Designer Marc Ecko To 'Get Up' With Urban Legends And Hip-Hop Heavyweights At 1st Ever Graffiti Block Party
August 24th Street Festival to Merge Old and New Schools of Urban Culture
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(New York, NY), July 29, 2005 - Marc Ecko, designer and "Navigator of Youth Culture," is set to recruit the legends of Hip-Hop culture for the upcoming Marc Ecko's Getting Up Block Party. The first-of-it-kind street festival, free to the public and held August 24th on 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues from 12:00PM - 8:00PM, will feature graffiti demonstrations, live DJs and surprise musical performances in celebration of the golden age of Hip-Hop. The event coincides with the anticipated release of Atari's graffiti-based videogame, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.
As a throwback to graffiti's glory days, "Marc Ecko's Getting Up Block Party" will feature ten 48-foot-long by 8-foot-high replicas of the legendary NYC transit blue-bird subway cars Ed Walker, Jr., which will be transformed into contemporary urban works of art by renowned graffiti writers. A lineup of legendary artists, from the notorious 'Bronx bomber and destroyer' COPE2 to T-KID (Terrible Kid), who first started writing on trains as early as 1974, will spend the day doing full color murals on the vintage trains.
Other participating graf writers include DASH, WEST, CES, SONIC, IZ THE WIZ, MIN, DURO, WANE, WEN, DERO, CYCLE, SMITH, PINK, DOC, KEL 1st, MARE139, CRASH, DAZE, SUB, GHOST, and the famous TATS CREW.
Blue-birds, a high point of nostalgia for historians and artists alike, were often used as an urban canvas by graffiti writers throughout the 1980s before blasting machines and buffers were used to strip them clean, effectively putting an end to the era of graffiti artwork on the sides of trains.
"Graffiti is without question the most powerful art movement in recent history and has been a driving inspiration throughout my career," said Marc Ecko, Executive Creative Director for Getting Up. "I'm honored to be bringing its pioneering creative forces together to look back on its tradition and to celebrate its future."
In addition to reviving an old school graffiti tradition, the block party will offer guests the opportunity to participate in live demos of Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure and experience the first truly authentic video game based on urban culture and graffiti. The videogame, which is being published by Atari and developed by The Collective for a Fall 2005 release, brings together over 65 legendary graffiti writers, six of whom will serve as in-game mentors to its protagonist, Trane.
Event sponsors include GameStop Corp., Truth (www.thetruth.com), Toy Tokyo (www.toytokyo.com), Montana paint and Mass Appeal magazine.
About Marc Ecko Enterprises
The youngest member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America's board of directors, Marc Ecko is founder of *ecko unltd., the world famous rhino brand. In eleven years since its creation in 1993, the group of companies that comprise Marc Ecko Enterprises has grown to include: *ecko unltd.® men's and Eckored® women's apparel, as well as outerwear, footwear, watches, eyewear, underwear, belts, bags, hats, small leather goods, formalwear and more. Marc Ecko Enterprises also includes Marc Ecko "Cut & Sew" (a contemporary menswear line launched Fall 2004); G-Unit® clothing and accessories (a joint venture with multi-platinum musician, 50 Cent); Zoo York® (a line of action sports-inspired clothing and accessories); Avirex® Sportswear Collection (a licensed mid-tier brand debuting Spring 2005); and FetishTM (a women's accessories collection developed in conjunction with multimedia icon Eve). The Company also publishes Complex® magazine, a men's consumer magazine with a rate base of 315,000, and is developing Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under PressureTM, the first truly authentic video game based on urban culture and graffiti art debuting in the second half of 2005. *ecko unltd. products are available in over 5,000 stores domestically and in over 45 countries internationally, as well as through 31 of its own retail stores across the country. For additional information, please visit www.marceckoenterprises.com.
About The Collective
Part of Foundation 9 Entertainment, the largest independent game developer in North America, The Collective is a leading independent developer of console video games. The Collective has created groundbreaking third-person action adventure games, including the critically acclaimed Indiana Jones and the Emperor's TombTM, Buffy the Vampire SlayerTM and the soon-to-be-released, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the SithTM. The studio has also developed the world-class SlayerTM game engine and SlayEdTM tool suite. The Collective, along with Backbone Entertainment, Digital Eclipse, Pipeworks, and ImaginEngine make up Foundation 9 Entertainment. The company's labels have developed more than 250 titles, including more than 50 in 2004 alone. The company employs more than 325 employees, and has offices in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Emeryville, Vancouver, Boston, Eugene and Honolulu. The Collective is based in Newport Beach, California, and can be found on the Internet at www.collectivestudios.com.
About Atari
New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company's 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining franchises such as DRIVERTM, The MatrixTM, StuntmanTM and Test Drive®; and mass-market and children's franchises such as Backyard SportsTM, Nickelodeon's Blue's CluesTM and Dora the ExplorerTM, and Dragon Ball Z®. Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext - ISIN: FR-0000052573), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com.
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CONTACT: Clint Cantwell | 917-262-1110 | clintc@ecko.com