Cut that jibba jabba! It’s time for Fools Fest 2015 and it will be a big one! Go, go gadget go!

This will be the 38th Fools Fest, so we decided to go revisit our early days– we’ll be taking you back to the 80s all weekend long. That’s right folks. Get ready for a weekend full of 80s tunes, legwarmers, animal print clothing, rubber bracelets, John Hughes movies, side ponytails, and more! You’re probably thinking that surely we can’t be serious. Well we are and stop calling us Shirley!

The bid theme is 80s. Your bid needs to reference your team theme, the bid theme, and of course explain what foolish game you plan to play this year. But don’t worry, you won’t have to forgo your longstanding theme, but we want to explore the Yard $ales of the 80s for some truly epic deals, the Virginia Gentlemen back in their Hooligan days, the Hipsters before they were ‘cool’, and Flash Tacos before they were flashing.

Yes, we are bringing back the foolish game from last year. Each round of ultimate play will be immediately followed by an act of foolishness between the two teams. Your bid can be a video showing your game, a PowerPoint, a text document, or anything else that strikes your fancy. Keep it short, as anything too long will be annoying for us to read/watch. We ask that you be as creative as possible and remind you those props are not only allowed, but also highly encouraged! This will be a big factor for both the bid selection as well as this year’s Spirit Awards. Remember, the power is yours!

We are looking to expand the beer garden this year and are planning to bring in tons more fun stuff. Look for things such as giant Jenga, ping pong balls, corn hole, and more!

Like in previous years, Fool’s Fest will feature 3 divisions of play – open, mixed, and women’s; you may submit a bid to any division, but you may not submit a bid to more than one division.

We are continuing the two bid window process from last year. All bids submitted by February 2nd will be considered early. This means three things – 1) your bid is cheaper ($550), 2) you cannot get rejected in the early bid selection, only accepted or waitlisted for the 2nd round and 3) if you so choose, to better your chances for acceptance, you may adjust your bid or switch your bid from one division to a less competitive (bid-wise) division. For any teams that don’t submit during the first window, the bid will be $600 and due by February 17th.

Remember to please keep in mind that no club teams or pro teams are ever accepted for this tournament. Bids are accepted based on a mix of the following criteria: geographic diversity, school/origin variation, strength of bid gimmick response, competitiveness of your team, and how willing your team is to help out at the tournament (such as helping staff with tourney set-up and clean-up, parking duty in the AM, cleaning up the beer garden at the end of the day, checking IDs at the beer garden, et cetera. Volunteering for less fun tasks is viewed more favorably by the staff volunteers than volunteering for the beer garden only, but if you volunteer for something, be ready to do it). We will let the accepted teams know by February 22nd. Those teams will need to confirm their acceptance of the bid by February 27th.

Now you know and knowing is half the battle. This message will self-destruct in 30 seconds.