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Short answer: The Josh battlefield was at Air Park in Lincoln, Nebraska, on April 24, 2021
Details:
On April 24, 2020, a civil engineering student called Josh Swain from Tucson, Arizona, conceived the event. It became well-known after a screenshot of a Facebook Messenger group chat between many people called Josh Swain went viral.
Swain invited chat members to gather at a specific location and contest for the privilege to call themselves “Josh.” Despite the fact that the event was intended to be a prank, it garnered a crowd of about a thousand people on the day of the event. Despite the title, the event was lighthearted and contained no actual violence. The Wall Street Journal wrote that the event became a “global news phenomenon” while a technology writer for The Guardian called it “perhaps the ultimate response to an online doppelgänger.”
Origin of josh fight
On April 24, 2020, several Facebook Messenger users named Josh Swain were added to a group chat that read,
– You’re probably wondering why I’ve gathered you all here today
– Because we all share the same names….?
– Precisely, 4/24/2021, 12:00 PM, meet at these coordinates, (40.8223286°N 96.7982002°W) we fight, whoever wins gets to keep the name, everyone else has to change their name, you have a year to prepare, good luck
Swain said the event was born out of boredom during the COVID-19 lockdowns and anger at not being able to have an exclusive handle on social media owing to the huge number of people who shared his name, but he didn’t anticipate the invitation to go viral. The next day, Swain shared a screenshot of the exchange on Twitter. Within two weeks, the tweet had over 64 thousand likes and 21 thousand retweets.
Despite Swain’s claim that the tweet was “entirely a joke,” the exchange became a social media trend. Swain came to Reddit a few days before the event to announce a fundraising for the Children’s Hospital & Medical Center (CH&MC) Foundation in Omaha, as well as a plea for non-perishable food donations to launch a food drive for the Food Bank of Lincoln. Swain advised guests to bring pool noodles as imitation weapons for the planned fight in the same article.
Due to its central location within the United States, Swain chose Lincoln, Nebraska as the venue for the event, with the particular, randomly chosen coordinates being located in a field on private land. The owner of the field, however, refused to host “such a stupid event,” thus the battle was moved to Air Park, about 2.6 miles (4.2 km) away.
Josh fight event
Nearly a thousand people gathered at Air Park on the designated day, including at least 50 persons named Josh. Some attendees wore superhero and Star Wars costumes, while some came from as far as New York, Washington, and Texas. Three “fights” were held – one game of rock paper scissors for those named Josh Swain, a second with pool noodles for all attendees named Josh, and a third and final all-in battle for anyone in possession of a pool noodle willing to participate.
Only two people in the audience were named “Josh Swain” – the event’s originator, Josh Swain, beat a rival 38-year-old Josh Swain from Omaha in the rock paper scissors competition. Josh Vinson Jr., dubbed “Little Josh,” a local five-year-old youngster who was treated at the CH&MC for seizures when he was two years old, was selected the overall winner. Burger King presented Vinson Jr. with a paper coronet and a replica AEW World Championship belt. Josh Vinson Sr., Vinson Jr.’s father, said thereafter that his son “had the time of his life.”
The event raised $14,355 for the Children’s Hospital & Medical Center Foundation, significantly exceeding its initial target of $1,000, and collected more than 200 pounds (90 kg) of food for a local food bank. Since then, the CH&MC has expressed gratitude for the fundraiser on social media. Josh Cellars, a California vineyard, agreed to treble the donation by giving $30,000 to the CH&MC on May 6, 2021. [23] The event created a “global news phenomenon,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The following year, on May 21, 2022, Swain planned a second rendition of the event, with donations going to the CH&MC once again.
