Humble Beginnings
The Roots of AudioLympics
AudioLympics was originally founded as "Audible Carnage" in 2018 and hosted it's inaugural event on February 25th of that year. The event stemmed from the ongoing difficulties met when hosting car audio shows in and around the Houston area without getting cited for noise violations, or worse, shut down mid-event by local law enforcement.
Founder Paul Galanos spent weeks reaching out to venues, studying local laws and ordinances that posed an issue when hosting loud events. Finally, when he arrived at a dead end and almost gave up, it occurred to him that he should reach out directly to local law enforcement to see if they could be of assistance to the cause.
Lo and behold they offered a low cost solution with over 150,000 square feet of room for outdoor activities perfectly suited for a massive car audio showcase!
The Weird Success Story
The original Audible Carnage event in 2018 was a weather-related horror story. A one day event that saw torrential down pours of rain for 80% of the day, this maiden venture saw a community of car audio enthusiasts seeking shelter, sharing canopies, sacrificing equipment and coming together as one to eventually pull off the single largest attendance numbers at a purely car audio show in recent Texas history with a total gate count of 397 adults.
USACi held down the competition aspect of the event with nearly a hundred registered competitors. The food was moist, puddles were a mess, but the wow factor cemented Audible Carnage as THE go-to annual event for car audio in and around the Houston area. Spectators & enthusiasts couldn't believe how big the turnout was; the event even pulled in over 30 attendees from out of state!
Round Two: Team Fest!
Having some of the most populous and dominant competitive teams in the entire country, Texas is a HEAVY state for audio competition, so we figured the coolest thing to do for the second installment is gear the next Audible Carnage event solely around the "team" concept. Enter round two, Audible Carnage presents Team Fest 2019, held on March 24th.
Another disaster saw "Mom Bass", Jenissa Lillard from USACi, in the hospital at the last minute leaving only one show judge, whom was later discovered to have pneumonia, to facilitate a bass competition that saw well over 100 entries in one day leading into the wee hours of the night. The event ran way longer than expected, but was a WILD success seeing 697 through the gate in one day, nearly doubling the previous year's number.
The Great Compromise & Defeat
As if Carnage needed more problems, here comes the pandemic of all our lifetime's... Yup, COVID-19 saw closings of public facilities, cancelled events, mass quarantines, and a slowly crashing economy. Public gatherings all but disappeared for 2 full years. Here and there you'd see public gatherings with abysmal turnouts and even getting shut down for the most outlandish of reasons.
Carnage founder Paul Galanos & team tried every way possible to keep the dream alive, but there was no way, and they felt it best just to try to weather the storm and be patient. Turns out, interest in such events would take a long time to flourish back to pre-pandemic magnitudes. And just like that, it was all over. Audible Carnage had become history. No Donut Burgers from Foreign Policy Food Truck anymore either (that may have been the worst part).
The Birth of AudioLympics & a Dynasty
Cut to the early summer of 2022 and the car audio world had begun to have just about enough of all the silliness and it was time to re-birth the public gathering and get loud again. Hibernation was over. Back to the drawing board, the Audible Carnage branding was awarded to a local startup competition organization and a new name was introduced to freshen things up a bit. AudioLympics was born. What a great way to describe a show of such historical magnitude in terms of attendance, competitive spirit & community!
This TWO-DAY event on Thanksgiving weekend in 2022 saw 1,022 adults through the gate with over 120 competition entries shared by db Drag & the new local competition organization, Audible Carnage! Smashing yet another personal best, AudioLympics 2022 - Demo Fest was yet another wild success!