The Second-Best Friends and Family Reunion Ever

Planning status: Underway

Official announcement · 2026

The2030Party

Asheville, North Carolina.

11 years in the making.

Notice from the Planning Committee

On June 30, 2019, after fifteen years of planning, the 2019 Party concluded successfully.

Following an appropriate period of reflection, the Planning Committee has identified the year and location of the next Party.

2030. Asheville, North Carolina.

Additional information will be released as circumstances require.

Before there was 2030, there was 2019.

Stevensville, Maryland · June 2019

Marchers in matching shirts and sports jerseys walk down a two-lane country road carrying Maryland flags. A yellow antique coupe and a long line of people stretch into the distance behind them.
June 27, 2019 · Photo: Doug Bishop / The Bay Times

The 2019 record

  • 150+ people.
  • Four days.
  • A parade.
A light-blue vintage car drives down an empty rural road beside a cornfield. A handful of marchers walk far ahead. The edge of a hot rod's wheel is visible in the foreground. No one is watching from the roadside.
June 2019 · Stevensville, Maryland. A mile-long parade featuring delegations, antique cars and essentially no spectators. One neighbor came outside.June 27, 2019
  • International delegations.
A man and a woman in matching light-blue robot shirts stand in the road holding the flag of the European Union between them. Other marchers and a dog are behind them.
The European delegation prepares for the 2019 Parade of States.June 27, 2019 · Photo: Doug Bishop / The Bay Times

“We expect the whole United States is going to be in a state of celebration and euphoria.”

Giulia Sateriale, arriving from Bologna for the 2019 Party
  • Antique cars.
A bright yellow 1934 Ford three-window coupe rounds a corner by a stop sign, followed by marchers in light-blue shirts.
June 27, 2019 · Photo: Doug Bishop / The Bay Times
  • Swimming.
  • Camping.
  • Yoga.
  • Live music.
Seen from above, a backyard swimming pool crowded with children, floats and foam noodles; adults sit along the edge.
June 27, 2019
Adults and children hold a warrior pose on yoga mats laid out on a concrete court in front of a red barn.
June 28, 2019
Early evening in a field. A man plays guitar in a folding chair beside a ring of tree-stump seats, a campfire and a lit torch. A small child stands on one of the stumps.
June 27, 2019
  • Cherry-pit spitting.
On a mown strip of lawn marked with a bamboo pole, a man in a wide stance leans forward with his arms out, mid-spit. Onlookers stand by a canopy tent at the far end.
June 28, 2019
  • A lobster.
A person in a red lobster costume with a green T-shirt talks with a man in a blue shirt and jeans on a lawn near a red barn.
The lobster, interviewed by The Bay Times.June 27, 2019
Under a tent strung with lights, a small child in a full red lobster costume dances on a wooden dance floor beside a man in a tank top bent low to match.
June 28, 2019
  • Fireworks.
  • Local press coverage.
The green 2019 Party shirt. A simple white hand-drawn robot with '2019' on its chest holds a palm tree in one hand and a tall iced drink with a lemon slice in the other.
Official shirt, 2019.
A tall hand-painted blue sign reading 'The Party of the Year'. Two painted robots, one marked 2019 and a smaller one marked 2034, have face cutouts; a man's face fills the large robot's head and a toddler's face fills the small one.
June 27, 2019 · Photo: Doug Bishop / The Bay Times
At the edge of a road, a man in a straw hat poses with a person wearing a gray cardboard robot costume marked 2019, holding grabber-tool arms. A hand-lettered sign in the grass reads 'Welcome friends + family from near and far.'
June 27, 2019

Historical record

Apparently, this actually happened.

The Bay Times · June 26, 2019 · Page 3“The 2019 Party has been 15 years in the making”
Text summary

Published the day before the parade. Reports that more than 150 friends and family members would gather in Stevensville for a party in the works since 2004, when a group of 24-year-old college friends at a wedding decided to start planning The 2019 Party. Describes a four-day event opening with a mile-long parade on June 27, guests coming from as far away as Italy, and more than 40 children attending who were not yet born when planning began.

The Bay Times · June 26, 2019 · Page 3

A page of The Bay Times, held open by hand. Headline: 'The 2019 Party has been 15 years in the making.' A photograph shows a smiling couple.
The Bay Times · July 3, 2019 · Page 22“Parade kicks off 2019 Party”
Text summary

A page of photographs by Doug Bishop from Thursday, June 27: children riding a float along Batts Neck Road; Davide Morselli and Giulia Sateriale of Bologna, Italy, holding the flag of the European Union; the “Maryland Delegation” float; a 1934 Ford coupe among several vintage vehicles; the pool after the parade; and marchers on Batts Neck Road in Stevensville.

The Bay Times · July 3, 2019 · Page 22

A full newspaper page of photographs under the headline 'Parade kicks off 2019 Party', including children on a float, a couple holding the EU flag, the hand-painted robot sign, a heron decoy on the Maryland Delegation float, a yellow coupe, a crowded pool and marchers on a country road.
The Bay Times · July 3, 2019 · Page 7“Bay Views: How do you show your patriotism on the 4th of July?”
Text summary

A reader-response column by Doug Bishop. Five people answer the question. One respondent, Andrew Butcher, a consultant from Portland, Maine, is pictured in a lobster costume and describes a Maine clam bake.

The Bay Times · July 3, 2019 · Page 7

The 'Bay Views' column in The Bay Times: five portrait photographs under the question 'How do you show your patriotism on the 4th of July?' The middle respondent wears a red lobster costume and sunglasses.
A smiling older couple on a lawn hold a toddler between them. The toddler and the woman each hold a bright pink mug.
June 27, 2019
A young boy holds a stick with a toasted marshmallow and looks up at someone out of frame.
June 27, 2019
A toddler in a sun hat digs in the sand at the edge of the bay while a man and a small girl wade nearby. A long bridge crosses the horizon.
June 28, 2019
An older child gives a thumbs-up while holding a toddler in a sun hat and a shirt reading 'Board Meeting', sitting on the grass in front of a DJ table.
June 28, 2019
Three young boys play in a wooden sandbox full of buckets and shovels under a canopy.
June 28, 2019
Children and a few adults ride a hay-bale float decorated with Maryland flags and a '2019 Party' banner, waving as it is towed down the road.
June 27, 2019 · Photo: Doug Bishop / The Bay Times
Four people sit together on a porch bench with plates of corn on the cob, arms around one another, laughing.
June 29, 2019
A row of children lie on their stomachs on the grass aiming squirt guns, with a crowd of adults standing behind them.
June 29, 2019
Tents dot a wide field at dusk. A child does a cartwheel in the foreground.
June 27, 2019

2019 concluded successfully.

A small child with tousled hair sleeps with their head on their hands on a striped pillow, a sleeping adult beside them.
July 1, 2019

Eleven years later…

We’re doing it again.

The Party of the Year 2030

Asheville, North Carolina

Mission
To host the second-best friends and family reunion ever.
Vision
2030.
Location
Asheville, North Carolina.
Status
Planning underway.

Statements received by the Planning Committee

  • “This is happening? I just popped both achilles.”

    Evan Bass

  • “Roughly half of my brain has remained dedicated to The Party. I have no plans to change that.”

    Necia Hobbes

  • “What is this party? I still can’t explain it.”

    George Kambanis

  • “Italy has been informed.”

    Giulia Sateriale, Bologna

  • “I’m going to wear my second best lobster suit.”

    Andrew Butcher, Portland, Maine

  • “Asheville beat out Qatar and Ypsilanti.”

    A member of the Planning Committee

What we know

Year
2030
Location
Asheville, North Carolina
Dates
To be determined.
Parade
It would be irresponsible to speculate.
Lobster
Attendance anticipated. Not confirmed.
Clutch
Rules unavailable.

The institution continues

The Planning Committee will reconvene.

Former attendees, future attendees, children of attendees and representatives of foreign nations should begin preparations.