Seeing the world in neon

Ready, steady, throw and glow. All white on the night? Yeah! writes VICKI ANDERSON.

Floyd Morgan, brother of Sam Morgan of TradeMe fame, was looking at pictures of body painting online in search of a theme for a party and discovered paint parties. Now he looks at life through shutter shades and sees the world in neon.

Together with business partner Jamie Templeton, Morgan operates Illuminate, and following the success of the inaugural event in Wellington last year, this month has organised paint parties in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch.

"I was looking online for themes for my birthday party. The body painting thing . . . too much nudity for me, I thought 'I don't wanna wear that', and I found paint parties," Morgan laughs.

"I don't go out much, ironically, yet I've ended up with a career in putting on parties."

What is a paint party? Tides of UV glow paint across a wild crowd of white-garbed revellers moving to the fast-paced beats provided by DJs, Illuminate "plays on the tribal instincts within all of us to come together and be part of something larger than ourselves".

Brace yourself, black garment-loving New Zealand - you must dress entirely in white (preferably in clothes you don't care too much about because although the paint is non-toxic it is difficult to get out) and dance around firing paint at random strangers through paint bottles similar in size and construction to water pistols - no welts involved.

At midnight the room is illuminated by neon paint and the colourful hand and living artworks created by the audience.

"I really liked the idea that because everyone is in white there are no pretty girls, there are no goths, there are no emos, there are no labels, everyone is the same, it's a real leveller," Morgan says.

Tickets to the 1500-capacity event quickly sold out, with people offering up to three times the original ticket price on Illuminate's Facebook page.

"We don't do any marketing, it's all Facebook and it works," Morgan says.

I cannot tell you how liberating it is to throw paint at a complete stranger. It just feels damn good.

But Morgan, in Christchurch a week before the event to organise the venue fitout, grimaces a little when I ask who cleans up the mess the morning after the night before.

"It's been a real learning curve. We just did a paint party in Dunedin, thousands of students as I'm sure you can imagine, which really stepped the cleaning game up a lot for us. We had to line the walls before we put up the frost netting because the paint can go through and damage the walls but for Christchurch we've got a different setup again. We have to make sure it's flame retardant - catering to the lowest common denominator. We have a cleaning company who do a fabulous job."

Inspired by singer Lily Allen's paint party, which featured edible paint and oompa loompas, Morgan attempted to hire little people for his Flaming Lips-style crowd surfing ball. There are also other giant inflatable props, special lighting and other visuals to delight the senses.

"Did you know that Christchurch is the capital of little people talent providers? The only talent agency to specialise in dwarf talent, Little People Global, is in Christchurch. I approached them to see if someone might be interested in coming along to the party but apparently they only want film and TV work," Morgan says.

"We need someone the right size. Last time we put a six-foot DJ into the ball to go crowd surfing and I think the crowd were a bit disgruntled about having to carry him about above their heads. I was a bit disappointed that we couldn't find anyone willing to do it in Christchurch. I'm a ginger looking for a little person, how hard can it be? Every oompa loompa has a price."

Morgan says a lot of people have queries about how messy things get. "People ask 'what if it gets in my hair?'. It's going to get in your hair. We recommend shutter shades for your eyes, which we sell on site, and there are face masks too. And during cleanups I generally notice a lot of smashed phones on the floor. People get all excited and start bouncing up and down and don't realise their phones and other possessions are being scattered everywhere.

"We will have clear ziplock bags available for phones."

After the Wellington party, 50 paint party escapees resplendent in neon colours descended upon a service station in the early hours of the morning, no doubt looking for crusty pies.

"People looked at them like they'd just beamed down from Mars," Morgan laughs.

Templeton, charged with organising the music side of the event, says that while the parties generally attract the 18-24 age group with a strong female attendance, previous parties have featured people of 50, 60 and beyond.

"It really does break down barriers, that's the thing I like the most about it."

His words of advice?

"Shut your mouth when the paint starts flying."

Illuminate at the Bedford, Saturday. Tickets have sold out. To find out what you're missing go to YouTube and search: Illuminate Paint Party Dunedin 2010.

- © Fairfax NZ News