On the morning of July 21st, 2012, Team Tassy and volunteers arrived early to transform Point State Park into an epic battle ground. Well, a water balloon battle ground for The Great American Water Balloon Fight, that is. Later that afternoon, hundreds of people came geared and ready to participate to support Team Tassy, over 90,000 water balloons arrived on semis, great live music fueled the fight, delicious food trucks and vendors stopped by… It was gallons of water and fun, all for an amazing cause in downtown Pittsburgh.
ShowClix had the pleasure of partnering with Team Tassy for this event, and it proved to be a perfect match. With features such as customized ticketing pages for the different teams, an easy-to-use scanning app, and online donations, Team Tassy was able to meet all of their goals and needs for their inaugural water balloon event!
When asked why they wanted to host the Great American Water Balloon Fight, Vivien Luk from Team Tassy said the purpose was “to raise funds for Team Tassy’s work to eliminate global poverty, starting in Haiti. We believe that giving should be a joy, and what’s more joyful than a water balloon fight?”
We learned a little bit more about the water used for the fight. Luk said, “We partnered with a local company called Cardinal Resources who has built what’s called The Red Bird System. The system takes water from our local rivers and purifies it. CR provided tanks of water for us to use to fill water balloons with. When the water balloons were all popped, the water went back into the grass and ground of Point State Park, which then streamed back into the rivers.” That is awesome!
“Pittsburgh is a fantastic community to launch the Great American Water Balloon Fight,” said Luk.  “Our favorite moments were when we formed the long assembly lines of fighters, volunteers, and spectators to transport water balloons onto the field, and when everyone selflessly helped pick up broken water balloons from the field. Moments like that remind us of what a great community we live in. Of course, the fight itself was a highlight. We had an absolute blast and we’ve heard that everyone did too, which makes us so happy! We’re working on some fun ideas and upgrades for next year so please stay tune!”
Working with Team Tassy, Asst. Account Exec Danielle Long said, “I think what they were most happy about is how they had a personal connection with ShowClix and how they could talk to us every step of the way… from the planning stage, to the day of and having us on-site to assist with admissions and train volunteers, even post-event to help gather ticket sales reports and debrief to plan for next year to make it even bigger and better!”
“We saw an opportunity to work with an event that was new to Pittsburgh, and something that was like nothing else,” she continued. “They definitely loved the ticket scanning app, Axess, and the fact that they could also track at-the-door sales and take credit cards using Crowd. It was easy to train their staff, and Team Tassy and their volunteers were happy with how smoothly our system ran. They loved the customization and the fact that we were able to easily design their ticketing pages to match the look and feel of their website design, giving their customers a seamless transition from their website to their ShowClix ticketing page(s).”
Check out some of the photos that the ShowClix team took that day:
Some last-minute water balloon filling by volunteers in the early morning, prior to the fight.
Crowd, our box-office system, is all set up and ready to handle walk-up sales.
The Clixrs are ready to go!
A look at the view from Point State Park.
The trucks arrive with water balloons that had been previously filled at happy-hour events at Wigle Whiskey and Bar Marco in the Strip District.
Volunteers scanning tickets using Axess.
Blue Team Captain Randy Baumann from 102.5 WDVE, pumping up his team!
Vivien Luk from Team Tassy (in orange) gets in on the action.
Revolution Brass Band played for the duration of the battle, providing the perfect soundtrack!
Batman came to defend the Red Team!
Thousands of balloons flew through the air and memories were made!
A big thank you to Team Tassy and all of their dedication to this cause and this first-time event. We look forward to 2013’s Great American Water Balloon Fight!
Did you miss out on the action? Stay tune, and we’ll announce next year’s date so you can Join The Fight and be part of the fun!
Were you at The Great American Water Balloon Fight? Comment below with some of your favorite moments from the day!