Advertisement

Potato-salad Kickstarter guy throws huge potato party, invites 'the whole internet'

Potato-salad Kickstarter guy throws huge potato party, invites 'the whole internet'

Earlier this summer, we shared the story of Zack Danger Brown and his inexplicably successful potato-salad Kickstarter campaign.

What began as a simple goal to make the summer side dish for the first time — he hoped to raise $10 to cover ingredient costs — turned into a viral movement.

When the campaign came to an end, Brown had raised a whopping $55,492 from 6,911 backers.

That’s a lot of potato salad.

To celebrate, Brown is inviting “the entire Internet" to a potato salad charity event — dubbed PotatoStock 2014 — in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday.

"I invited the whole Internet. So if a percentage of the billion or so show up, we should get a few million, which might be a problem because we only have one bar," Brown admitted.

The all-ages event is free and will feature five bands, food trucks, beer vendors, potato sack races, and 300 pounds of potato salad.

Potato salad enthusiasts will also be able to purchase T-shirts with the slogan “Peace, Love and Potato Salad” scrawled across them.

Kickstarter allows participants to make a personal profit off their campaigns as long as they fulfill all their fundraising promises. With his profits, Brown is partnering with the Columbus Foundation to establish a fund that will help local charities fight hunger and homelessness.

The account was started with $20,000 in post-campaign corporate donations. Proceeds from PotatoStock will also go to the account.

"His fund will have potential way after this potato salad is forgotten," Lisa Jolley, the foundation’s director of donors and development, told the Columbus Dispatch.

One of Brown’s promises to donors was that he would say their names out loud as he made the potato salad. Watch him do so below. (Warning: The video is 3 hours and 45 minutes long.)

“The thing that is the most shocking to me is how much I’ve enjoyed this from the word go,” Brown told the Columbus Dispatch.

“I just had no idea this was something I was capable of.”

If only we lived closer to Columbus….