DAFT PUNK HALLOWEEN

We're a group of NYC friends with a common love for Daft Punk. This Halloween, we're building the biggest, brightest Daft Punk tribute float that's ever hit the NYC Halloween Parade. We're also throwing a massive Halloween party dance party, and you're all invited.

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Daft Punk Halloween 2013

Hey everyone!  We're baaack!

This time we added some more RAM. (get it?)

Yes, the saga of DiscoFace and Slaghammer continues with a triumphant return to the 6th Ave. stage for Daft Punk Halloween 2013!  

A lot has happened since we had our full build out at Windmill Studios for the Halloween party: Hurricane Sandy ripped through the Northeast and literally pulled the plug on lower Manhattan (gasp!); the parade was cancelled for the first time in its 40 year history; SNL aired the 13-seconds of the catchiest tune in years;  Daft Punk released their 4th studio album Random Access Memories to much anticipation and critical acclaim; our Blinky friends successfully raised money on their own Kickstarter and continued their passion for perfecting the portable LED light show; we had a Random Access Memories album release listening party with a video projection on 3 walls - it was great;  and John Doyle, aka Nastyfreestyle started the Harlem Model Search and a side project called the Harlem Dance Club.   

Plans have been coming together slowly, but most urgently, THE PARADE NEEDS MONEY!!!  Please help fund this year's parade to bring joy and life back to Halloween in the city!  

As the earth spins around the sun once more, we pick up where we left off, to make this image a reality!  

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http://vimeo.com/52638398

Brock Stoneham graciously took on the opportunity to create this photo essay of the project's final launch day: the setup for the Halloween party.  Check out the behind the scenes shots of last minute prep and installation!

Thanks Brock!  

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Wild dreams do come true!  I present to you the dazzling conclusion to hours of costuming, rehearsing, building, testing, designing, coordinating for Daft Punk Halloween 2012!* 

To all followers waiting to see this edit, so sorry it took this long.  Let this get you excited about Halloween this year!  A huge thanks is due to Wild Combination for filming and editing.  Enjoy!

*  The performance took place on the eve of Hurricane Sandy's arrival to the NYC which thwarted the effort to perform this on the parade float in the Halloween parade which was the ultimate goal of the project.  Plans are underway for a victorious return this year.

ONE MORE TIME  - with more sequins!!!

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Happy Halloween everyone!

We will release video of the performance from the Daft Punk Halloween party in he next several days. The lights, the dancing, the costumes, the crowd -- it was phenomenal. For now, check out the Photo Flipbook video put together at Shootbooth + thanks to all who came out to + supported the party on Saturday night! 

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SOLD OUT SHOW

This just in.  

The party at Windmill Studios this Saturday night is SOLD OUT.

No tickets will be sold at the door as we've reached the legal capacity of the space.  Come find us on Wednesday as we parade up 6th Avenue with full dance crew, float light show, pyramid, and... wait for it, a Technologic baby puppet!!

We held our last dance rehearsal yesterday and the crew is amped to show this thing around town!  The above photo is from our work session with the talented programmers at Hack Rock City who are killing it with the light display!  There's much more developing in the final week before the party, so keep checking in for updates!  

Some more exciting fabrication photos!

-Dustin AKA Slag Hammer

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Pics from Sunday's rehearsal. 

Pics by Greg Liburd.  

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And one final sneak peak of the costumes -- the lovely Mummies and Disco Girls! Swoon!

Thank you, again, Olivia Chow!

What are you wearing for Halloween, Internet?

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More sneak peaks coming!

@kthread you are going to be so badass in this!!

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This is starting to get VERY EXCITING. We have been practicing our robot-butts off on John's amazing choreography. We did a run through of the entire performance on Sunday and we all started to BELIEVE. You do not want to miss this. Here come a few sneak previews of our incredible costumes. The designs are all by the fabulous Olivia Chow. She is taking us to the next level. Thank you, Olivia!

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FUNDED! We couldn't be more thankful for all 220 of you who chipped in to bring Daft Punk Halloween Alive.

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Our parade float dance crew is set! A few photos from our first official rehearsal with choreographer John Doyle leading the pack. 

(All photos by Greg Liburd and Dustin John.) 

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We're officially funded!* Thank you ALL for your help. Or, in the words of our Halloween Ringmaster, AKA Slaghammer: 

My Brilliant Backers!

Get ready for a robot to get gushy...

All 178 of you (so far) are fantastic humans for supporting this hare-brained scheme of mine. Three years ago I tried recreating the Around the World music video dance amongst a ragtag group of friends for the parade. We cobbled it together last minute with semi-coordinated costumes and semi-improvised dance moves at the last minute and marched down the street blasting Daft Punk to everyone's delight. We made it to the parade and made it through the routine twice before the rain came down. Hard. Soaking wet, we retreated to a house party and delighted some more people with our dance interpretation. Everyone involved had a great time and could sense the seed of something bigger, grander,harder, better, faster, stronger!

Fast forward to today, right now, I look around at all the great energy that surrounds me and I do a little dance myself. The energy level with every rehearsal is through the roof, with everyone soaking up John Doyle's brilliant direction and choreography. The programmers at Hack Rock City are taking the performance to a whole new level with their lighting design to accent our dancers. The costumes will come together soon enough and our posse and float is gonna blow everyone away!

I hope to personally thank all of you one day, maybe boogie with you at the party or the parade. I just checked that last sentence -WE HAVE A PARTY AND A PARADE!! ALL THANKS TO YOU!!!There's many juicy details to share in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

A special thanks is due to the core group of Daft Punk Halloween (some of who I will now only refer to as Mummy 1 or Skeleton 2, haha!) Thanks for all your hard work and feel free to do a little dance.

John Doyle Phillip Kim Sam Petersson Didi Bethurum Audrey Evans Youngna Park Jacob Krupnick Cassie Marketos Olivia Chow Greg Liburd Wiena Lin Matt Nolan Mat Metts

WORK IT! MAKE IT! DO IT! MAKES US! HARDER! BETTER! FASTER! STRONGER!

yours,

Slag Hammer

*If you haven't donated left, there's just over a day left in our campaign! A $30 donation will get you in the door of our Halloween party, not to mention that EVERY. LITTLE. BIT. HELPS. Let's do this. 

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Daft Punk Halloween gets a sweet shout-out from Paper Magazine, reminding you to celebrate halloween (one more time) with our float + party. 

Our Kickstarter campaign ends in 68 hours and we're 80% of the way there!  Get a ticket to the party (and help us reach our campaign goal) by making a $30 donation on Kickstarter (or 4 tickets for $100) by this Wednesday, October 10th at 12:00 a.m.

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Daft Punk inspiration for y'all brought to you by John Doyle (our Daft Punk Halloween choreographer) and Anne Marsen. 

A short sci-fi dance epic Anne Marsen ... Human John Doyle ... Robot Clarissa Lyra-Salles ... Eye Story + Dance by Anne Marsen Directed by Pisces Virgo Rising Music ... Peggy Lee "Fools Rush In" Daft Punk "Human After All"

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It's happening! If you're in NYC, c'mon out and celebrate Halloween with us! We've got LEDs, robots, DJs, drinks, crazy costumes, dancing, dancing, dancing and more. It's all going down on Saturday, October 27th at Windmill Studios. 

How here's the important part.

To buy a ticket: make a $30 donation on Kickstarter.

Or, round up a few friends and get 4 tickets for $100 donation. But, if you get your tickets BEFORE 9:00 a.m. on October 11th -- that's next Thursday -- you help US reach our campaign goal. 

Also, tickets at the door will be $40. 

So do it! We're about 50% funded with 6 days to go. Get your ticket + help us out all in one swing. 

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Some photos from our parade float outing to meet Rob Devito, president of Bond Parade Floats

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This week we went out to Bond Parade Floats out in Clifton, NJ to check out a warehouse of 50+ decorated parade floats!  The owner, Rob Devito has been operating it for 35 years and the parade float business is still booming.  Rob is providing over 150 floats to different parades in the month of October alone!  Bond Floats supplies floats for all of the NYC parades and provides custom fabrication services for each float.  They'll also take care of all the logistics of providing power, insurance, transport to and from the parade, etc.  All we do is hop on and dance our little hearts out!

Check out their website:  www.bondfloats.com