Rise of the Robots Skytrain Party

Rise of the Robots Skytrain Party: Photographs by Andrew Ferguson

Organized by newmindspace and taking place the night before the 2006 Vancouver Zombiewalk, the Rise of the Robots Skytrain party ensured that the weekend would be more interesting than a hovercraft full of undergarment-impaired schoolgirls and the Thundercats. Having experienced both, I can accurately say that the robot-slash-zombie weekend was way more fun. Lion-O is such a dick.

While initially gathering at VCC Clark Skytrain station at around 8:45pm to be ready in time for our 9:09pm departure, I was worried that the turnout would be pretty small. These worries turned out to be unfounded about five minutes later when I happened to look up from photographing a child in aluminum foil bracers with a bubble gun to notice the platform was packed. I ran into a friend of mine, Amanda Schindelka, and also managed to get the DJ and the organizers hooked up. Amusingly enough, they were standing at opposite ends of the platform each waiting for the other to show up.

I also ran into a fellow photographer, whose name I did not catch, that I attempted to lend a spare CompactFlash card to. I managed to time it right with my girlfriend running down to Commercial station to deliver it to me, but the photographer was in a different car and didn’t make it back on the train before we left Rupert. So, anonymous photographer, my sincerest apologies but I did make the effort to help you out. Hopefully you find this.

We were initially waiting for one of the newer trains with the long continuous cars, but the Skytrain police informed us none would be coming. We were a few minutes late getting started, but I managed to get on the same car as the organizers and the DJ since I’d been talking with them. I haven’t heard accounts from the other cars, but I can definitely say this was the car to be in.

The bumping beats, insanely packed crowds, impromptu crowdsurfing, and the fact that there were more cameras documenting the event than people at the event made it hilarious and fun. I was initially skeptical, because newmindspace does need seem to do a lot of original things. They follow the usual pillow fights/bubble battles/transit parties events that most “community fun organizations” do, but none of the insane originality that ImprovEverywhere possesses. This bias was further reinforced by the initial rush of very young people, early high-schoolers, that I saw participating. What can I say, I’m age-ist. I was pleasantly surprised though, because all of my worries were for nothing.

That’s about it. I hope to have my ZombieWalk 2006 photos up shortly and to document further local events such as this. Also, I’m going to extend a hooker-and-blow-free welcome to the influx of Metroblogging Vancouver readers I’ve gotten this afternoon. Apparently I’ve been sitting next to the girlfriend of one of their writers at work and never knew it. Unfortunately, this doesn’t get me the hookers and blow I bribed the Metblogs staff with back. This is why I have none for you.

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