Up In The Sky, It's a Bird, a Plane, no, Flugtag!
Dec 21, 2005
The Arizona Republic – Jane Larson, Yvette Armendariz and Russ Wiles
Build your own flying contraption, launch yourself off a platform built in the middle of Tempe Town Lake and win prizes worth thousands of dollars.
Hey, we're in.
Red Bull, which claims 1 billion cans of its energy drink are consumed each year, is bringing its Red Bull Flugtag to Tempe next year.("Flugtag" means "flying day," for those of us who have neglected practicing German with our BMW mechanics.) Not only that, but Red Bull is using a Tempe-based company, Terralever, to create the Web sites for the big event.
"We caught wind that they were going to have a Flugtag in Tempe, and we jumped all over the opportunity," said Andy Richter, vice president of sales and marketing for the eight-employee firm.
Red Bull has sponsored more than 30 Flugtags around the world since thefirst one in Vienna in 1991. Each involves launching outrageous aeronautic crafts over bodies of water, with contestants judged on distance, creativity and showmanship.
The U.S. distance record is 78 feet, set in Cleveland in 2004, Red Bull spokeswoman Nyla Wilkins said. But what an entry lacks in engineering prowess can be made up for in originality and style, the company says. Previous Flugtags have witnessed craft resembling a pregnant cow, a stork, even a pimped-out Cadillac and have attracted up to 250,000 spectators.
Thirty teams will be picked for the April 29 extravaganza. Craft must be entirely human-powered, weigh less than 450 pounds including pilot and be less than 30 feet wide. Prizes range from $7,500 in pilot's training to $3,000 in sky-diving lessons to a special prize for most creative craft.
Terralever, which also designed the sites for Red Bull's Artsehcro(orchestra spelled backward) and Nepal waterfall climbing projects, has Flugtag applications, videos of past events and more on the sites. They're at
www.redbullflugtagarizona.comand
www.redbullflugtagusa.com.
We have till Feb. 17 to polish our sequined jumpsuits and apply.
Media Contacts
Celeste Johnson
Sacks Public Relations
direct: 602-619-4444
celeste@sackspr.com
Andrew Richter
Terralever, Managing Partner
direct: 480-839-1080
sales@terralever.com