My thoughts on the event as tell it 2:40 AM Saturday Morning.

[dennis]

The following paragraph is from my social network website, 2001aspaceodyssey.ning.com:

"Well, I been working since 7 am Friday night at NASA/Ames and made it to Yuri’s Night to 2:30 AM, Saturday morning. The hanger and airfield is about a city block from my building. Although there is 3-1/2 hours of more electronic music left and more science demos to explore, I’m exhausted. Our center director, Pete Worden came out on stage as a Wizard (complete with a pointy hat) after Plaid finished their set. He was diffidently playing the part of the Yuri’ Night groove. All day, and all week before preparations were made, I heard worries about ravers getting out of hand on federal grounds but that didn’t happen. It was more of an open party between young and old and in-between spacing out on with each other. It seemed like everyone was having a great time.
I talked to the NASA police officers this evening as well as other Ames employees and it feels like a success story. I have a feeling that there will be another event like Yuri’s Night next year.
If anyone was at the event please feel free to post your thoughts.
Look for pictures of Yuri's Night at www.yurisnight.net."

The pros and cons of the event will eventually come out. But despite some logistic problems, the evening was relatively peaceful and it was nice to see a mixture of people having fun. As I said on my ning.com site, "Think of Burning Man meets NASA (or was that the other way around?)." I think NASA/Ames probably learned something that night as in terms of marketing - It's probably why the Center Director, Pete Worden took a risk granting the Yuri's Night party. Yuri's Night is a brillant idea that resonates with me with my "2001" campaign of the late 90s and early 00s.

[Terry Boblet]

Great story Dennis! I didn't see you much when we were there but we had a great time and so did our other friends. The center directors went all out and it was well worth attending. Best time I ever had!