Audience gets to be the show
Concertgoers get spray-painted as music pounds during Life in Color
Life In Color is the latest phenomenon to burst forth from Florida college campuses, the birthplace of the spring break culture.
Basically, you take a big party with a DJ soundtrack and add water-soluble paint, sprayed on the crowd.
“Ween courage our fans to wear all white,” says 24-year-old Ian Ruzal-Bron, one of the Miami-based organizers behind the show.
“That way they get the paint right on them and they end up looking like a Picasso.”
More like a Jackson Pollock, judging from past photos, but who’s to quibble about art? The phenomenon started at college parties around Florida, and since 2007 has grown into an entertainment empire run by a group of ex-students from Florida State University.
They’ve sold out shows all over North America, and shows have also played Latin America and Australia. Saturday’s Vancouver show will be Life In Color’s first in the city. Next up, they aim to splatter Europe.
Vancouver’s show will feature electronic music from DJs Gareth Emery, Cazzett, Clockwork, Mord Fustang and Yurie.
Trapeze artists will swing over the crowd, paint guns and cannons will soak the audience from the stage, while fans can join in by buying paint on site and dousing their friends.
“The audience gets to be the show,” Ruzal-Bron said. “They get to paint their friends, they get to paint themselves. It’s exhilarating, there’s nothing quite like it, you’re at the best party in the world, hands down. We don’t call it a rave — it’s a concert, an experience.”
As the revellers flaunt their primary colours, security staff at Life In Color venues tend to wear ponchos and earplugs.
The organizers have ridden the social media wave to word of mouth popularity, with the experience aimed at a demographic that documents its fun times on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Life In Color feeds that movement by posting morning-after photos, videos and contests on its own website.
Ruzal-Bron expects more than 5,000 people at the Vancouver show.