Its now 12 days until the The Pirate Bay 10:year anniversary party in Stockholm is due.

The party is still not fully funded in our crowd-funding effort to finance it. We will have to cancel if we don’t reach 150.000sek and have lowered the limit three times, cutting away costs in many ways. But this is how low we can go. Lower that 150.000sek means we can’t pay the rent and the music-equipment (lights and PA:s) for the bands playing. The crowd-funding site target is 200.000sek at the moment, but we will probably lower it to about 150.000 shortly after this post has gone out.

As of today, we lack 98.000sek. It really isn’t much money for a party with bands and a venue for some thousand people. But time is short and moving fast. 12 days left and we are definitely worried.

Everyone involved in arranging this party does it wholeheartedly and works extremely hard to make it real. Everyone knows this party is difficult to arrange in many ways. But, we are determined to make this party awesome, but we are now in the hands of YOU if we succeed or not. We need the money to fund it – thats it, thats all. We have so many wonderful artists that will come and we are touched by the numbers of volunteers that has applied to work with us. In total almost 100 persons are working on this party now, in one way or the other. Not including the artists we are to reveal soon.

So let me explain my view on what we really are celebrating on the 10:th. Its not as simple as celebrating a web site. Thats stupid. No, its a celebration of 10 years of file sharing, love and freedom made possible partially through it. The Pirate Bay is not even the only site of its kind, never was, but it has become a symbol for something more. That is not stupid, it matters. It matters, because it tells a story of our time. The story about real people, doing real stuff that mattered here and now – and tragically – those people got destroyed for it. It’s happening still, only in other, different contexts. I’m celebrating The Pirate Bay on the 10:th because I’m celebrating ideas made clear and possible through copying, sharing, internet, technology and people caring.

Maybe I’m an idealist, but as John Lennon wrote: “I’m not the only one“.

Help us fund this party. Donate or pay a ticket (regardless if you are coming or not). Help us reach those 150.000sek and make this boat fly – one last time. Come party with us, because nothing lasts forever.

//Erik Lönroth, Piratpartiet Stockholms Län, Sweden

Party site: http://www.tpb10.com/
Tickets/Donate: http://crowdculture.se/se/projects/the-pirate-bay-10-years-party/