Post Stargazing Night

In the past, some words and phrases I’ve used to describe the community have been 'tight-knit,' 'like a family,' and 'supportive,' but I think even those fail to fully articulate how truly special the yo-yo community is.

I believe something magical happens when you bring together a diverse group of individuals who share the same niche passion, without any expectations of who you 'need to be' or how you 'need to show up.' It’s something you can’t fully grasp until you're there, experiencing it for yourself, and the switch goes off. There’s an underlying sense of belonging. You feel like you’re exactly where you need to be.

When we were brainstorming Canopy, we knew we wanted to add an experiential element to the brand that moved beyond yo-yos and lifestyle products.

With so many cool, quirky, and multi-talented yo-yoers, we wanted to create an event that focused on the community—its creativity and diversity—and celebrate the people who make it so special. We wanted to create a space where everyone felt welcomed and included, while competitively, placing creativity, originality, and musicality at the forefront.

I’ve written more about the rationale behind Stargazing Night in a previous post, so this editorial will be a retrospective of sorts—reflecting on all the planning leading up to the event, the night itself, and some thoughts (and dreams) going forward :)

For quick context for those hearing about Stargazing Night for the first time: Stargazing Night was a semi-invitational, fully improvisational freestyle yo-yo battle with a 16-player bracket, hosted at the World Yo-Yo Contest. We invited ten players, with six additional competitors chosen on the spot. Inspired by hip-hop dance battles, the focus was on creativity, originality, and musicality. The winner of each round, including the final, was determined by the crowd, and the victor of the night took home $500.

Planning

Stargazing Night went through quite a few iterations before we landed on the final event on August 1st.

We started brainstorming early, in January. We had many aspirations for what this event would be, what it would feel and look like, heavily inspired by Red Bull Dance Your Style. We thought we’d try our best to 'go big' and have an event with a scale similar to the main competition.

Initially, we wanted the event to be hosted outside of the contest hotel. Taking inspiration from the past two Basecamp parties, finding a different space would give the event a unique character outside of the main competition, more of an 'underground vibe,' making it feel distinct.

But as we were researching and going through the process of potentially booking a venue we were really excited about, we quickly learned how prohibitively expensive it would be (inflation really sucks 😞). We were in the process of securing sponsors for the event, but even then, it would have been difficult to cover all the costs. Not to mention the added difficulty of organizing the entire event remotely, getting everyone to and from the event venue, etc., etc. It just didn’t make sense.

Roadblocks

In early April, we were at a crossroads. Do we try to go ahead with our initial vision for the event, do we try a scaled-down version, or do we not host the event at all? By this point, we had reached out to a handful of players to see if they’d be interested in participating, and the concept behind the event was met with excitement and enthusiasm. We had a feeling there would have been a sense of regret in terms of 'what we could have created' even if it wasn’t totally economical. We felt it was just something that we needed to do, and we wanted to try our best to make it happen.

We decided to set a 'drop-dead date'—the day we’d cancel everything if we didn’t secure a space in time. But up until that point, we’d continued planning as if it were going to happen for sure.

We started brainstorming what the Minimum Viable Event would look like—in other words, what elements would be absolutely essential to make the event a success. All we really needed was an open space with a stage in the middle, good music, and lighting. Everything beyond that would be nice to have, but not absolutely essential. Since we were planning everything remotely, we wanted to keep things as simple and as flexible as possible so we could improvise on the spot when we arrived.

Pivoting

A month before the event, we got confirmation that the Ambassador Room in the Cleveland Hotel would be ready and available for us to use, so we continued planning at full speed. This happened to line up perfectly with our previously set ‘drop-dead date’, so everything was green lit.. A bunch of emails, Instagram DMs, and video calls later, it was the day before Stargazing Night, and we were at the World Yo-Yo Contest.

During the days leading up to the event, it seemed like people were curious about what this 'whole Stargazing thing' was all about, but they weren’t totally sure what to expect, so we kept our expectations low in terms of overall response and turnout.

The Event

The day of the event was a whirlwind. Coleman and I woke up early to run a bunch of errands—picking up rental film and camera lighting, a big Walmart run, and locating all the last random odds and ends.

We couldn’t set up the space until 4:30PM, as the room was being used as a practice space until then. So with big feelings of anticipation, Coleman and I braced ourselves—the calm before the storm. As soon as the clock hit 4:30, it was go time, and the pre-event rush started to kick in.

The Event

While Coleman focused on the lighting and setting up the videography and camera equipment, I concentrated on the stage, booth, and sound. During setup, we both worked to orient ourselves in the space, figuring out the optimal configuration to create the best experience for the audience and competitors. We had created a tentative floor plan beforehand, but since it was our first time in the space, we had to get creative with what felt best in the moment.

The clock was ticking; the event was targeted to start at 7:30 PM, and it was nearing 6:00 PM. We were falling behind.

But, a quick message to the Caribou team, and 15 minutes later, and reinforcements came to the rescue.

The last hour leading up to the event was chaos. Between running around to set up the space, I’d pause every so often to briefly take everything in—to notice more and more people helping out, taking initiative wherever they could. It truly felt like the community was coming together to make the event happen.

Before we knew it, it was 7:30 PM. A quick toast later, we opened the doors. The entire time, we were so busy preparing everything inside that we didn’t think to look out and notice the growing crowd outside. When we opened the doors, there were over 200 people lined up, eagerly waiting to enter and experience the space. Initially, we were planning on letting everyone in slowly and orderly, but that was quickly thrown out the window.

Highlights

For me, the rest of the evening was quite literally a blur. We began at 8:30 PM with a quick sample battle and an introduction from Ann.

The night before, we decided to add a degree of randomness by letting invited players choose their starting position on the bracket based on a card they drew—one of many unique details we were excited to include.

We wanted the audience to be involved as much as possible throughout the event, so we printed out special voting cards. This way, at the end of each round, they had the power to determine the winner.

Instead of trying to go through the remainder of the night chronologically, I thought I’d pull out some highlights:

• – Polo beating Zach in the preliminary round with a 360 tower grind and a crazy half-yo-yo Iwasawa Tower.
• - Tony being chosen as one of the wildcard slots, pulling out some of the craziest freestyle, offstring and counterweight tricks after the crowd cheered him to go on.
• - Anthony very deservingly taking home the title and final win against Daniel after pulling out a full trick set of freestyle, looping, and counterweight tricks.

But for me, the biggest highlight was seeing the BTS team and volunteers in their element, killing it in their roles, and seeing the audience's reaction and engagement. From Kiran and Mark (the DJs), to Ann as MC, all the videographers, and all the players—it felt like everyone brought their own unique flair and made it special. The energy in the crowd ebbed and flowed, but everyone was completely engaged throughout with constant smiles and excitement on their faces.

As the night progressed, there was a certain energy building in the space. A groove. A warmth. A rhythm that brought everyone in. Everyone was completely present —bringing the purest version of themselves. It felt like a celebration of creativity and authenticity. There was a common thread weaving through the crowd, as if everyone’s energy was colliding and growing off one another’s. The entire world was there—over 500 people throughout the night.

Winding Down

As the event was winding down for the night, many people came up to us, thanking us for hosting. It made all the hard work and effort worth it. Because at the end of the day, we just wanted to do something special for the community.

• 'When I look back on Worlds 2024, the first thing I’ll think about is Stargazing.'
• 'Best night of the contest.'
• 'Worlds was amazing, Stargazing was beautiful. A night of a lifetime.'

Reflections

As Coleman and I were reflecting at the end of the event, it felt surreal to think it all actually happened. We couldn’t believe how well everything turned out, especially considering the many roadblocks we faced leading up to the event. It was incredible to see so many people from the community come together, not just as participants or spectators, but as contributors to something bigger than any of us. It felt like a culmination of everything that makes the yo-yo community so special—a place where creativity, individuality, and passion were celebrated in the purest form.

Considering the last time Coleman and I were together at a World Yo-Yo Contest was in 2013, we could have only ever dreamed of attending an event like this, let alone hosting it ourselves. I think our 13-year-old selves would be proud.

Dreams

One of our dreams with this event was to inspire and encourage an alternative kind of yo-yo competition. If this editorial had a call to action, it would be this: The Canopy team and I would love to see more events like this in the yo-yo community. If you're interested in hosting a yo-yo battle or an alternative format event, we’d be happy to help or provide guidance in any way we can. Don’t hesitate to reach out to Harrison or anyone else on the Canopy team for assistance.

Thank You

Finally, a thank you.

Thank you to all the players who brought their tricks and their full selves to the stage. Thank you to Ann for bringing her energy and excitement, pulling the whole room together. Thank you to Kiran and Mark for carrying the entire event sonically—finding the perfect song for every battle. Thank you to all the videographers and photographers who helped capture the event—all the moments big and small. And thank you to the audience for your energy.

We hope to host more experiences in the future - to many more nights under the stars!

Everyone’s Covered.