The Force Was With Them - Maybe Too Much Force

nice photos, looks like a lot of fun. did you get a sword? did you ever see that triumph the comic dog skit outside the premiere of star wars... kinda reminds me of that, except the mosh pit part.

Did Darth Vader make an appearance?

I didn't see Darth Vader, although he may have made a cameo. I was surprised to see Princess Leah there.

That's me on the far left...looking scared. Trying to avoid getting my hand cut off with cardboard cuts.

That looks like total fun mayhem!

I don't know, it got a little scary when the crowd went into crush mode. Nothing bad came of it which is great, but a bit more crowd control next time - or something resembling a plan - wouldn't hurt.

It's unfortunate that NMS's popularity has outgrown their ability to throw a safe event, just wish that Kevin would realize this and put a lot more effort into organizing & planning an appropriate volunteer corps to work these things, as it is everything is so ad hoc, even if one wanted to volunteer to do concrete stuff to help out they rarely are set up for it, in this case they had volunteers painting tubes beforehand but no one for crowd control, understaffed for tube distribution and so on.

While the event turned out peaceful, there was opportunity for it to have easily gotten out of hand. The mosh pit was unexpected. As was the ferociousness of some of the sabre-wielding participants. Didn't they read the memo prior to the event?

Rules:
1. SWING LIGHTLY. The fun will last the longest if you duel gently, hitting other tubes, not people so much!
2. NO STABBING. Really, be nice!
3. NOT THE NECK/FACE/HEAD! If you insist on hitting people lightly, please keep it below the neck.
4. NO PHYSICAL CONTACT except displays of affection :)
5. COSTUMES ENCOURAGED, so bust out that Darth Vader helmet!

I saw one girl get a ticket for drinking in public and another young man led away in handcuffs without a fuss, but I'm not sure why.

Imagine the uproar if an overzealous police officer tried to control the well-meaning crowd and used a Taser?

thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful...

Great fun, glad to see that the very first Lightsabre battle at Celebration Europe has inspired so many folks to go out and do the same. Brilliant, things like this should be organised all around the world.

That's neat. Do you have a link or any photos from that event, Mark?

Roger, why on earth wasn't the content in your comment (4 above this one) included in the original post? Instead of glad handing Kevin like your mouth is on his, erm, light saber, why don't you state plainly and up front that NMS has some big fucking issues it needs to address if they're to hit puberty in their own mindspace?

People were arrested? People were playing to violently? There was a god damn mosh pit? This is the kind of thing that should be included in the actual post. You could've copied your comment, verbatim, and it would've fit nicely. Instead you play it safe, perhaps in the hopes that you won't upset Kevin and Lori? FUCK whatever they think, your job should be to report this kind of thing.

I think my original post and the images speak for themselves.

There was a huge turnout and some people got rather carried away in all the excitement. There didn't appear to be any malicious violence either. So why glorify that aspect of it?

The rules, as stated in my previous comment, were clearly listed in the Facebook event which I linked to. The organizers, while shortsighted about crowd control, had no way of knowing that a frenzied few would potentially create an environment that's dangerous to the majority of others.

It's up to the organizers to decide if they've got issues and take the necessary steps to prevent any negative outcome at future events like this.

My job is to report on things how I see them. Were you even at the event?