Nerdapalooza is an annual music festival, the first of its kind to invite all genres of the nerd music movement under one roof, including nerd rock, nerdcore hip hop, chiptunes, and video game music. For the first time, this year's Nerdapalooza will be a full nerd culture festival featuring both visual and digital artists from throughout Orlando and the world.
Action Adventure World is the project of Duane “8-Bit Duane” Zuwala, a rapper and beatsmith based in Flint, Michigan. Drawing on influences from the punk and metal genres of music, Zuwala fuses these with both hip hop, and video game music to create the sounds of Action Adventure World. The songs are primarily recreations of Video Games in both composition and lyrical content, the listener being taken on a nostalgia fueled journey to the “Action Adventure” worlds of their youth.
So here we are, nearing the end of May. We only have about a month and a half left. Next Wednesday is June 1st, and prices increase from $45 for the weekend to $50! We at Team Nerdapalooza did our best to fill in as much of the Performance Roster that way you could make the most educated decision on buying tickets to this year’s event.
Before we start the barrage of artist announcements, we’re very proud to welcome back Cloudspace as a sponsor. Cloudspace is a web application and startup development company that left quite a mark on our attendees last year, unlocking the headshot achievement. We’re very excited to see what’ll make them in running for this year’s most talked about sponsor again.
Next up, we launched a Kickstarter page yesterday, and it’s already made some great progress! We have already raised $1150 of our $5000 goal to help offset costs and help us not pay as much out of pocket as we have in the past. There are some snazzy and very exclusive prizes out there to take advantage of. Our $1000 backer has unique art from myself and our Gallery Director, Dennis, and even gets to go on stage to present Schaffer the Darklord. There are lots of other great prizes still available, such as the possibility of having the band, Random Encounter, follow you around taking requests like your own personal troupe of spoony bards! Make sure you at least head over and give it a glance over, you never know if there’s something that you just won’t be able to pass on!
One last thing before announcing the new performers, our Friday Pre-Party has just “leveled up.” Right after The OneUps performs as the event’s headliner, robotastic performer Dj RoboRob will /mount the stage and take us into the night before the main event with an excessively nerdy rave. I’m personally REALLY excited to check it out!
Joining RoboRob at the Pre-Party, we have a few more artists to announce, including My Parents Favorite Music, Krondor Krew, Zombies! Organize!!, and a set for the Scrub Club Records showcase. This is building up to be a veritable mini-Nerdapalooza all on its own!! Once again, the Friday Pre-Party will be at the venue itself, starting around 6, and will be 100% free! *EDIT* Just received word that Partners in Rhyme will also be joining the Pre-Party! No, not the rappers from the end of the TMNT movie, a local pair of nerdocre rappers. Huzzah!
Next up, returning to Nerdapalooza, we welcome back both HD Ninja and Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew! It’s great to have these very talented performers come back to represent Florida amongst all of their nerdy peers! I’ve heard that both performers are going above and beyond to give you a memorable show this year!
Finally, we have a list of brand new performers to round up the majority of the lineup. First we have another local act, Jeux On, a video game inspired act with a lot of visuals to accentuate the performance. Next we have the local rising stars, Beebs and her Money Makers, a comic and jazz infused rock band that looks like they are going to be a lot of fun to invite to the Nerdapalooza family! Next, we have the mad scientists of rock, Consortium of Genius, that are so authentic they have a robot for a drummer! These New Orleans natives are coming down to present a thesis… OF EVIL! Finally, we have rounding up the lineup, Shinobi Ninja, punk-influenced rock all the way from New York. This is going to be one for the record books, folks! I’ll also let you in on a secret – we still have a headliner to announce! But I’ll save that for another day.
Tickets for Nerdapalooza 2011 are available through brownpapertickets.com for just $30 for single day tickets and $45 for weekend tickets only for attendees who purchase tickets before June 1st. To reserve your room today call 407-851-9000 or their toll-free number of 1-800-380-6751 and ask for 5th Annual Nerdapalooza Group Block, or online at this link, which will automatically take you to the Orlando Airport Marriott website with the discount code of nernera entered as the discount code.
It’s that time of year again where we beg on hand and foot ask for you to vote for us in the annual Best of Orlando fan driven competition. “But I don’t live in Orlando!” I hear many of you protest! That’s okay! You have interest in one point or another in your life TO come to Orlando because of us! That’s enough reason for you to vote AND vote for us! In previous years there was a “Best Festival” category that we comfortably fit into. This year, that category has mysteriously vanished, but because of our growth into being an Arts & Music Festival now, we fit snugly into the Best Arts Festival category!! There is a WHOLE slew of people we suggest you vote for over here!! Head on over and support us and our beloved allies!
Next up, we’re VERY proud to announce the return of one of the most memorable sponsors from last year, T-Shirt Bordello!! If you weren’t there, you missed out on zombies, free Twinkies, and some of the best t-shirts ever! Fortunately, we have them coming back, and they’re planning on leveling up their presence at the event! Let’s just say that you will not want to miss their booth this year. We’re also very proud to announce a brand new sponsor, and I’m pretty sure you’ve ALL heard of this one! We’re going to have Think Geek donating a LOT of swag for a raffle we’ll be coordinating, where ALL the money raised will go straight to our charity. We’re talking hundreds of dollars worth of nerdy merch, so we’re very grateful to have them as a part of Team Nerdapalooza.
Before we move on to the event announces, we have some support to throw over to our pal, Inverse Phase, chiptuner extraordinaire, who is working towards a goal of an NIN cover album. He’s organized a Kickstarter page if you’d love to hear what it would have been like if Trent Reznor had taken a liking to Gameboys. Go over and support independent music!
Alright, let’s get down to business! First, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about the Pre-Party, and we felt it was finally time to give y’all some details on it! The biggest shock to everyone is going to be the venue change. Yes, despite how much we love having the Pre-Party at A Comic Shop, logistically, it’s become a bigger and bigger headache. By no means does the venue change have any reflection on a shift in relationship with A Comic Shop. Instead, the Pre-Party is now taking place AT the Marriot itself, on the second stage. The main stage will still be “under construction” as it were, making preparations for the next day, but this is all a part of a bigger plan to ensure that sound problems of the past are just that, a part of the past. The Pre-Party will still take place Friday night, and it’ll still be free for all who want to give it a shot, and just to show you how serious we are about this show being awesome, the OneUps, as well as still playing the main day and main stage, will be the headliners for the Pre-Party.
Now, every year there is some “stand out” act that steals the show. In Nerdapalooza 2008, it was Schaffer the Darklord, and every year he raises his own bar, but fortunately we’re home to some of the best performers today; 2009, it seemed to be a toss up between I Fight Dragons and Uncle Monsterface, both really blowing the minds of the audience; and last year, we had an undisputed winner of the Stand Out Act: The Bossfights. We are very excited to announce to you that this cadre of musicians are ready to put their Frontalots back on and return to the Nerdy Stage. Yes, the Bossfights will be performing again at Nerdapalooza 2011.
But wait… there’s more!
We have, coming to the Nerdy Stage for the first time ever, straight off of tour with Reel Big Fish, Koo Koo Kanga Roo. These guys are an indescribable experience best seen firsthand. As we’re not able to really display that UNTIL July, we’ve found a pretty fun video showing what their live shows are like:
Like every Nerdapalooza, I’m going to be running around without much time to enjoy the shows, but I think I’m going to have to make some time to see this for myself! Wow! Totally fun, totally energetic, we are very excited to have Koo Koo Kanga Roo as a part of Nerdapalooza 2011! We’re close to having a complete roster for all y’all. There has been some interest in having it complete before June when the ticket prices go up, and it looks like this may very well happen! Watch for another blog soon which may contain the COMPLETE roster!
Tickets for Nerdapalooza 2011 are available through brownpapertickets.com for just $30 for single day tickets and $45 for weekend tickets only for attendees who purchase tickets before June 1st. To reserve your room today call 407-851-9000 or their toll-free number of 1-800-380-6751 and ask for 5th Annual Nerdapalooza Group Block, or online at this link, which will automatically take you to the Orlando Airport Marriott website with the discount code of nernera entered as the discount code.
I had a dream last night. It wasn’t some big important dream about social change or anything like that, so put the pitchfork and torch down. It was a Nerdapalooza dream. I always start getting them about this time of year. They’re never Nerdapaloozas of past… they’re always Nerdapaloozas to come. This year was more me running around trying to solve problems without pants on (strangely no one seemed to care… I guess since they’ve all seen me without a shirt already), but it was filled to the rafters with screaming fans. It was beautiful nonetheless, and I look forward to making it a reality in the next two and a half months.
We don’t have many announcements this week, as we’re scurrying to get a lot of the behind the scenes stuff done. I do have a fun announcement of a contest from our pals over at Nerdy Show for our musically inclined readers:
Nerdy Show is oft known to do some crazy competitions, and this one may be the best yet! They are challenging fans and beatsmiths to throw together Capcom and Marvel themed beats (no real restrictions past that) to this 3 on 3 melee mixtape that will be featuring MegaRan, 8-Bit Duane, My Parent’s Favorite Music, Adam WarRock, The Wordburglar, and Tribe-One. Wow!! For more details be sure to go over to the contest page!
Also for ya, we have two artists for announcing! First up, we have the comedy rap group Illbotz, newcomers to Nerdapalooza, but ready to rock the place. They’ve been cranking out hilarious rhymes for a while, and while skits are usually more filler than content, Illbotz really captures the middle ground between hip-hop and comedy. Check out their latest video to Your iPod Sucks for more on that!!
Second up, I have the distinct honor and privilege to unveil another “Featured Performance,” and one that I’ve been dying to both see live and host at the nerdy stage since inception. I am truly pleased to announce The OneUps! For those not in the know, the OneUps are arguably the most dynamic video game cover band around, jumping between jazz, rock, metal, salsa, and anything else they want to throw in for fun! Go ahead and watch their performance at PAX 08 for a sample. The vid’s nine minutes long, but if you dig what they do to Super Mario Bros 2, you’ll want to stick around for Chrono Trigger
Tickets for Nerdapalooza 2011 are available through brownpapertickets.com for just $30 for single day tickets and $45 for weekend tickets only for attendees who purchase tickets before June 1st. To reserve your room today call 407-851-9000 or their toll-free number of 1-800-380-6751 and ask for 5th Annual Nerdapalooza Group Block, or online at this link, which will automatically take you to the Orlando Airport Marriott website with the discount code of nernera entered as the discount code.
That’s all we got for this week! Stick around as we keep working up a storm and getting ready for July!
