GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The 2017 LaughFest Community Kickoff event took on the mannequin challenge.
The popular challenge on social media demands a group of people to stand still while a camera walks around them.
On Thursday, the organization had the challenge of coordinating over 300 people to stay still for three minutes while a camera person walked around Rosa Parks Circle. The attendees were broken up in groups and placed next to the stage, the stairs at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and in bright yellow chairs with a LaughFest smile on them.
Wendy Wigger, the President of Gilda’s Club, says Gilda’s Club aims to the make the kickoff event inclusive to all members of the community.
“By having a community challenge, we really have a opportunity to engage everybody and have everybody come out and have a little fun,” said Wigger.
Wigger says the kickoff event helps set the mood for the festival.
“Every time we’ve kicked off the festival we’ve had the opportunity to do something fun and silly and get people in the spirit for 10 days of everything fun and funny,” said Wigger.
Gilda’s Club has always launched LaughFest with event that the community can be involved in. In past years, the festival started with the throwing of rubber chickens, wearing animal noses, and wearing sunglasses at night.
With the numerous events and comedians coming to Grand Rapids, LaughFest wants to accommodate all tastes in comedy across the 10 day festival. From family friendly events like Super Saturday Kids Zone, to a 5K underwear run, to more adult comedians stopping by like Sinbad.
“We may laugh at different things, but we all do laugh. LaughFest has been very purposeful in bringing something for everyone,” said Wigger.
Some of the top featured stars in this year’s festival includes: Joel McHale, Pete Holmes, Kate Willams and more.
LaughFest will run from March 9th to March 19th. You can find all the LaughFest community events on their website.
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