Wednesday, in a sense, is the official Magic City Classic launch day. Move-in day for tailgaters starts at 8 a.m. After three days of day parties, empowerment summits, and cocktail hours, the Classic’s annual press conference kicks off the second half of the week’s revelry, leading up to the smoking grills, the parade, and the countdown to largest HBCU football game in the nation: The historic gridiron rivalry between the Alabama A&M University Bulldogs and Alabama State University Hornets.

The Green Carpet Affair, Mayor Randall Woodfin’s signature Wednesday evening party at the Birmingham Museum of Art, is one of Classic Week’s most popular events. The annual celebration (happening tonight, Oct. 25), requires registration but no entry fee, and sports a lineup of libations, food trucks, DJs and a mix of both local and national musical guests. Produced by LRY Media Group, the affair has sold out every year since 2018.

This year, another sellout was inevitable. On the morning of Oct. 11 at 10:19, LRY posted the link for the 2023 Green Carpet Affair tickets on Facebook.

“The Green Carpet Affair is BACK and BIGGER than ever!” read the post, with details about the event, including a promise to reveal the musical guest at a later date.

Seemingly minutes later, the agency edited the post with an update ― the tickets were sold out. The comments of disbelief rolled in.

“Wait they are gone already? Please tell me it’s a glitch,” one Facebook user wrote, complete with the “pain” and “facepalm” emojis.

The city of Birmingham shared the update about the sold-out event on its Facebook page a few hours later, and the post had similar — along with some more acerbic — sentiments.

“It was so fast!” read one comment.

“[They] need a larger venue for this event??” said another commenter.

Elsewhere on Facebook, city of Birmingham staffers issued humorous, yet direct reminders that they didn’t have access to extra tickets.

“PSA. I can not get you a Green Carpet affair ticket,” wrote Cornell Wesley, the director of Birmingham’s Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity.

“And, no, I don’t have tickets TO ANYTHING for classic,” Uche Bean with the city’s Division of Social Justice and Racial Equity, wrote on her post about the Green Carpet Affair. “I get mine ‘out the mud’ just like y’all.”

After the morning’s flurry, social media had come to a general consensus — the party sold out in 20 minutes.

While the team at LRY says the Green Carpet Affair tickets didn’t go that fast, the event did sell out in under an hour, marking the fastest time in the party’s history.

Jasmine Phillips, the Director of Public Relations and Media Engagement for LRY, said the agency used a number of avenues to spread the word about this year’s Green Carpet Affair, from social media posts to email marketing, including sending e-blasts to people who registered to attend the event in 2022.

For those who may have forgotten, the Green Carpet Affair wasn’t always centered around the Magic City Classic. The event dates back to 2017 when LRY worked with the newly elected Randall Woodfin to design a public reception after his inauguration.

Rashada LeRoy, the founder and CEO of LRY Media Group, said Woodfin wanted a community event.

“Something where everybody could attend. You didn’t have to be in a suit or a dress. If you wanted to, you could. It was something that, you know, our neighborhoods could participate in,” LeRoy said. “If you were just getting off work and you still had your uniform on, it was really designed to be a come one, come all, come as you are event.”

For the host venue, LRY and Woodfin’s team selected the Birmingham Museum of Art — a municipal museum and free space. For the event’s signature color, they chose green.

“The name Green Carpet,” said LeRoy “[When] we think of community spaces, we think of green spaces.”

On the evening of Nov. 28, more than 1,000 people gathered at the museum. Comedian and on-air host Rickey Smiley emceed the event from a stage in the cafe. Guests laughed, sipped drinks, and danced inside. Canopies assembled in the museum’s sculpture garden held attendees who preferred to gather outside.

It was a night of jubilation as Birmingham rang in its youngest mayor since 1893. The event was so successful that Woodfin’s team decided to duplicate the occasion for the Magic City Classic in 2018.

The party has exceeded expectations each year to become a signature event of Classic Week with a mix of local and national recording artists and DJs gracing the stage. The past few years have boasted rapper Young Dro and R&B singer Tweet. This year’s featured act is the Ying Yang Twins.

Producing one of the Magic City Classic’s most-discussed events is an interesting process. Commentary about the event is plentiful on Facebook, from remarks about the Green Carpet Affair’s dress code (there isn’t one) to opinions about moving the host venue to a larger space. All in all, LeRoy and Phillips have been thrilled to watch the party evolve over the years.

“I wish we had space for the 2,000 [folks] to come in and be a part of it. But the museum has been very gracious. It is definitely home of the Green Carpet Affair,” LeRoy said. “We’re excited that people receive it so well that it sells out within minutes of the link going live.”

Phillips and LeRoy estimate that between 3,000 and 3,500 people attended the event in 2022. This year, LeRoy said she’s looking forward to watching another diverse crowd of people converse and celebrate.

“I see people introducing themselves to each other, networking with each other, hugging each other,” said LeRoy. “And that’s on every level, color, income. All of that. This is that event to me where there are no barriers, right? If you celebrate Classic or you just want to have a good time, this is where we want you to be.”

Mayor Woodfin echoes that sentiment.

“The most exciting part of the Green Carpet Affair is seeing thousands of HBCU fans put on for their city,” the mayor’s office said in a statement on Woodfin’s behalf. “It fills me with so much pride to see residents and visitors gather in their finest attire in celebration of the HBCU spirit. It’s what the Magic City Classic is all about.”