Nominations have been cast, and now it’s time to vote in Free Times' “Best of Columbia” 2018 awards. 🏆 Ah, yes – it comes around every year, not much different from Christmas in our team’s mind. Fewer gifts; same excitement factor.

Lest we forget, these are Columbia’s premier awards. This awards program is the first ever and longest-running readers’ choice awards program in Cola. I mean, people go wild over these things. As we’re sure you’ve noticed in your Facebook + Instagram feeds.

For last year’s awards, 20,000+ nominations were cast during the nomination period, and 508,425 total votes were cast during the voting period for 945 unique nominees (i.e. restaurants, hair stylists, attorneys, media personalities, etc.). We were lucky enough to win Best Instagram (thanks to you guys 🙏), and that was an incredible experience.

That’s why we love these awards – they give local businesses who are trying to serve the city such a pat on the back. Winning one of these babies feels really, really good; trust us. And did we say thank you?

This year, 30,000+ nominations were submitted, and now we’re in the voting round (ending next Saturday, June 30 at 11:59 p.m.). Take time to vote for more than one category – Free Times is giving away a free Apple Watch Series 3 to a random voter who votes in 25+ categories. ⌚ Plus, it’s fun. And you’re not *that* busy.

Here are a couple of our favorite categories you can vote for this year:

Local Media → Best Local Instagram (shameless plug: we’re nominated again here, as well as for Best Local Website–News and Best Local Website–Music/Entertainment)
Politics + City Life → Biggest Local 'Hero'
Arts/Entertainment → Best Visual Artist
Food + Beverage → Best New Restaurant
Music → Best Music Venue
Services → Best Moving Company
Shopping → Best Gift Shop

And we’ve got a little bribe prepared for y’all:

🏆 If we win 1 award (out of the 3 we’re nominated for in the Local Media category), we’ll give away free COLAtoday t-shirts to 30 lucky fans.

🏆🏆 If we win 2 awards (out of 3), we’ll jump in Lake Murray with our clothes on. And video it.

🏆🏆🏆 If we win all 3 awards, we’ll host a private cocktail-making class for 10 extra lucky fans (along with our whole team), with nibbles + sips provided.

So – go vote. ☑ Then we can party…

Because this year’s Best of Columbia party will take place Wednesday, August 22, 7-11 p.m. at the South Carolina State Museum. And we hear it’s going to be a RAWRing good time.

I mean, last year, Free Times threw it back to the 80s (must-watch party video here). And this year they’re throwing it waaaaaay further back than that. Dust off your scales, y’all, because this party is going to be Juras-SICK.

Any guesses on the theme yet? 😉 Again… go vote. And then (hopefully) we’ll see you there.