About a year ago, we told you about Hero Hatchery, a non-profit aiming to train individuals to enact meaningful change to carbon pollution laws. Hero Hatchery was founded by Ryan Kushner, an Upper Haight-based entrepreneur and climate change activist. This Saturday, November 1st, he's throwing his birthday party at the Red Vic, and you're invited.
The party is called Ghosts of the Future, and in the spirit of Halloween, Kushner invites you to "tip-toe into the terrifying future," because "worse than the fear of the unknown ... is fearing what is known." The idea is that instead of a regular haunted house's journey into "some random past," this experience will take you on a journey into the actual future awaiting us if we continue on, business as usual.
That's right, it's a climate change-themed haunted birthday party. Kushner and Co. have rented out the entire building (yes, including the rooms) to turn the newly-reopened hostel into an immersive walk into the future of our climate.
If that sounds depressing, don't despair. Once you've gone through the scary part, there will be a "solutions room" that shows how our scary future isn't set in stone if we act now. Kushner told us a little more about what to expect:
We will have volunteers from our partner organization Citizens' Climate Lobby explaining how we can actually solve climate change tomorrow with a one-page plan that puts a price on carbon pollution ... guests are asked to write their own epitaph and we do an audio capture of people's fears of the future, which will provide the audio track for the video I'll be making afterwards.
The invite urges you to come dressed as a dystopian vision of the future, and get ready for drinks, food, music from silent disco purveyors Silent Storm, and "surprises all night long." Get there between 8pm-11pm for the full haunted house experience; after 11pm it spookily transforms into a regular party until 2am.
Regular tickets will run you $50, and if you want the "creeeeepy sleepover" option, a shared room will cost you $85, and a private room is going for $190 (tickets sold here).
The proceeds from the event will go to Hero Hatchery, and the event is also functioning as the new-and-improved Red Vic's coming out party.
So, what's your "climate strange" costume? Tell us in the comments.
