Improv Everywhere Comes to Packapalooza™

Over the years, NC State’s annual Packapalooza™ street festival has become known for games, food, free swag, live music and good times on Hillsborough Street. 

This year, Arts NC State and the Packapalooza planning committee set out to take that experience up a notch. This year’s festival, set for Saturday, Aug. 24, will include Improv Everywhere’s “The MP3 Experiment,” a participatory audio performance experience. 

Amy Sawyers-Williams, Arts NC State’s manager of outreach and engagement said that Justine Hollingshead, assistant vice chancellor and leader of the Packapalooza planning team, asked her about the possibility of bringing Improv Everywhere to NC State. 

“I was excited because Improv Everywhere is nationally well known in the arts community, and I’m also a self professed improv nerd, so planning this is right up my alley,” Sawyers-Williams said. 

Improv Everywhere – a comedic performance art group based in New York City – is known for organizing various pop-up performances throughout the country, and has been featured on programs such as The Today Show and Good Morning America. 

The particular program that Improv Everywhere is bringing to Packapalooza, “The MP3 Experiment,” will allow participants to become undercover performers and bring laughs and smiles to the crowd simply by downloading an app and listening to instructions through headphones. 

The experiment will take place near the Belltower’s main stage at 7 p.m. and participants might receive instructions such as a freezing in place, giving a secret signal to other participants or other synchronized movements. 

With this being outgoing Chancellor Randy Woodson’s last Packapalooza in his current role, the NC State specific experiment will include a nod to the chancellor. 

“Packapalooza keeps getting cooler each year,” Sawyers-Williams said. “What a perfect way to celebrate our chancellor at his favorite event, by the stage where he often performs. You can think of this like a huge, choreographed love letter to NC State and to the chancellor.”

With Packapalooza open to NC State students, staff, faculty and the general public, this experiment is geared towards participants of all ages, and is as simple as bringing headphones and a device with Improv Everywhere’s app downloaded. 

“This is the chance to participate in something that allows us to have fun, connect with each other, be goofy and play,” Sawyers-Williams said.

Visit go.ncsu.edu/improv-everywhere to download the app ahead of time. This event is open to all, and is family friendly.