Thunder Gumbo’s 5th Annual Freezing Man: The War Against the Sun

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Sunset ritual @ 8pm
Sunrise ritual at our afterparty at X Marks The Loft
Abombinable snowlympics bobsleding at 10:30
Effigy destruction at midnight
Capacity limited. Buy tickets early, this event will sell out.

❄❄About ❄❄
There are many earths, and many worlds.

There is the world where Burning Man happens in Black Rock City, NV, the 1st week of September, where Thunder Gumbo embarks every year with our best friends and our legendary art car.

Then there is also the world of Thunder Gumbo… where for the fifth year in a row, FREEZING MAN takes place in the belly of a legendary sinking ship in an obscure, polluted Brooklyn waterway, calling in the spirit of winter to fight against the scourge of global warming!

Unlike many festivals, at Freezing Man we celebrate for an entire week in A SINGLE NIGHT! The transdimensional enviroshifter must be activated annually to bring on the cooling of the planet, conquer the existential threat of global warming, and to one day bring peace and unity to the galaxy.

We feature fantastic live bands, body moving DJs, mind-bending performances, intimate theatrical installations, lots of snow machines, and the magical contributions of the greater NYC Burning Man community! This event is powered by community, and encourages the participation of all our guests as the Thunder Gumbo collective comes together to raise funds for our legendary art cars.

This year, just like every year since 1847, we honor our fearless leader and founding matriarch, Freeezine R. Mann! We recognize her renowned exploits, her founding of the Abominable Snowlympics, her conquest of the sun which cooled the planet to inhabitable levels in time immemorial, and her contributions to the historic Jamaican bobsled team’s winter Snowlympics bobsled team victory, as memorialized in the 1993 film Cool Runnings starring John Candy.

Come join us at our annual decommodified mini festival commemorating The Great War Against The Sun that takes place across a sprawling, historic, and floating underground venue, jam-packed with immersive and participatory art installations and DIY history! We can’t wait to come together to celebrate the power of community and the warmth of our friendships in this time of cold, darkness and fear. There will be very cold beverages available.

❄❄MUSIC ❄❄
2 stages of diverse chaos from old friends and special guests.

Special Guest (omg)
YUNG ELDR (aka 2melo, Junxion)
Reem (Bae)
Rasta 4 Eyes (Stampede Sound, ambient set)
Zionysus (Thunder Gumbo)
Shhhhhhhhhh (aka PartyFoul5000™, Thunder Gumbo)

❄❄ART ❄❄
THE FREEEZINE R. MANN MEMORIAL EFFIGY, with a VIOLENT DESTRUCTION RITUAL!

Come early for an exhibition run from the JAMAICAN BOBSLED TEAM and cheer on the the CROSS COUNTRY BOOTLEG ARCTIC BEAST CHARIOT RACES at 10:30 Sharp, led by John Candy as played by ORIEN MCNEIL.

MAJESTIC underwater sea creatures transsubstantiated in to photonic being by RHIZOME NYC

Talk show by ARIEL DE LION with special guests from Aquatorium, Land Sea Air Society, and Thunder Gumbo History! With a special skype appearence from Ben Devoe where we will learn the True Meaning of Freezing Man.

A speakeasy in the backdoor of another speakeasy, by Niral Shah

LUMINOUS northern lights by PERRY WOHLBERG

Custom ORC TEETH made for you by PSYCHIC DENTIST

LUXURIOUSLY SUPPORTIVE human carpet services by the infamous Georgio Carpet

A FEMININE and SECRETIVE encounter TRAVERSING THE RIVER CHARON WITH A BEWILDERED PERSEPHONE by JENNA HOFF & special guests

BEAUTIFUL WOMEN in TRENCHCOATS & LINGERE with SECRETS

BOB FOR APPLES in FROZEN WATER for SEMI PRECIOUS PRIZES

Have the VEIL PARTED to reveal your glorious future with VULGARIA the DRUNKEN GYPSY FORTUNE TELLER

Find LOVE or something like it with TINDER GUMBO, a real-time 3D interactive experience

SOMETHING UNEXPECTED by Lindsay Arden

Tanya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan BURLESQUE

With ****MUCH MORE**** TBA

And an EPIC AFTER PARTY at X Marks the Loft

❄❄Participate❄❄
Volunteers: Fill out the form at https://goo.gl/forms/Xmbi5E6rVa0hs4F92

Artists: We are still recruiting installations, performances, and vendors! Please email gumbothunder@gmail.com or message the Thunder Gumbo page for information.

❄❄COSTUME SUGGESTIONS ❄❄

Yeti Royalty
Bobsled Driver
Deconstructed Snow Gear
Bewildered Persephone
Leg warmers. Just leg warmers.
Beastly
Snowlympian Athlete
Han Solo in the Carbonite
Glowing Ugly Christmas Sweaters
Nuclear Winter Wonderland Survivor
Not-So-Vanilla Ice
Famous Reggae Superstar Yellow-Snow-Man
Ice Queen
Trench Coats + lingerie
Naked in the Snow
Bobsled Runner

❄❄STORY ❄❄

In 1847, Freeezine R. Mann, the founding matriarch of the Thunder Gumbo arts collective, completed the trans-arctic crossing from Norway to Alaska by lion-sled. Pressure from the evil ice king and queen bent on the destruction of the peaceful Yeti empire did all they could to impede her progress. Yet she and her crew were determined. Some say the Gods themselves raised her team of giant ice-lions, the strongest ever born. It is said that Hephaestus and Thor took turns hammering away to create her sled made of time crystals.

Of course, she persevered. Upon reaching Alaska the world rejoiced!

It was then that Freeezine knew what to do. She invited the world to what shall forever be remembered as the first Freeezine Mann festival complete with a primitive effigy constructed by Norwegian pagans, gogo dancing yetis, sideshow performers, mystics, and the Abominable Snowlympics athletic competition. It was tremendous, with 200,000 attendees gathering all the way at the North Pole. Lovers of the cold, beasts, adventurers, and those proud of this momentous human achievement gathered together. Their love and revelry in defiance of the evil ice king and queen created so much heat the polar ice caps began to melt. They receded to a point that wouldn’t be seen for another 170 years.

Time has charged its toll! In a world out of balance, the wise elders of the Thunder Gumbo Arts collective have decreed that in an age of global warming, hot tempers, and potential heatstroke, that the gods of summer need Freezing Man to happen in mid-summer, to bring the planet itself back to balance before the polar ice caps melt and the world’s ice cream supply melts away…

F. Mann’s memory as a community leader and pioneer lives on as the founder of our current decommodified non-profit community arts and expedition fundraising event! For the past 170 years, the Thunder Gumbo community has carried on this tradition. Since her death in 1996, a skeletal xylophone constructed from castings of F.R. Mann’s skeleton plays a mournful yet celebratory dirge at the stroke of midnight at every Freezing Man Festival.

Come celebrate with us!

❄❄NON-PROFIT ❄❄

Thunder Gumbo is a not-for-profit event and art collective. All funds go directly towards art upgrades and necessary maintenance of BOOGA, our legendary art car, which has gone many times to the Black Rock CIty desert for the annual Burning Man festival as well as Dance Parade, Gratitude, Halloween Parade, Freeform, and more.

Many core members of this production also purchase a full price ticket out of a passion for the mission. Our events are volunteer produced out of love for the cultivation of community, music, art, and adventure.