2007: the year of the very first Nerdapalooza. Though the event was conceived by Californian John “Hex” Carter, the first festival conducted under the Nerdapalooza banner was coordinated on the far corner of the country by musical comedian Rob Tobias. Florida’s Nerdapalooza Southeast was shortly followed by Hex’s own Nerdapalooza Beta in Arcata, CA.
21: the combined number of performers at both of that year’s iterations. Fifteen of those played the Gainesville show, while the remaining six participated at Arcata’s Humboldt State University.
2008: the year of the first (and only) Nerdapalooza UK. This festival occurred in Bradford and was coordinated by Stephen “B-Type” Brunton.
3: the number of charities thus far supported by Nerdapalooza. Nerdapalooza Southeast 2007 donated its earnings to local homeless charity Purple House, while the events in 2008-2010 supported Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play. This year’s festival will leverage collected funds to support the Orange County Public School System‘s fine arts education program.
$3,200: the amount of money the event has raised since 2008 for the Child’s Play charity.
$2,000: the amount of Child’s Play donations generated solely by Nerdapalooza 2010.
Approx. 1,700: sum total of attendees to all Nerdapalooza events.
<$1,000: total dollar value of artist merchandise sales from Nerdapalooza 2008.
33: the number of performers in 2008.
>$7,000: total dollar value of artist merchandise sales from Nerdapalooza 2010.
35: the number of performers in 2010.
$35: price of a single day event ticket for this year’s festival.
$50: price of a weekend pass.
$1,652: the amount of money currently pledged to the Nerdapalooza 2011 Kickstarter fund. The organization hopes to collect $5,000 to help offset the price of this year’s expansion.
40: total number of performers slated for Nerdapalooza 2011. This includes 20 returning acts and 20 new additions such as Metroid Metal, Adam WarRock, The OneUps and Illbotz.
7/15-7/17: the dates of this year’s event. For the second year in a row Nerdapalooza will take place at the Orlando Airport Marriott in Orlando, FL.
3: the number of consecutive festivals headlined by nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot. He is conspicuously absent from this year’s lineup.
2: the number of GeekDad contributors in attendance. One will be me, the other GeekDad Curtis. We will be otherwise unsupervised. No good can come of this.
