On an average day, Nathan Szwerdszarf is just the mild-mannered marketing manager for the Draught Horse at 1431 Cecil B. Moore Ave. A Temple alumnus who graduated in May 2009, Szwerdszarf spends his hours at the Draught Horse coordinating the pub’s events. The Temple News caught up with Szwerdszarf during some of his down time at the pub.
The Temple News: What sort of events do you hold at the Draught Horse?
Nathan Szwerdszarf: We host everything – birthday parties, office parties, fundraisers. We’ve had fantasy drafts, even speed dating. We hosted a Red Bull event [for the Philadelphia Flugtag] a little while ago, and they showed up with their mobile DJ car. It’s a really fun place to have an event.
TTN: You and a few fellow employees participated in Red Bull’s Philadelphia Flugtag last weekend. How did you end up becoming involved?
NS: I used to be a brand manager for Red Bull on Temple’s campus, and I worked at the Soap Box Race in Manayunk a couple years ago and at the Air Race in Detroit, so I knew how fun Red Bull events can be. When I heard about Flugtag I thought, “We’re going to do whatever we have to [do to] get into this.”
TTN: What was the idea behind your craft?
NS: We wanted to do something that represented the Draught Horse. We were thinking maybe a beer, or bar food or something, but eventually we decided on a winged horse, to bring together the bar and Red Bull.
TTN: What was the turnout like? How about your cheering section?
NS: They say there was around 85,000 people there, which is an amazing crowd to see people crash their crafts into the river. Besides having our friends and co-workers being there to cheer for us, we noticed a lot of our customers there cheering for us, which we were really thankful for.
TTN: What did it actually feel like going over the edge of the platform?
NS: It happens so fast that you don’t have too much time to think what’s going on. I just remember saying before jumping, “Oh damn, this is really happening!” Crashing wasn’t too bad actually – I was glad I didn’t hurt myself.
TTN: What was the feeling among your crewmembers once it was over?
NS: Well it was the culmination of months of work, so, of course, we were a little sad that it was over. However, we were proud and happy that we did this project and that it went really well.
TTN: How would you say your crew performed?
NS: We really didn’t have great expectations of going far because of the kind of craft we build, but we were expecting to have fun and entertain the crowd – which we did. We were also happy that it didn’t break before jumping.
TTN: What effect do you think the event had on the bar?
NS: Well, we had a good pre- and after-party, but more importantly, it showed that we can have a good time, and we are here to serve the Temple community.
TTN: Did you feel like you were representing Temple at Flugtag?
NS: In a way, yes. The Draught Horse is part of the Temple community. We have students, parents, alumni and faculty coming through our doors every day, so we know that when we were up there all of them were cheering for us. We want to focus on helping student organizations.
Michael Polinsky can be reached at michael.polinsky@temple.edu.
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