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Before you call the health inspector (or the exorcist), rest assured: the blood is fake. With that in mind, it's time to start digging through your boxes of patent leather and furry boots and prepare to get drenched at the Blade Rave, New York's ultimate Comic Con kickoff party. This Friday, you'll be able to relive the darkest nights of the ’90s at a meticulously detailed rager that pays tribute to the vampire club scene that opens 1998's Blade. Geeks, ravers, cinephiles and creatures of the night can dance in beautiful, bloody harmony and get in the dark spirit before Halloween.
To fully recreate the rave culture experience, obsessive organizers BBQ Films have recruited electro legends the Crystal Method to headline the bloody night, and will have Wesley Snipes' signature vamp-hunter movie projecting on loop in the background. While you dance like there's no millennium, costumed actors, dancers and swordfighters will reenact definitive moments from the film all around you, and vampire pinups will be on hand to pose for a photo. VIP "Pureblood" partygoers can even opt to have their clothes dry-cleaned the next day by errand-running app Alfred. Yeah, they've thought of everything.
If you're not down to get slathered in sticky red stuff, fear not: the blood will only rain in designated "splash zones." But if you're looking to dance close with fellow fangbangers on the dancefloor, then there's no guarantee your duds are safe from secondhand blood.
BBQ Films has been staging "interactive cinema" events since their first rooftop cookoff/screening in 2007, but the stakes of their shindigs have clearly escalated exponentially with every passing year. In 2013, they commandeered a luxury yacht for the the Holiday on Fhloston Paradise Fifth Element bash. Last fall, they threw a massive Back to the Future-inspired Enchantment Under the Sea dance party at a high school gymnasium, complete with faculty chaperones, prom voting and a DeLorean. The Blade Rave promises to be their their sickest shindig yet.
Early Bite tickets for the rave have sold out, but you can still grab $56 "Vampires & Familiars" tickets, which gets you into the party, and includes an event poster and other merch. True immortals can opt in for the V.I.P. "Pureblood" ticket, which grants you access to special zones, exclusive performances, gifts and next-day dry cleaning. $1 from each ticket will fittingly benefit the American Red Cross.
Doors open at Terminal 5 one hour after sundown, which should be around 7:30pm, and the party will run late. Prepare to mortify your fellow 4am subway passengers at the end of the night. You can learn more and purchase your tickets here.