2024 is the Year of the (Foam) Dragon!

Year of the dragon foam party

It was September 1st, 2023, the last Day of the Canadian National Exhibition. I attended with my sister, my daughter and my granddaughter. We had a great time trying out the dill pickle candy floss and the cheeseburger ice cream, although we all agreed that the ice cream was a horrible fail. We love the CNE, and it’s a tradition for us to go every summer. First it was just my sister and I enjoying time together, wasting money like drunken sailors on the carnival games and the casino. Soon my daughter started joining in the fun. Now my granddaughter has joined our gang of sketch bags.  If I had one criticism about the CNE, there aren’t enough new and exciting things showcased from year to year. So many vendors and so many attractions are the same every year, in the same spot, selling the same stuff. Back in the day, a national exhibition was where the latest and greatest was introduced to the world. The telephone, the color television, and touchscreens were all unveiled to the world at fairs. Cherry Coke and ice cream were invented specifically for fairs.  After closing the CNE, exhausted and money all gone, my sister and I took the train home. We were discussing that a foam party attraction was missing from the CNE. The visual appeal alone of the foam flying through the air creating a foam zone where participants could dance, cool off from the heat, and just experience the sensation of being covered in fun foam.

It was from this visit to the CNE, and the discussion on the train ride home, that I decided to start a foam party business. At fairs or festivals, participants would pay 10 bucks to enter the foam zone for 20 minutes of foam fun.

 I thought it would be fun to have the foam spewing from a dragon’s mouth to add some excitement and personality to the attraction. A dragon roar would be heard between the blasting party songs. I created dragon heads out of light weight material to cover the foam cannons. I registered a patent for foam cannon character covers, whether it's a shark, dolphin, blowfish....you get he idea.

I had no idea that my first year in business would be  'The Year of the Dragon’. Incidentally, I was also born in the year of the dragon, so it looks like an interesting year ahead!

Chuck the foaming dragon

Gracie the foaming dragon

Gracie's first day on the job.

The colors yellow and blue are considered lucky in the year of the dragon. I honestly had no idea when I painted Chuck the dragon. Go figure! In Chinese culture, the dragon did not breathe fire, but clouds. The dragon controlled the weather. He rose from the sea and breathed clouds to provide the much needed rain.

Who knew? Our foaming Dragons breathe clouds of foam to provide much needed fun!

The History of Foam Parties

The first foam party ever

Foam Party’s were first introduced to the world in a 1932 short movie called 'Rhapsody in Black and Blue' wherein Louis Armstrong is playing his trumpet and singing & dancing in a room filled with soap suds.

Foam returns in a 1968 movie called

‘The Party’ starring Peter Sellers.

The origins of Foam Parties

Modern foam parties began in Ibiza, a small Island off the cost of Spain that has always been famous for its nightlife and electronic dance club scene. The oldest and most famous dance club, Amnesia, opened in 1976. Club promoters for Amnesia in the early 1990’s

The Origins of Foam Parties

created large foam generators that were mounted on the ceilings creating a mountain of foam that fell onto the partiers below. The foam was an instant hit! A few companies in the United Kingdom worked on perfecting these large foam generators as the foam club craze spread across Europe and the United Kingdom. Amnesia night club in Ibiza, with capacity for 5,000 partiers, is still going strong and has been voted best nightclub in the world several times.

Paris Hilton hosting a Foam Party

Amnesia even brought in Paris Hilton as a guest DJ for a foam party in 2017. A google search shows that Amnesia night club currently has foam parties twice a week during the summer tourist season. This shows that people love foam and that it's more than just a fad.

Today, companies like ‘Foam Daddy’ in Arizona are producing high quality portable foam cannons that can shoot foam over 30 feet through the air. This has created an exciting growing market for private backyard foam parties to celebrate birthdays, graduations, gender reveals (colored foam) etc.

Foam zones are showing up everywhere. From fairs and festivals to daycares and community events.

It looks like foam parties are here to stay!

How I Got Into The Foam Party Business

Welcome to the Foamingdragon.com first blog post. I decided to start this blog to let interested folks know how I got into the foam party business. I also wanted to have a record of the challenges and triumphs, successes and failures that I face venturing into this new business.

A few months ago, I was on my favorite auction website looking for deals on furniture and home décor. It’s a site that auctions off items from large retailers that can’t be sold for various reasons: the items are out of the original box, returned items or slightly damaged items. I was scrolling through the auction items, and I came across a little foam machine from Little Tikes called 'Foamo foam machine'.

How I started in the foam party business

I have two granddaughters that I love to do fun things with, so I thought I would bid on this little foam machine that was being auctioned. Seeing this little foam machine triggered a special memory I had with my granddaughter a few years back. I took my then 3-year-old granddaughter to Canadas Wonderland amusement park. It was a special kids’ day at the park and they brought in some extra activities for the kids. This included a little foam area where kids could walk through a partitioned foam area and play in the foam. This was a huge hit! Not just for my granddaughter, but for all the kids that were playing in the foam. I couldn’t get her out of the foam. She absolutely loved it! It was interesting to me that at an amusement park with so many fun rides and kids’ attractions, that it was the little foam pit that was the biggest hit of the day!

Little Tikes Foam machine

I googled the reviews for the ‘Little Tikes Foamo machine’ and soon realized that the foam output was way too low to create any level of fun or excitement for the kids. However, my search for foam and foam machines brought me across something that really piqued my interest. I found out about an emerging foam party industry that included backyard parties, festival events, day care and school events, community events and so much more. You could purchase a foam cannon that could shoot foam over 30 feet through the air and stack up the foam area for kids of all ages to play in.

I learned about glow in the dark foam parties and gender reveal

Young people enjoying a Foam Party

parties with pink or blue foam. I had been looking for a side hustle for several years and the more I thought about foam parties, the more I wanted to start my own foam party business.

You are essentially in the entertainment business, bringing joy to people and having fun at the same time. That’s the kind of business that I want to be in!

Amusement Park Foam Party