# No Balloons Allowed!!



## jstroming (Oct 16, 2010)

I'm sorry, but I find it so funny that most convention centers won't let balloons in the door because of the extra cost associated with getting them down. Every time I see that in Event Guides I laugh. I was doing a show in Florida a few weeks ago and the venue staff went ballistic on this 8 year old girl for having a balloon attached to her arm haha....The event manager tells the head of the show "this is a serious thing, it costs $1000 to get them down".

Can somebody devise a BB gun or something that we can use to get them down so they can take this out of their Event Guides please.


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## Footer (Oct 16, 2010)

One of the reasons many places, including a few facilities that I work at, won't let balloons in is these: 


Infrared Optical Beam Smoke Detector


I have seen entire buildings evacuated because one balloon got in. Many convention centers/gymnasiums/theatres are equipped with these things because they can cover a large area with few units. I have worked in more then one theatre that you can not go into the grid without shutting off the alarm because these things are cris-crossed through the grid. So, sometimes it might be they just don't want to go and pop the balloons after the event, however many times is because they don't want a loose balloon to evacuate 10,000 people into a busy city street.


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## mstaylor (Oct 16, 2010)

Most kids shows retrieve show ballons after the show with a fishing rod, a gerneric balloon and some double faced tape. I watched a guy the other night that was bringing down two at a time.


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## MNicolai (Oct 16, 2010)

The first time you have to rent a boom lift to get streamers off of the ceiling clouds above your audience that were fired out of a confetti cannon coincidentally happens to be the last time you ever let something like that happen.

By the way, this:


> Most kids shows retrieve show ballons after the show with a fishing rod, a gerneric balloon and some double faced tape. I watched a guy the other night that was bringing down two at a time.



That's just brilliant.


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## mstaylor (Oct 16, 2010)

Sometimes simple works.


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## ruinexplorer (Oct 17, 2010)

They gently retrieve them so that they can re-sell them (sometimes attached to a stick for the second sell). I've heard of at least one big company that does that.

Seriously though, even if the balloon pops and you don't have the IR detectors to worry about in the first place, the balloons often get snared in the ceiling making it a costly endeavor to retreive the remains.


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## shiben (Oct 18, 2010)

MNicolai said:


> The first time you have to rent a boom lift to get streamers off of the ceiling clouds above your audience that were fired out of a confetti cannon coincidentally happens to be the last time you ever let something like that happen.


 
+1 to this. After 4 hours of vaccuming air ducts in the high steel to try and remove confetti, the people I used to work for no longer allow stuff like this. The best bit was when some that we had missed fell on the president of the college during an important lecture. Another few hours in the steel and we had all that we could find cleaned up, but we had it falling for a year later. The only reason we KNOW it stopped was they knocked the building down.


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## WooferHound (Oct 19, 2010)

They allow balloons in the building I work at. When I go up on the catwalks in the exhibit halls I can see them clogging up the airconditioner return vents.


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## Tex (Oct 22, 2010)

Footer said:


> One of the reasons many places, including a few facilities that I work at, won't let balloons in is these:
> 
> Infrared Optical Beam Smoke Detector
> 
> ...


I'm sure these are a great safety tool, but they can be a real pain. The last theatre I worked in had these and I made a few people very angry when they found out they couldn't use a fog machine. I'm just glad they crossed under the FOH position. I can't imagine having to shut them off to change a lamp or focus.


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## Footer (Oct 22, 2010)

Tex said:


> I'm sure these are a great safety tool, but they can be a real pain. The last theatre I worked in had these and I made a few people very angry when they found out they couldn't use a fog machine. I'm just glad they crossed under the FOH position. I can't imagine having to shut them off to change a lamp or focus.


 
Nearly every venue that has adequate smoke detection won't allow fog or haze without disarming the smoke detectors and going under some sort of fire watch. We have these at The Egg and we have to go under a fire watch every time we use haze. All that involves is that the alarm will not sound if these are tripped, however we still get an alarm backstage if they trip. Someone just has to stand next to the alarm annunciator and if the alarm does trip, they have to hit an abort button if the alarm is not real. If the button is not hit in 60 seconds, fire wall comes in and the alarm goes off proper. After you hit the abort button a timer starts. If the fault is not cleared in 15 minutes, the process starts all over again. 

The only place I have seen these eys where people work are in grids. I have never seen them used on a catwalk where they slow down work. We have these all over The Egg and they are placed well.


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## Tex (Oct 23, 2010)

Footer said:


> Nearly every venue that has adequate smoke detection won't allow fog or haze without disarming the smoke detectors and going under some sort of fire watch.


I guess we're all gonna fry down here then. 
I know of only a handful of schools that have to disarm alarms to use fog/haze in this area. The school I referred to in my post is the only one of four in that district to have IR beam detectors. The other schools can use fog/haze without any problems, even the one that opened last year.


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## g15 (Oct 23, 2010)

The first time we used confetti cannons and fired them from catwalk B DIRECTLY into catwalk A (.....i know....) was, coincidentally, the last time we used confetti. We're still finding the stupid stuff everywhere...


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## MNicolai (Oct 23, 2010)

There's a great part during David Cross' Bigger & Blackerer, at 29:40, where he's in the middle of a bit and spots a piece of confetti falling from above right by where he's standing. He stops mid-joke and starts marching and parading, hums a little tune, then says, "YAY -- We did it!"


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## MarshallPope (Oct 24, 2010)

I have two confetti stories, both relating to my church. First: we had an annual youth event for a few years in our sanctuary. One year, I decided that I wanted to drop confetti along with my typical balloon drop. Unfortunately, the confetti I ordered turned out to be Paper-hole-punch sized. We are still finding it.

Story two: Maybe 25 years ago, someone decided to make it snow during a Christmas program. THey took massive amounts of plastic snow to the catwalk and somehow distributed it through a slot for a retractable projection screen. Well, they missed some. It is now pretty common for a flake to fall of it's own accord every few months into the choir. Any time I work up there, there is a blizzard that must be cleaned up.


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## zmb (Oct 24, 2010)

So, in short, confetti and ballons look neat but are a pain to clean up?


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## Footer (Oct 24, 2010)

zmb said:


> So, in short, confetti and ballons look neat but are a pain to clean up?


 
Yup. The the worst offender is glitter. I once had a dance recital rental in. Our SL/SR hands started reporting that for some reason the girls were bringing in bowls of silver glitter. Before we could figure out what was going on, 6 girls onstage ran off, each grabbed handfulls of glitter, ran downstage, and threw it into the first few rows to act as a "photo finish" button for the number. I nearly jumped down from the booth to start strangling people. The stuff got ground into the seats, the carpet and just about everything else it touched. They ended up paying an extra 4 hour call for 4 people along with completely losing their deposit. All in all, it cost them about 2 grand.


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## seanandkate (Oct 24, 2010)

Footer said:


> Before we could figure out what was going on, 6 girls onstage ran off, each grabbed handfulls of glitter, ran downstage, and threw it into the first few rows



:shock: Oh :shock: My :shock: God :shock:
As we approach October 31st, this counts as my first _truly _horrifying tale of the season. . .


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## cpf (Oct 24, 2010)

Glitter has been on the banned list since day 1 for the place I work in, but one production managed to convince the building manager that confetti (from CO2 cannons) was a good compromise, and as other people have recounted, it was falling off of surfaces (horizontal or otherwise) for over a year after. As a result I'm with the above poster: glitter would be a nightmare-come-true for years to come, off to go think some happy thoughts to get those images out of my head.


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## shiben (Oct 26, 2010)

seanandkate said:


> :shock: Oh :shock: My :shock: God :shock:
> As we approach October 31st, this counts as my first _truly _horrifying tale of the season. . .


 
I second that. However footer, At least someone gave you extra moneys to clean it up. College 24 hour production, all volunteer work. Myself and one other person doing all the tech stuff, mostly turning lights on and off, stuff like that. Pretty much dozing waiting for the thing to end, all of a sudden notice people dumping literal bowls of glitter (like, chip bowls) onto eachother to simulate water. Had to clean all that up after being up for 36 hours prior. Nearly killed everyone in range.


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## TheGuruat12 (Nov 1, 2010)

Footer said:


> Yup. The the worst offender is glitter. I once had a dance recital rental in. Our SL/SR hands started reporting that for some reason the girls were bringing in bowls of silver glitter. Before we could figure out what was going on, 6 girls onstage ran off, each grabbed handfulls of glitter, ran downstage, and threw it into the first few rows to act as a "photo finish" button for the number. I nearly jumped down from the booth to start strangling people. The stuff got ground into the seats, the carpet and just about everything else it touched. They ended up paying an extra 4 hour call for 4 people along with completely losing their deposit. All in all, it cost them about 2 grand.



I think our HS Dance department had "the glitter idea" about three years ago. For them, it wasn't nearly as bad as what you're describing. It was just ALL over their bodies. Our five sheets of Marley are still shining with silver speckles, even after being washed for each show.

If I ever see dancers, or anybody else for that matter, with glitter, they will quickly be locked out until they are no longer contaminated.


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## Cashwalker (Nov 2, 2010)

I just hate glitter period - greeting cards and clothing are the biggest offenders. Glitter just rubs off the cards all over your fingers. My daughter has 3 pieces of laundry that I refuse to clean, because the glitter will just wash off onto every other item. (and no, it's not worth the extra 3 bucks to wash and dry separately)


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## ruinexplorer (Nov 2, 2010)

Glitter on stage is an absolute no no. However, I don't mind glitter everywhere else. I guess we can be thankful that being shiny in the light is in style right now.  Pretty much after the first wash of my daughter's glittery shirts, most of it is gone anyway. I make sure not to wash my work clothes within a cycle of hers, but other than that it doesn't bother me that much. However, in the theater, it's like a disease that you can never get rid of.


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## erosing (Nov 3, 2010)

ruinexplorer said:


> I guess we can be thankful that being shiny in the light is in style right now.


 
Hmm, I see what you did there...

I've got glitter on my floor right now from a costume that was painted with glitter paint, I'm not happy about it. But it's not that bad, just annoying to see the spec on the floor and you know you can't get it up easily. Next to glitter in my mind, is sand. I hate sand on stage, only did it once, but never again. It got into every crack, it would gust up, got into the carpeting; it was a mess.


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## MarshallPope (Nov 3, 2010)

I used sand (About 50 cu. ft.) several years ago in a blackbox-style show. We built a 2x4 retaining wall to keep it in the stage area, which was basically pointless. It didn't help that it had to be carried up (and back down) a fire escape to the third floor in five-gallon buckets. It got everywhere; in the carpet, in everyone's shoes, all over the third floor and then some. Never again.


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## ruinexplorer (Nov 5, 2010)

Totally agree with sand. Geez, anything small and hard to sweep is just a nightmare.


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## Pie4Weebl (Nov 6, 2010)

Footers story made me choke for a few seconds, bad memories of dance competitions....

I did an event at a bar once from a "beer co party cruise" I got to the venue expecting an easy day, no one told me they were going to put 6" of sand everywhere in the bar. My "six stage hands" ended up being 4 media interns that the whole event shared. It was a very long day.


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## derekleffew (Nov 11, 2010)

Balloons Fly By Law, Right into Electrical Wires – Mission [email protected] -- San Francisco Mission District's News, Food, Art and Events

Not quite _Oceans 11_, but we're rather touchy about mylar balloons here in Las Vegas, since I think NYE 2001, when a balloon in a sub-station blacked out part of the Strip.


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