We are happy to support it because

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The Internet Archive partners with several countries to preserve government materials and make them publicly available. At the event, Loren Fantin staffed a table to promote Democracy’s Library, with 700 collections from over 50 government organizations, archived by the Internet Archive since 2006 with more than half a million documents.

People were drawn to the celebration to learn more about the organization that they’ve relied on over the years in a variety of ways.

While he’d never been at the Archive’s headquarters, Joe Dummit said he is a huge fan and has spent many hours online downloading its resources—particularly its film collection. He and Emily Giddings, who recently moved to San Francisco, used vintage film clips when making music videos (including “I Can Dance”) for their Indie pop rock band, Zigtebra.

“ the archive of culture is so worth preserving, the weirdness and uniqueness of people,” Giddings said.

Sage Ryan of San Francisco said he also uses special database video from the collection to make video collages, and uploads his music for preservation online. He recently toured the Funston Avenue headquarters and came back to the event to find out more for a possible documentary project on the Internet Archive—who uses it and how it affects people’s lives.


Revelers danced in the street at the annual celebration.
Robert Anderberg came from San Jose for the celebration. He’s a game developer who said he enjoys accessing old video games preserved by the Internet Archive that don’t exist anywhere else.

Anderberg said he was also motivated to attend to learn more as he’s building a decentralized social network in his spare time. “In order for people to build communities online, they have to give up all of their agency to companies,” he said. “I want to build something where people are in control of their own communities.”