Boing Boing Picnic: fire-eaters, dirigibles, magic, and mutants

Xeni Jardin

1:13 pm Mon, Jul 12, 2010

(photos: Daisy with fire by Alexia Tsotsis/Andy Wright of SF Weekly. At left, BB banner and Boinged-out Doughboy by bgreensf)

We had so much fun at the first-ever Boing Boing Picnic (actually, the first meatspace BB event of any kind!) in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park this weekend. Good heavens, where to begin. Several hundred Boing Boing readers gathered at Doughboy Meadow for fun, food, and what truly felt like an offline manifestation of the eclectic, random, shamelessly dorky stuff you find here on the blog.

Here’s the SF Weekly photo gallery and report!

Some highlights:

• A young woman named Daisy did a fire-eating performance inside a little redwood grove off to the side of the meadow.
• Doctor Popular and pals gave us a live show of Knifetank, which they developed for BB’s Music Inspired by Games competition. The award-winning yo-yo master also did a yo-yo show.

• A gopher joined the party, and periodically popped his head up from his subterranean home.

• Some really cool guys who are building a very ambitious dirigible project for Burning Man called the Airship Victoria brought a balloon to the picnic, and did aerial tests.

• A lady who makes Periodic Table of Elements Tarot Cards gave readings.

• A guy who makes palm-sized Godzilla busts and crystal skulls filled with jellybeans brought both, and handed them out as gifts.

• A master Grilled Cheese Chef made delicious sandwiches on a specially-modded grill hauled to the park for this very occasion.

• Star Trek babies!

• Steampunk watches!

I’m sure I forgot something or someone. If you were there, please remind me in the comments. And if you took photos or video, or have other reflections to share, please do so.

Special thanks to Dean Putney and Lisa Katayama, the event organizers. And huge thanks to all of our reader-friends who joined us. To those who could not, we hope to arrange some fun events in other cities around the world.

PHOTO GALLERIES around the web: Dean Putney, KentB, BgreenSF, rragan, Xeni Jardin, Jason DeFillippo.