Fragapalooza
| Fragapalooza | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Video Gaming |
| Venue | Leduc Recreation Centre |
| Location(s) | Leduc |
| Country | Canada |
| Inaugurated | 1997 |
| Filing status | Non-For-Profit |
| Website | |
| http://www.fragapalooza.com/ | |
Fragapalooza (also referred to as Frag or Fraga by participants) is an annual video game festival/LAN party that takes place in Leduc, Alberta, Canada. The Name Fragapalooza was derived from the Military Slang "Frag" and "palooza" which is the suffix for any type of named festival or gathering like lollapalooza. Traditionally held in the summer, it runs over a period of four days, approximately 72 hours of non-stop gaming. It was considered Canada's largest LAN party event having reached approximately 900 attendees at its peak in 2008 and is still considered one of the largest events in the country and the largest in Western Canada.
Fragapalooza started in Edmonton, Alberta in 1997 by Gil "StraT" Amores., David Chan, Derek French, Scott Beuker and Poh Tan. The first event consisted primarily of a FPS called Quake and was held in a hangar at the Edmonton Municipal Airport. It has since evolved into a much larger annual gathering, occasionally drawing attendees from across Canada and the United States.
Fragapalooza is a Not-For-Profit event, where all proceeds from Seat sales and Sponsorship are rolled into the event itself to cover prizing, rentals and various other event costs. Fragapalooza is put on by gamers for gamers, and is completely volunteer run.
The event itself is Bring your own Console/Computer (sometimes referred to as BYOC). It takes miles of Ethernet and Power to distribute to the participants. Preparation and planning of the event takes months.
Fragapalooza has had several big name sponsors in the past; most notably Intel and nVidia have both previously sponsored the gaming convention. In 2004, nVidia sponsored Fragapalooza offering 20 GeForce FX 5950 Ultra graphics cards to winners and runners-up of the official LAN game tournaments. In late 2002, companies such as Sympatico, Intel, Cisco Systems, ATI, Microsoft, E-Compuvison and Digital Extremes sponsored the 3 day gaming festival billed as Fragapalooza East. In 2007, professional gaming store, Razer, was invited to sponsor Fragapalooza, the company offered numerous products as prizes worth around $600.
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