– a derailed roller skating party, a flash back to arcade halls of the 80’s, and a breezy circus variety.
What do you do, when the arcade machines have been banished to darkness thanks to 20 years of unstoppable technological advancement? When kitsch is no longer cool and we have gradually forgotten how to skate on side-by-sides and in-liners?
Then you give the shit artificial respiration to the tones of Talkin Heads and Bowie and forcibly feed the mischievous types with roller disco and shoulder paddings
About Arcade Delight
Arcade Delight is an immersive / interactive theater and circus concept created by and under the continued development of DYNAMO Workspace.
Every year in December, DYNAMO Workspace replace the old FAF warehouse at the port of Odense into a different dimension. The building will be the setting for an event that is equal parts party, concert, performance and installation. Over 6 hours, this universe unfolds and slowly the boundaries between stage, audience, performers and participants are blurred.
The concept was created in collaboration with the Municipality of Odense with financial support from the National Arts Foundation. Furthermore, the 2018 edition of Arcade Delight was created with artistic contributions from the Odensean concert organizer community Røde Himmel and the lighting designer group Kaos Engine.
The physical setting around Arcade Delight is a kind of post-apocalyptic amusement park. The center-piece is a roller-skating disco thunder-dome course, flanked by arcade hall, shooting tent, dressing room, makeup room, tattoo raffle, light-set through art installations, projections, neon tubes and lasers.
Through a neon-lit retro arcade hall, the participants enter a parallel universe to the sounds of Donkey Kong and Pac Man. Smoke, light installations and DJs frames the roller skate disco track while a street of dilapidated sheds houses bars, roller skate dispatch center, air rifle shooting tent, dressing room, face painting, photo booth and street food vendors all populated by strange characters.
It is a sensory bombardment of sound, light and smell that brings the participant out of sight, but also causes them to slow down the parades. Artists and performers are popping up. Acts and scenes play out over, under, around and among the participants as they wear roller skates whizzing around the amusement park.
As the evening unfolds, the mood becomes increasingly loose. The office man is dressed up as a rainbow tiger and dances wearing a ring embroidery and high heeled shoes along with the artist who – only seconds earlier – has swung through the air in a trapeze to the live music from the stage and the sound of bangs from the air rifle and the tattoo needle.
The boundaries between contributors and participants, gender and status are broken down and all are equal and create a party and a universe where we can for a while be exactly what we want – live and off-line.
Arcade Delight is one of 16 cultural events on Funen nominated for the Funen Culture Award.
About the Funen Culture Award: “The Funen Culture Award is given to a cultural event or a work of high artistic or cultural-historical quality, which during the year has given the audience a special experience.”
