Pure horror is coming for you. And it wants a cheezburger.
Because there’s nothing scarier than basement cat, here comes the fifth anniversary of HallowMEME — a costume party where the guests dress like Forever Alone, Good Guy Greg, Conspiracy Keanu, and all the other joke obsessions of the internet.
The party is the creation of Forced Meme Productions, an art collective run by Andrea Rosen, Kelly Reeves, and New York Magazine’s Lindsey Weber, which creates playful pop culture-inspired experiences.
“The event has grown by leaps and bounds over the past five years, and we owe a lot of that to the mainstreaming of memes and explosion of social sharing that has coincided with our run,” Rosen said. “We went from 100 internet obsessives letting loose at a Lower East Side bar in 2009 to a massive event that now draws 600 people from all over New York City and beyond to Brooklyn’s Bell House, and includes live performances, a highly competitive costume contest, cameos by internet celebs, and more Instagrams than we know what to do with.”
For those who want to join in but don’t know where to start, Weber suggests making your own costume, checking Twitter for inspiration, and picking a meme that’s topical.
“Even if you think some people might not ‘get’ your costume (really, niche is the name of the game here) it’s worth thinking of something that’s been in the news recently,” she said via email. “Or just abuzz on the internet. It’ll be worth it when people quickly start coming up to you, recognizing your costume and repeating it back to you.”
But Rosen is tight-lipped about what the three women who pioneered the event will dress as.
“It’s a secret — but we can say that it’s a shameless, shameless plug for our next event,” she said.
2013 HallowMEME Costume Party at the Bell House [149 Seventh St. between Second and Third avenues in Gowanus, (718) 643–6510, www.thebellhouseny.com]. Oct. 24, 8:30 pm, free.
