Full Bunny Contact pits giant bunnies against humans on a crazed Easter egg hunt (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
FULL BUNNY CONTACT
The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center
107 Suffolk St. between Rivington & Delancey Sts.
April 1-5, $10-$60
www.fullbunnycontact.com
full bunny contact slideshow
Easter is a time of family and tradition, and we have discovered a new holiday tradition that we hope to be part of our family for a long time to come. Full Bunny Contact is a warped carnival of crazed games and oddball prizes, continuing at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center on the Lower East Side through Easter Sunday. Humans in huge, shabby chic bunny suits roam the space, mildly menacing carnies who lend just the right note of wackiness to the numerous carnival tests of strength and skill: In Shoot the Peep, you fire away a paintball rifle at a life-size version of the sweet treat. Bunny Ball involves tossing a football into a basketball hoop being defended by a giant furry bunny, while Egg Putt has no defensive bunnies but does require you to pitch and putt a decidedly nonround rubber egg into a hole. Little Bunny Fu Fu’s Revenge/Warrior Joust lets you and a bunny climb on padded pedestals and attempt to knock the other off. Ride the Rabbit features a mechanical bull with a bunny mask that first moves tamely before twisting and spinning a lot more fiercely. And the premiere event, Full Bunny Contact, is a cage match in which you try to fill your basket with eggs as a team of evil bunnies is out to stop you. You can also take a picture with the Insult Bunny, play rather basic games of ring toss and Tic-Tac-Toe, and get your fortune told by a psychotic bunny who can say and do just about anything, including pound a nail up his nose. Earning a silver or gold egg entitles you to spin the prize wheel to win very kitschy items that look like they’ve been gathering dust in someone’s attic since the 1950s. General admission is $10, and individual game tickets are an additional charge; for $60, you can go hog wild and play everything — and are given a pair of light-up bunny ears as a keepsake of this very different kind of celebration of the resurrection. Special events include a Bunny Beauty Pageant on Thursday night, an egg-decorating contest on Friday, a Temper Tantrum Easter Candy Contest on Saturday afternoon for kids and Saturday night for adults, and a Masters of Egg Putt shootout on Sunday.