“…and the sky shall crack open, and beer shall fall upon ye, music festival attenders!” thus spake the Darkwing Aerials founders, who brought the OppiKoppi beer drones to life.
Those might not have been their exact words, but I think that they fit this situation quite well. Now let me talk a bit about the context here. OppiKoppi is a music festival that initially focused on rock as the main genre, but more recently has integrated jazz, world music, house music, acoustic and even comedy. As though the music diversity alone wasn’t enough to attract people, the organizers came with the best idea ever: festival attendants who order beer will have it delivered by octocopter drones.
OppiKoppi beer drones will take to the sky and deliver the beer at the exact GPS location of the person who has ordered it. The drones will be provided by Darkwing Aerials, who promised that safety measures would be taken so that beer cans don’t hit the attendants in the head. The video found at the end of this post shows the OppiKoppi drones dropping beer (not bombs) with a parachute. I assume that in these conditions, the booze gets to its destination pretty smoothly.
Darkwing Aerials co-founder Dean Engela stated the following in an interview for CBSNews.com: “There’s going to be one campsite designated to the beer drop. The campsite will be notified that there will be drones in the air.”
Only one drone is ready at the moment, but the developers intend to make up to 3 more, to make sure that no one dies of thirst while waiting for their beer. They have plenty of time in their hands to build the other drones, since the festival will take place between 8 and 10 of August.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=janur7RJwm0&w=600&h=338]
In case you didn’t know, the action of District 9, IMHO one of the best sci-fi flicks of the new century, takes place in South Africa. This country also represents one of the locations scenes from the movie were shot in. If you’ve watched and happened to like it as much as I did, don’t hesitate to attend this festival, given the chance. The beer is free, as it serves promotional purposes at the moment, and it falls from the sky, so you really have no excuse to miss this!
If you liked this post, please check the R2D2 Heineken robot sculpture and the drink dispensing custom Darth Vader Kegerator.
