some friends and I are planning on hosting a foam party in a few weeks. we have a machine on lock but were a little concerned about the safety of patrons and equipment. we’re covering the floors to prevent slipping and keeping the dj booth isolated from the foam. However, I am a little concerned about damage to lighting, speakers and other electronics. Has anyone done anything like this? What steps did you take in preventing the foam from destroying everything? Thanks in advance!
I never threw one, but I did attend a foam party in Detroit back in the 90s when they were initially popular. All I can say is make sure the area your doing the foam in isn’t too large, because otherwise you just end up with a warehouse full of disappointed ravers with foam up to their shins.
My residency does them regularly with a big foam cannon or “snow” machines mounted on the ceiling rig and they go down a storm. Obviously, if you bathe your laptop in a foot of foam, you are risking some water damage there, but if a blob lands on, it’s easy enough to swipe off with your hand without too much worry.
Also if you advertise it as a foam party, then no one that comes can complain that it’s a foam party, and if you’re worried about it being slippy, put a sign up saying wet floor to cover your ass. People falling over when drunk is a hard case for them to press anyway.
Also, it gets MESSY, don’t try and contain it to one area, because people will automatically stomp/throw it everywhere (within reason, I’ve never had anyone come into the DJ booth and try and rub it all over the mixer. Touch wood)
One final note, try and get women to wear white. Foam + clothing = see through clothing. Victory!
Yep, back in mid-late 90’s did quite a few, it was okay as the booth was large and raised up, so very little foam got any where near the decks/mixer/vinyl etc. The mention of foam party has taken me back Used to do quite a number of boat parties too, they were popular back then.
I went to a foam party a couple of years ago in BCM, Magaluf. Ive no idea about setting one up, though from what i saw the foam was contained to one area, very waterproofed and kept under wraps so people weren’t slinging any about over the booth or bars.
All i can say is…slippery. And as Sambo said, You might want to consider a disclaimer or something absolving you of being liable for any injuries taken whilst people are dancing about.
Whatever you do, don’t mount the foam cannon at head height. Over head height is fine, and ceiling mounted foam snow machines are ideal but speaking as someone who has had a foam cannon swing right round into his face, that stuff is nasty and very capable of ruining someone’s night.
ah full english, where is the fun though if when the same obnoxious dude comes up, asking for the same shit song he asked for an hour ago, you cant blast him with a mouth full of foam.
We had one foam machine on the ceiling pouring into a ten foot inflatable swimming pool to keep it somewhat contained. It still filled up the dance floor, but I think having the pool in the middle did well to keep it from just washing out. We also had astroturf on the floor so it wasn’t bare soapy tile. If you’re having a foam party I would recommend adding a bikini contest to the mix. Something about diving into a mountain of foam when their name is called makes chicks go ten times as wild lol.
really solid advice, thanks friends! we got some turf for the dance floor to prevent slippage. however the venue it self is pretty big, i doubt we could get enough to cover the entire place with turf. i really like the idea of using a swimming pool to contain the foam as well. As for machine placement, we’re likely mounting it to the roof and far away from the booth (the booth of this venue also has see through plastic “windows” protecting it, which will come in handy). hopefully all goes well
We did an event years ago and put a sound system into the venue… guess what turned up A foam cannon and covered everything including the PA with foam = not good and not happy
Thanks in advance!
Used to do quite a number of boat parties too, they were popular back then.
A foam cannon and covered everything including the PA with foam = not good and not happy