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Pilgrimage (demo Party)




Pilgrimage is a Demoparty which takes place annually in Salt Lake City, Utah each Summer . The first event was held in August 2003 , founded by Legalize (Richard Thomson) of the demoscene group Polygony . Pilgrimage is unique in that it is currently (as of 2006 ) the only active demoscene event of its kind in all of North America , while over 70 demoparties take place each year throughout Europe . {Link without Title}


PARTY FEATURES


Competitions

Each year, Pilgrimage hosts a variety of different Compo s, most of which require a skill in electronic art and/or computer programming, such as:

  • Demo

  • Combined Music ( MP3 and tracked music)

  • Pixel Graphics

  • Text Mode Graphics

  • "Blender" competition (equivalent to fast-compos at European demoparties)

  • "Wildcard" (equivalent to wild-compos at European demoparties)


In 2004 , Pilgrimage managed to raise over US $ 14,000 in Cash and Prize s to award winners of each of the various competitions. Major sponsors that year included Utah's largest independent ISP XMission, ACiD , ATI Technologies , and DeviantART .


Seminars

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In addition to competitions, which are the main focal point of any demo party, Pilgrimage also hosts seminars on art and technology-related subjects such as 3D programming and design, the history of art in computing, and game design.


Partying

Not forgetting the "party" in demoparty, Pilgrimage 2004 included the following activities:

  • A Dance Dance Revolution tourney, including several "old school/new school" matchups.

  • A city-spanning Scavenger Hunt organized by members the local 2600 meeting.

  • A demoscene trivia quiz show hosted by Jason Scott and Severina and featuring drunken/delirious nerd antics.

  • A demonstration of how the popular Finnish cocktail Salmiakki Koskenkorva can be made, and a tasting for all hearty souls.



CRITICISM

Many European demosceners have raised voice against various antics regarding Pilgrimage. [http://www.pouet.net/topic.php?which=2253&page=1


"Eurotrash"

In 2004 , main organizer Legalize stirred up quite a few attenders during his opening speech of the party, where he (in response to European critics of the party) verbally offended the complete European demoscene, labelling them " Eurotrash ". He also delivered a side-jab to attenders from Canada stating that they are "wussies", as don't have an active demoparty anymore - to which the members of demogroup Northern Dragons responded that the actual party invitation demo was "written by Canadians". {Link without Title} They gave another tongue-in-cheek response to the controversy in 2005 by naming their compo-winning demo entry "Eurotrash".


Protocol 42

In February of 2006, it was announced that Pilgrimage was cooperating with the annual Protocol 42 LAN Party . This has caused concern among sceners, largely because the description of the demoscene on the P42 website was extremely inaccurate and diminutive. {Link without Title}


PartyMeister

Several demoparties (including Breakpoint ) across Europe use a demoparty- CMS called PartyMeister , which proved itself worthy during many tests and is still the favored tool of many organizers.

Pilgrimage organizing, however, publicly denounced PartyMeister in 2005 on its mailinglist for not having a Software License fitting their needs and stating various incompatibilities with Internet Explorer . Ironically, the party that year was forced to use PartyMeister after the failure of their own system.


REFERENCES



EXTERNAL LINKS


: Pilgrimage 2004 (archived)
: Pilgrimage 2003 (archived)