvd., donated food items for the gift bags and contributed a gift certificate to the raffle.

Two bands, Zen Lizard and the UKLV Supergroup, will provide entertainment. Zen Lizard is headed up by Steve Youles, who runs the Las Vegas British Expats Meetup Group.

The UKLV Supergroup is a band that Walmsley said features at least 15 instrumentalists. Lez Warner, who plays drums for The Cult, heads the band. The Desert Sky Bagpipe Band also will provide music for the red carpet.

Each guest will receive a complimentary raffle ticket. Local British businesses donated the prizes, which include a plasma television and an iPod complete with songs from British bands.

Even the décor will be British. Walmsley said pieces include a London black taxi, a red telephone box and a red double-decker bus.

"Every day someone else calls and offers stuff for free," he said.

Walmsley said all of the items were donated, with the exception of the room rental.

"It's costing me and Steve (Lee) quite a bit of money for the room. We just got in so deep that we have to embrace this and go for it or tell people the party's canceled," Walmsley said.

Thus far, Walmsley said, 800 people are expected, though the room can accommodate about 1,200.

"If there really are 30,000 British people living here, this thing could grow like crazy," he said. "We may need to find a larger venue every year. We could be in the Thomas & Mack."

If the party is a success, Walmsley said they plan to make it an annual event. He said he also is hoping to make uklv.org a more substantial site with a newsletter.

Walmsley said not everyone at the party will be British. He said he expects that one-third of the attendees will be American.

"All the American people can talk to fellow Americans about how weird (the British) all are," Walmsley said.

Walmsley and Lee came up with the idea for the party a few months ago after being introduced by a mutual friend. Both are from Blackpool, England, although they did not know each other before moving to America.

"We had an idea that we should throw a big party for all British people," Lee said.

Walmsley said they figured that between them, they knew a handful of British people who lived in Las Vegas. At first, they planned to meet at Lee's house, but soon their handful of friends turned into a couple hundred. They then considered the Crown and Anchor at 1350 E. Tropicana Ave., a British pub, but found it to would be too small for the crowd.

"We got calls from complete and utter strangers. Everybody who is British in Vegas knows maybe 10 other people who are British," Walmsley said. "It was meant to be a small, small thing, but we got ourselves in so deep."

Walmsley said there are a lot of British people in Las Vegas for the city's size, which he attributes to the city's entertainment focus.

"The kind of person that is naturally attracted to Vegas is crazy. And British people are crazy. They would say eccentric. I would say crazy," he said.

Lee said Las Vegas is a multicultural city.

"It's such a big city. People sort of get lost. There's a lot of British people that you can meet and talk to about old times," Lee said. "It's a bit like going back to your roots, if you like, for a night."