{"id":661382,"date":"2026-05-24T00:25:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T00:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661382\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T00:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T00:25:23","slug":"photos-arcata-plaza-doused-in-glory-as-kinetic-sculptures-make-their-start-on-three-day-odyssey-lost-coast-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661382\/","title":{"rendered":"PHOTOS: Arcata Plaza Doused in Glory as Kinetic Sculptures Make Their Start on Three Day Odyssey | Lost Coast Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Team Half-Fast\u2019s Wheely Wonka does wheelies at the plaza Saturday. Photos by Sage Alexander<\/p>\n

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The 2026 Kinetic Grand Championship went off with a siren Saturday at the Arcata Plaza.<\/p>\n

Racers showed off human powered sculptures tinkered on for months (or frantically glued together in days) to judges and hundreds of onlookers.<\/p>\n

The sculptures underwent safety checks and a brake test, and teams showed off their engineering, art and pageantry to judges wielding clipboards and wearing white lab coats.<\/p>\n

Teams sped around the plaza after the traditional noon Goddess siren and began the 50 mile championship that will end Monday in Ferndale.<\/p>\n

For the full spectators guide, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n


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The Apple Pedalers\u2019 Trooth Decay is in it \u201cfor the money,\u201d according to team members. They sprayed equal parts unknown smelly substance and misinformation.<\/p>\n


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SLUG Life wowed spectators with bling and bits of ecology appropriate for the redwood forest floor.<\/p>\n


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Captain Malia Matsumoto pilots Rocket Ham for team Hamtastic Glory, looking to again ACE the race.<\/p>\n


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DragStrip Divas whip their sculpture around the block.<\/p>\n


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A crowd gathers to watch the DragStrip Divas perform a choreographed dance and lip synch, serving hot rod realness with local drag artist Komboujia.<\/p>\n


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The kinetic fairy godmother speaks to a spectator.<\/p>\n


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Team Tempus Fugitives, on the Four Norsemen of the Apocalypse. Peons beat war drums for the Viking themed battering ram.<\/p>\n


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Crowd favorite Yeastie Boys\u2019 Brass Monkey declared no sleep \u2018til Ferndale.<\/p>\n


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Bosozuko (AKA Reckless Driving Crew)<\/p>\n


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The backside of Lucy (of The Beatles hit \u2018Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds\u2019), featuring Kaleidoscopic eyes.<\/p>\n


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Lucy\u2019s Kaleidoscopic eyes.<\/p>\n


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Flying bagel launched by the \u2018Ccino Machino.<\/p>\n


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The Shoe Shine & the Heel n Soles, which suffered a malfunction while careening around the plaza but marched on minutes later.<\/p>\n


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Sequoia Humane Society\u2019s Home Base.<\/p>\n


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Bone Shaker, captained by Duane Flatmo.<\/p>\n


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Teams bribed onlookers and judges.<\/p>\n


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The Rebel Appliance prepares to be judged.<\/p>\n


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The Rebel Appliance, a \u201cculinary \u2019droid from a galaxy not so far away.\u201d<\/p>\n


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Kinetic traffic controllers urged spectators to move off the road before sculptures began barreling around the plaza.<\/p>\n


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Glory as the Magic School Bus.<\/p>\n


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A man tinkers with a bike chain.\u00a0<\/p>\n


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Adoptable dogs strode down the street, closely following Sparky the Magnificent.<\/p>\n


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Team 420\u2019s Hippypotamus.<\/p>\n


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HMS Sea Cow for team Needs More Cowbell, which boasts ACEing every existing race in the USA.<\/p>\n


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Spectators swarmed the plaza, looking for a view of the sculptures during the Kinetic Swarm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Team Half-Fast\u2019s Wheely Wonka does wheelies at the plaza Saturday. Photos by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-661382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}