Among the new attractions greeting patrons at this year’s Riot Fest has been a larger-than-life statue of the event’s favorite Greek god, actor and singer John Stamos, sculpted in what appears to be butter.
But since it was first seen during the fest’s launch on Friday, the statue has endured temperatures approaching 90 degrees, and then several downpours — conditions no dairy-based artwork could withstand. Meanwhile, fans at Douglass Park have been applying band stickers to the sculpture.
If you think it’s butter, sorry … it’s not. It’s something tougher.
“Axtell Expressions in Columbia, Tennessee, designed the Stamos sculpture in 3-D and worked with Artisan Industry to output it in foam and resin to withstand the weather,” Riot Fest Creative Director Jeremy Scheuch explained Sunday.
A genuine butter Stamos did exist once, the result of the festival’s long obsession with the actor and his fictitious band from the sitcom “Full House.”
“We kind of started it, God, 10 or 11 years ago — about getting Jessie and the Rippers back together. And it kind of took off as a joke and just snowballed,” Scheuch said.
When the reunion proved impossible, a new idea formed. Riot Fest co-founder “Riot Mike” Petryshyn views the event as “kind of like a state fair — but at a punk rock fest,” Scheuch said. “And what do state fairs have? They have butter sculptures.”
Scheuch researched butter sculptors “and I found a guy named Jim Victor. He came out and made an actual sculpture out of actual butter.”
The objet d’art was exhibited at the 2013 festival, and Stamos himself tweeted that it left him feeling “flattered & pretty frightened.”
“Someone actually took [the original butter sculpture] home with them after the fest,” Scheuch recalled. “I don’t know what they did with it and, honestly, I’m afraid to ask.”
Stamos, a sometimes Beach Boys drummer and Greek yogurt pitchman, has maintained a good sense of humor about all the homage, responding to this year’s new sculpture by posting, “I’ve had some nice accolades and acknowledgments over the years, and this ain’t one of them!”
“He loves it. He thinks its funny,” Scheuch said with a chuckle. “We’ve tried to get John out himself. But he’s a busy man! He’s got like four TV shows, he’s in that band, he’s got a kid.
“But it’s the world’s largest John Stamos statue, I would imagine. And we own it. We own a 10-foot-tall John Stamos ‘butter’ statue! And now it’s gonna be here every year.”