Downtown Bed Racing April 27th (20. March 2007, 14:54 by Derek Young) ~ Clean The Sheets!
What’s Tacoma missing? That’s right. More bed races. I’m into it. Rec’d via email:
Artists and others are invited to create a racing bed as part of Tacoma Art Museum’s free community festival celebration on Friday, April 27, at 6 pm.
Inspired by the current exhibition Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon, Tacoma Art Museum will host a surprise party to celebrate the centennial of Frida Kahlo’s birth in 1907. Join the fun with a racing bed.
Participants are encouraged to work in teams to recreate Frida Kahlo’s famous bed into a motorless, manually powered racing vehicle. Timed heats will be held across Pacific Avenue from the museum in Tollefson Plaza beginning at 6 pm. Cash and other fabulous prizes will be awarded for the fastest, most alarming bed, most creatively dressed team, as well as most closely related to the artwork of Frida Kahlo. Everyone dressed as Frida Kahlo will receive free tickets for select paid goodies and activities that are a part of the celebration.
The Rules:
- One person must be on the bed during the race with the remaining teammates pushing
- No motors, engines, or gas-powered means of locomotion
- Maximum size of the bed not to exceed 5 ft. long x 3 ft. wide x 5 ft. high.* There is no minimum size, but one participant must be able to fit on the bed
- Beds must have headboard and footboard
- Races will occur in heats, the number depending upon the number of participants
- Beds must remain on assigned course throughout the race
- Tacoma Art Museum will not provide for the transportation or security of the beds
- Registration is free, but participants must pre-register. Artists who register by April 20, 2007, will have their names included in the program. Entry form is available at www.TacomaArtMuseum.org.
It’s been a long time since I had an excuse to dress as Frida.
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Bedraces used to be very popular in the 70s. Actually, anything having to do with beds was popular- but that’s another story.
There was even a huge one downtown for raising funds for MS. I miss those days! Winners from Tacoma, Olympia, and all over would gather for the championship race in downtown Seattle (of course). I tried getting interest from the downtown merchants to start this tradition back up, but I think they thought I was nuts. Oh well, it’s good to see the Art Museum take the lead.
High strung mounts await bed jockeys
2 | Posted by morgan | Mar 20, 10:13 PM
Back in the ’70s and late ’80s, before the era of Great Litigation, lil’ ol’ Issaquah used to hold gravity races during Salmon days. Same basic idea, but with a hill. The race craft could be just about anything. People used beds, sofas, ottomans, wee parade floats, wagons, and so on. Some wanted to win, some were just pleasantly tipsy. My dad and some buddies built a racer from a Rainbeer costume. It had proper steering, brakes, a finished cockpit…man, I’d give plenty to have that rig today.
Sorry, I obviously got sidetracked there. What I meant to say is that while I know in today’s world you can’t host a downhill furniture race without getting sued all to hell, I’m happy to see this safe ‘n’ sane cousin of the gravity race coming to Tacoma.
4 | Posted by Erik S | Mar 21, 08:48 AM
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