A guest post from our reader Damian:
Over Memorial weekend at The Forgotten City, the Las Vegas official Burning Man regional over 800 participants witnessed what can only be described as the conclusion to the urban myth that is Daft Punk playing at the Trash Fence.
In the event guide released the week before an entry of “SURPRISE!” was listed at 9pmon Saturday night. Sound camps such as Rootist Lounge and Epyklandia had been contacted and told to go dark at that time and to avoid the urge to use social media. In production meetings, a small handful of leads were given the logistics of creating a minimum 27ft x 27ft stage on which a pyramid would be built and an additional 70kw of power to be supplied on top of the existing solar array powered Funktion-One sound system. The stage was to be wrapped in a trash fence. Additional security was hired to patrol the ridge line of the location to prevent the predicted horde of zombies that may appear. In fact regional Cameron Grant was so convinced that he personally contacted Burning Man HQ with his concerns.
With a five hour construction of the pyramid during the day the rumors and guessing of what the surprise was had begun, and by 9pm when Daft Punk’s Contact began playing from the pyramid and then two helmeted legends stood up, the crowd literally began to lose their shit. It was mayhem: half the crowd were numb and in total astonishment, the other half were pumped and in total disbelief repeating “no way, is it really them?” endlessly. The urban myth was in full force with 800 participants standing in front of a trash fence, blinded by an iconic LED pyramid wall and listening to Daft Punk played by a duo in suits and helmets.
The aftermath on social media has been priceless with people demanding to know whether Daft Punk played, deniers doubting the budget of the event and booking price, the technical specification of the pyramid, the look of the EL wire in their suits and Burning Man HQ coming down on use of headliners at a regional event.
What can be said however is that everyone had a Daft Punk at the trash fence experience and everyone experienced some controversy including the event organizer who received this voicemail message: http://tinyurl.com/q52tbrq
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