Part performance art, part social experiment, part essential service, part trust-game, coat check is a fun way we engage with as many people as possible around the festival (everyone's got a coat!). Dancing at a festival can be tricky, especially in the evenings, as you inevitably generate heat and need to remove a layer of clothing. More often than not, this problem is solved by dozens if not hundreds of folks 'stashing' their favorite sweater/coat/costume/prop near a speaker/post/bush. Roving Coat Check aims to solve that problem! We encourage folks to stash their belongings with us, at no charge (We are very explicitly FREE SERVICE). 

Sometimes we diligently take note of a participant's information (their name, where they’re staying, contact info, etc.). Sometimes we play a trust/memory game with them, with their consent and at their direction, wherein we negotiate an alternative way of returning their belongings. This can look like an agreed upon meeting location/time, both specific or general. “We’ll be at ‘dance floor X’ at midnight onward. Come find us there!” This engages festival-goers in a way that stage-performances just can’t, offering them an opportunity to participate in the performance and trusting us with their belongings in a way we are encouraged *not* to do in our day-to-day lives. Generally, we find that people have a moment of confusion, as they understand what a coat check is, they just can't comprehend what it’s doing *here*.

 The performance aspect is in us running around, yelling (in a positive, encouraging fashion) at 'potential customers'. There is a tongue-in-cheek, sometimes cartoonish, 'business professionalism' upheld by Coat-checks staff at all times. This can look like attempts to convince folks to invest in coat check, or embellished testimonials, etc. All of this is improvised and ad hoc.  We also try to take on 'interns', which are people we will have just met, likely in an interaction of trying to check their coat, and bring them on as staff for part or the remainder of the event. We confidently boast a 100% return rate of all belongings, and have gone to great and strenuous lengths to return lost articles of clothing to people, sometimes in other countries. 

Coatcheck has been to several countries, existing in new iterations in each location as it becomes inaccessible to re-locate the existing prop. This also presents an opportunity to make design changes that are more appropriate to the specific event and event-site.