#308 - Space Dive 2026: Faster & More Intense!

0:00Hello there and welcome to think to make her a podcast about heroes, princesses, scoundrels, hoki religions, angel weapons, and all things Star Wars. I'm Adam Russell. I'm Nick Embarion. And I am Mike Forster. Hey, we are joined today by one of my favorite experiences in the fandom of all time. We are here with the dudes from space dive better, faster, more intense, more intense, all the lukises. How many year? Well, first of all, introduce yourselves for our listeners. It is so great to have you guys back. I'm John, co-creator and creative director, space dive. I'm Daniel, co-creator. I do a lot of the technical stuff here. Yeah, I'm Colin. I am not a co-creator. I came out a little later, but I'm the assistant creative director running the immersion sort of side of things more heavily this year. All the things, absolutely. All the strengths. So space dive again for folks who are maybe jumping

1:05in right now and having listened to the whole back catalog is an amazing experience, you know, a fan-built experience that we talked about in a previous episode. We talked last year before the early May, May the fourth associated event went down. I don't want to try to explain it in my own words. I haven't been, Mike, you have, and you guys obviously created the thing. So tell folks who haven't listened before aren't familiar with you what space dive is and why they should go to it. I'd say it's a fully immersive experience, a little wretched hive of scum and villainy where we built this experience around the Cantina and then just kept growing it to include meandering, tattooing streets in a bustling marketplace, an imperial base. There's a legal gambling den on the edge of town. There's adventure, excitement, danger. Yeah, it's a blast. Literally pun intended. I mean, in the short version of the way that I tell people in your audience is

2:08probably had experiences that they got kind, but it's just that it's like the idea that you're stepping into another world, you're stepping more importantly, you're stepping out of this world, but you're stepping into another world and you're stepping into your perception of these films and of this story, basically. Who are you in this galaxy? Who are you in a galaxy far far away? Yeah. The experience, so first of all, again, going from being a kid from Detroit, the Detroit area, for people who need an excuse to experience Detroit in this very specific way, it's downtown, it's a really cool part of the arts district, and it's technically the tangent gallery, which is a multi-use creative space that also doubles as a concert venue in certain parts, and you guys essentially take over the entire campus for this event specifically from literally

3:09the ground up all the way from pieces that are on site are hidden behind Star Wars, set design, practicality, all of this stuff. It's truly incredible. Once you step in and you remove the sight line of kind of taking it from a Disney park mentality of going, if we can eliminate certain sight lines of earthly representation all the way down from the walls of covering up anything that doesn't need to be there, it is a fully immersive experience that once you're in there, your brain completely forgets where you are and that almost like timelessness was probably one of the coolest experiences from my standpoint as someone who went on the galactic star cruiser, that was the thing that me, Nick and Adam had all talked about was like time equally flies and stands completely still when your brain forgets where you are. It's like a Vegas casino or so,

4:10it's like there's no clocks, that's still one of our main build goals really, there's as much subtraction as there is addition, so much of it is about blocking those sight lines and trying to create, even if it's just for this year is the thing that we say a lot, draping a parachute over something just so that you don't see the ice machine. And that's very Star Wars-y. Very Star Wars-y. But there's so much removing what is terrestrial in addition to creating these familiar pieces from the films, but there's also just like, yeah, how do we remove as much of the real world as we possibly can as an issue for you? Well, but also an aspect, one of the things that I think that we have going for us, like we don't have the, obviously the bulk of the parks and all that kind of stuff, but what we do have is like even when you arrive, like we are rooted in an industrial

5:14like warehouse district of a Midwest like industrial city, and so you've got this rust belt, you have this like even like the place where it exists in the real world helps to inform and step you into the kind of world we're trying to create. And to try is such a spiritual connection to Moss Isleysley. It's a wretched island's come in villainy. Right. Yeah, it's sort of all, it's already has a reputation as a lawless, we're at the outer rim of the Midwest, like it was for so long, it's changing on now, but a lot of sort of a lawless waste land. So if you're coming from the outside, like if you've never been to this part of the world or this particular city or anything like that, it's like that, you know, it's like that is that that's informing sort of probably your experience in a way, but it's also the actual place that we're in. And it's also more importantly, I think it's the only way this could have ever happened. Right. This couldn't have

6:19existed in a place that that that had sort of a stricter like control over what Arnace were up to. Sure, sure. Nick and Adam from your perspective, because Adam, I know that you did spend some time in Detroit when you were playing with a different band. From your perspective of being able to guys that have traveled to a lot of different cities, your perspective on Detroit, I think might be helpful for people who are considering not only being from the Midwest, but like, you know, Detroit metropolitan is a giant airport. It's a very quick flight for a lot of cities. It's an easy flight in and then you go right, you know, you're 30 minutes from the airport straight to space. So you're taken on Detroit as people who have been there and have known that sometimes the law precedes Detroit to a point where it's like we're dressing up as space rangers and blasting each other with darts. It's an amazing experience, but Detroit for you guys, what does Detroit

7:21compare to a Chicago or a Pittsburgh or any of those other places? Nick, you go, you're from further away and you'd not spend time in Detroit as a band member. You know, it's always hard to judge city based off of where the venue is that you play, but we've bumped around between St. Andrews and then a couple of venues by, you know, across from Tiger Stadium and stuff like that. So yeah, I don't know. It's the same thing as Chicago in the sense that you just hear that it's super dangerous and then I've never seen anything bad happen. You know, like, yeah. So it's except red space dive. Yeah, right. So I, you know, I love Detroit. We have great shows there. I would love to be able to like attend this at some point and spend more time in Detroit, not as like one day. Yeah, in the back of a venue. But yeah, my biggest hope away is definitely that like you just hear that things are dangerous and I just walk around and I'm fine, you know. Yeah, we have great coffee. Oh, for sure. Matt Cap maybe. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know,

8:27is it some of the, some of the reputation is there. I mean, one like Dan was saying, it couldn't happen anywhere else. I mean, part of this came from us and our crew, this community that we've built for the last like 25 years, 25 years ago, we were building an entirely illegal amusement park in a really bad part of Detroit because nobody was looking. Right. And we were surrounded. It was a full on war zone. And like one of our, I mean, we've all been shot at and it's like, it's been, that was crazy, but it's different for your audience. I mean, like what he's talking about, look into theater, but theater was art. Yeah, yeah. That's right. You know, like, look into, and do this, because that's like none of this exists without that having already happened and that having already existed and having already built a community and all that kind of stuff. So it's like everything that we're doing is adjacent to and built upon the foundation of what, what John was doing with with theater bizarre going back many years before that. And in much more

9:28dangerous conditions, basically. Yeah. Detroit reminds me so much of St. Louis. I think both cities that have, have, have big storied histories and have been on the decline, you know, since like the mid late 20th century for similar reasons, both known worldwide for different reasons for mostly like in modern history for the negative parts, you know, like everyone's. Also music, but also music and both games. Yeah, but I was going to say, I was about to say everybody's seen eight mile. You know, so it's like you have like, you know, the fame that M&M brought, but also like, there's the movie and you see a really rough side of Detroit. We've all also seen RoboCop, you know, so we see this dystopian future version, you know, people know St. Louis via the reference to East St. Louis, which is not even in the same state. And also like if you're like a sociology or like urban planning student, any kind of anything similar to that, you know, about Prudigo, the like the biggest failed public housing project in Earth's history, basically was in St. Louis.

10:34So we have these like these storied pasts with kind of like these rough reputations, but that also opens like amazing opportunity for revitalizing neighborhoods and for artists to come in and places that are sketchy and cheap to work in. You know, we have a place in St. Louis called the City Museum, which you as artists maybe have heard of. Oh, yeah, it's super cool. Yeah, a bunch of artists and fabricators who have turned a bunch of junk and salvage stuff into this incredible like four-story playground for kids and adults. You know, it has no central theme, but it to me is in a venn diagram that overlaps with space dive. Yeah, for sure. It's very, very experiential. And I think to kind of jumping what you're saying too is like, you know, you guys are musicians for as much labor that goes into the love of being a musician. It does not pay proportionally. And so when you get artists that get space to be able to decorate their places,

11:34that's where places like space dive really to your point. Space dive could only exist in this one specific location because the space was there to allow you guys to stretch out. And that's really where I think the transformative part of what has been so impressive with what you guys have built is is going from we just have a cantina to now we're taking over more of the space. Now we have an outdoor marketplace for people to sell in universe wares. Now we're bringing the A wing in. We're, you know, off a fan film. Not so it's like it's just adding layers and layers that what's crazy is that that I that I had learned and we had talked about in the in the last podcast was that once space dive is done, space dive is only two weekends. Then it turns into a concert venue for for the movement techno festival, the birthplace of techno being destroyed. You guys pull all that down and switch that thing over. It is like within seven days.

12:39There's a Taylor town in four days. Yeah. Four days. Okay. Exactly. Again, hopefully, never. Yeah. Look at five days, but still. We always end up paying for it. You know, it's like there's there. It's like 28 days of sin and 40 to repent. Like we we have this this window to build this thing. But all of the all of the cleanup afterward, you know, because it's like we just got to get everything out. Right. And then it's just getting it on U-Haul trucks and getting it into a big pile somewhere else. And then sort of that. We got to sort through all of it and get it all where it actually belongs. Or you know, some years were so completely busted after all of it that we just put it on shipping containers. And then the next year, this time of year, when we're having to get it all out, we're like, what did we do? You know, it's like we were just rushed and burnt out that we were just trying to get it done. I do think that part is important to understand about like what it is that we're doing is that it's like we have to build it. And then we have the event and then we have to tear it down.

13:40It was more a matter of weeks. Yeah. It's built it and then install it. So now it's gotten right big that this venue, this whole space, we're shutting down their entire facility for three weeks. And the we're there. Right ahead of time, seven days a week around the clock, installing. But the build actually starts in about two weeks, early March. Wow. We worked out a deal. We're building the biggest thing we were building a 94 foot facade to cover up part of the building. It's bigger. It's better every single year. So this is the stuff where it's coming. Like if you came last year, it's going to what he's talking about is the new stuff. Oh my gosh. How was this like reused year to year? Every three years, but we just keep adding and getting it harder on ourselves. So here's the question that I think we talked about after the recording last time. We talked a lot about this reusing and how all this works. I'm sure you guys have talked about how to make this permanent, especially given the fact that you have to store so much stuff. So you

14:42have to you have to keep space somewhere in perpetuity, you know, just to store things. So have you talked about the idea of making this a permanent installation that isn't necessarily open all the time, but it isn't an annual tear down and rebuild. Maybe an ongoing evolution kind of thing, you know, a few events a year, shared makerspace. Like there are lots of ways to do this. Have you guys talked about that? Yeah, we would love that. I mean, I know like I'll post 77s. You know, they're doing a permanent build out in the desert and so jealous, but we are all a bunch of broadcast artists with no sources and we spend it all. Right. I mean, we would start over. That like we do talk about it. We wistfully talk about it, but it's just it's like we don't have the resources to do that. It's like, I mean, like we are we are at the mercy of the venue in many ways and they've been wonderful to work with and they're really like that there's not a lot of places like this. I hope every city has a couple of tangent galleries, honestly, because it's a

15:49it's a place that like that hosts like like every weekend, there's some cool art thing going on. Yeah. But they they let us take over for a while and we really like, I mean, there's aspects of what we do there that remain there permanently or semi permanently. It's been very gracious. Yeah, they've been really gracious and cool about that. So it's like, yeah, no, of course, we would that would be that suggests a dream, you know, but like, but we don't have that it's just it's not really on the table for us, but it's very much. No, it'd be amazing because so much of what we're doing like like we would, I mean, we would, you know, John designing and like everything, like it would be he would design it differently if it could stay up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, you have to like turn into like an origami like flat shape that can store into like a shipping container. We would build it differently. It would probably look better. You know, it's like better. It was so much stuff that that we would get out of like having a semi permanent build. Sure. But like all got to be done in a way that like that we can we can rally like 40 people

16:51to be like, boom, boom, boom, and like lay out in like a few days. And so it's like, yeah, of course, sorry, you got me dreaming a little bit. That would be amazing. I have thoughts. I have lots of thoughts. We can keep talking until we left here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And keep playing those numbers. The side of that though is having these modular Lego pieces sort of that we've created that build these sets allow us to bring these sort of pop up things to other events like Comic-Cons and stuff where we've like, oh, we've got all these just theater flats that are made to just zip together and they're all modular and we can rearrange how they go so we can sort of like take these pieces and build these like different versions of our sets and like we're able to like create these 360 degree environments that people will never see at the party because they're completely unique to these other little pop-ups. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Almost like a like a pop-up of the pop-up. Exactly. Yeah. So many like space dive junior that we're

17:52able to bring to like Comic-Cons and where we're talking right now there's a laser tag arena out here that was like really interested in having us build sort of a custom laser tag. Sure. Secret tag things for them. So like having the opportunity to be able to do that kind of thing is also like a really cool part of having this module or system. It's like because it's a bunch of puzzle pieces like you can make different pictures out of it. Right. You know. 100%. Well, so so the question I want to ask too. So as someone who's experienced it there there is so much more than when we think of these experiences I think especially around May the 4th people have the idea that this is like oh it's a it's a themed bar but like what people don't understand is that this is there is in-universe food that you guys have a great food vendor that comes over and cooks live for you. The menus are in Orabash. It's incredibly immersive from that sense. Then you go into the Subok Den which kind of feels kind of CD. I know that you know if you can figure out how to win

18:56that's kind of the game of the galaxy. Right. And then from there you have bands that are playing you have an outdoor marketplace for people that are selling in-universe wears. I think general grieblies had his premiere shop opening there for people who just want to grab a little $20 thing and throw it on their poncho to make it feel more star-warsy. And there's an amazing amount of people that dive into the experience because you guys make it so that if you do not have a costume or you are not in the theme of space dive you can't get in the door which is probably one of the most jarring experiences of going to Disney as someone who loves to wear costumes and build characters that when when when we were standing on the star cruiser and we are fully decked out and you look over at a guy who's got a Donald Duck shirt on you're like come on man these damn normies 100% so you don't usually work with regs. Yeah so when you have this this fully immersive

19:59you know you've got a great cantina you've got all of these vibes in here how do you continue to build on that and can you give us any teasers of what people can come to expect if they add an amazing time last year or maybe this is the part to to tease them to get them there and book their flight. Yeah the the first 10 years we were focused just on building out the environment and then within the last couple years we've really started to dial in on what the lived in world of that environment and what the immersive side of that is the populace the you know the denizens the characters that are inhabiting this world yeah is also you like you know there's a lot of things where you can go and you are interacting with the characters that live in that world in your mouth series and you know Kyla Ren walks up to you and he gives you a talking to you and you have this fun experience but you're not a citizen of the galaxy in the way that you are at space dive where you show up and you're interacting with these characters as your character you know it's

21:00almost like a larp or you know people has called it like Star Wars Renaissance festival or so sure sure you're in character too so our goal is to create this fully immersive not just visual through our 60 degree environment but lived in world that you're engaging with these characters that are sending you on missions and recruiting you into the rebellion or trying to get you to sell spice or you know there's yeah sharks that are you know lending you money so that you can go bed on the droid sites so that you can pay off somebody else that you need to pay off for a bus a spaceship part you know so there's all these different areas and all these different activations of the of the art that we've created that now are becoming these lived in worlds that are all interacting with each other in these ways that you are also interacting with as a citizen of space dive you know yeah and that's part of the costume thing too it's like when you come in your flip-flops and your shorts and you're you know having these interactions you're somebody else interacting with a thing that is a lived in world you are part right when you show up do some of

22:03the jump on with that too is it's like well main question we start to post people is sort of like well you don't feel like you have to come and dress like sea creepy or princess layer or something like that it's like we don't want that who are you in a galaxy far from who are you in this on this desert you know and you don't have to even care about star wars it's like do you want to get out of your life you want to go somewhere else for a little bit within some certain grammars but it's like one of the things that I always translate people is that it's like it's a costume thing it's required you have to dress up but like that can be so simple I tell people like anybody has something that would work in their home already yeah yeah yeah 100 percent I would say a lot of people have what they need in their car like I mean you can do something if you have a little bit of you know like like understanding the style or the wherewithal whatever but I had a there's a beautiful example and I would like to add we should add that photo in the real seriously because I had a friend who was coming from a gig or something like that and she was like oh I can't I can't come out of a costume and it's like and I kind of get with this be a little bit low about like what like

23:04you could do and she showed up and what she all she had done was she took a winter coat that was in her car from like you know month previously right and she just put one arm in and like flipped it around her head and she had a black shoelace and she tied that and wrapped her or a hundred hundred of her face it was just like the simplest cheapest dumbest thing and she looked amazing yeah she could stand next to somebody in like full Mandalorian armor that they spent like like eight months working on yeah and it's not that those things are equivalent but it's like but it's space type they can be like you it's like you can just be like that person it was just like a black coat wrapped around her head the wrong way with like a shoelace and it was like it looked amazing you know and it's like so it doesn't have to be you don't have to stress out about it you know it's like you can come and just like and just blend in you know just don't wear like plaid you know sure right but but the amount of people that would show up with kind of like a take a t-shirt cut off the sleeves put a long sleeve t-shirt on and then take a vest throw a

24:09vest on a old fishing vest or people would take like a scarf and they would tie it around their waist and it just like it was the simplest things that would just break up your silhouette like you know like you can look at these through these pictures and there's definitely some people who have star wars outfits that are definitely designed from I mean there's Cobb Van Cobb Van right there but but you're seeing you don't have to do all this kind of like you know this you're seeing stuff that's like kind of movie quality like people go all the way beautiful we love that it's awesome but like you don't have to feel like you have to do that to come to this event 100 percent all you have to do is like not stand out as somebody that like is in right here right now you know in 2026 America or whatever you know like yeah right I mean so it's like there's so much there's so many ways to just sort of like blend into it and if you look at it and if you look at a lot of these these photos so you see people in the backgrounds there there's just um I think you can you like you're gonna see people in these kind of outlandish you know like when you see people in like well I'm watching the slideshow here like the platoon

25:09like that you know you look at a people that that are that are a lot of movie but it's like it's like that's like seeing like you know whatever you go to the park you're seeing like you know Donald and Mickey or whatever yeah and it's like well who are you you know and it's like you be so you can just be like somebody you know you like in a fast you can be somebody that's just kind of is hanging out so it's not it's and this is a thing we we struggle with communicating because it's like we say costumes mandatory and we mean it's very intimidating to a lot of people so we're like yeah take away that intimidation factor by saying it's probably you have stuff in your car but yeah one of the products of this too is like growing this community along the way and uh there we've met so many people where they have never sown before they've never they didn't they never got into sculpting before like using foam or cosplay like a larping it was such a foreign concept to them and to see people tap into a creative side and learn skills that they've never done and be able to bring that and show that off is like it's one of the coolest

26:12aspects of that is like people that are not would not consider themselves to be artist or creative now they're like gluing foam together and scraping yeah part is awesome like this be sure right here this is a dude and a jacket that could have been from Hollister with a patch on it with Arabech a scruffy scarf a beanie and what could be just some welding goggles and he's in universe just like that one of percent one of the coolest parts of last year which i still laugh out because i tell the story of like what people are expecting there there there are a couple side quests where you know you you go up to a certain character that's standing there uh you know the and and you guys do a good job of kind of saying which character is supposed to be where but um i end up running a mission basically i had to go help the one of the partisans or whatever group they're with i had to go get a part that i needed to trade for someone to help get the sewing repaired but i had to watch out for the impurials the impurials walk around looking for anyone who is trying to you know subvert the empires uh you know mission of trying to secure the

27:17place all these different things we're going on i'm i'm i'm looking in this one spot where he said hey we're we're trying to find this part look over here so i'm looking around this guy comes up to me goes hey you looking for a part i look over i'm like yeah he goes got anything to trade i said sure he hands me this part this part and i look at him like dang were you were you able to get to it first he goes hey but you know what at the end of the day we all got to help each other out in the galaxy he goes you got anything to trade i go yeah here's some here's some coins cool i take the part i go back to one of the partisan guys and i go here's the part he goes that's not my part i go what do you mean i go i just met a guy who i gave my coins he goes he goes you got got now i was saying dang it and i ended up i go up i i i remember like about an hour later i see the guy at the cantina and i go up and i stick my blaster in his back and i go you better give me those coins back or i was put to paint you all over this bar and he turns

28:19around he goes all right man all right i i get it i get it right so he gives me my coins back and i was like that was a smooth move though i got to hand it to you you're you're quite the scoundrel but i'm like those are those interactions that are so organic to space dive that i'm like that's the when when people are playing along and they're having fun with it that is the part that i'm like this is the magic of what i think all of us want in a lived in star wars experience to where like people are on the level of going we're here to have fun we want this to be a thing we we can interact do whoever wants to play along understands the point right and i think with how much work you guys put in to building out this world it makes it the perfect playground for people to come enjoy what you have built over the past 15 years at this point and be able to kind of take what would be at this point a corporatized experience of going to a galaxy's edge which is amazing we're all taking all these these the cues and the design cues of what imaginaries

29:22have done but this feels different in the way that i'm like i'm at this point making a point a pilgrimage to come every year because it was so much fun last time it's a larp dude it's a full-blown larp this thing i mean yeah it's exactly the kind of thing we're talking about where i say you know you're your character it's like that guy didn't work for us exactly but he was there he was there playing along which makes sense you work for us now like that story right you're you're part of of this world that ain't good for you like you're not warm feelings to my heart i have yeah we've been watching this like scoundrel culture yeah kind of grow along where it's just like it's very like people are getting robbed and people are you know pulling scams and it's so what everybody's having a good time with it no one's getting pissed off it's just it's that's and also yeah another like you and back yeah like you're when you go it all silently what do you you you gotta keep your head on a simple thing yeah it's such a good one though like somebody that brings stuff and knows that like there's a there's a there's a there's they know that people are

30:25looking for parts and they just sell parts for stuff like that's uh it's beautiful it's it was awesome and then and too then you get someone who like i remember these two girls were in the subok tent and they were like i'm sitting here being like man i just cannot seem to beat these two girls that are sitting next to me they're crushing it and they're just gathering these jams and these jewels and i'm like all right i guess i got a tap out i'm broke like i i have spent all my money and we all get up and walk out and the girl looks over at me and flashes two uh i care with the eye the um yeah the silobs yeah she looks over and goes hey next time bring your own cards dummy and walked away and i was like why didn't i think of that but she just like completely fleeced us and i'm like this is this pro level thing this is Luke Skywalker walkie and it being like oh wow this is a this is a fun group of guys yeah i guess i'll get a beer yeah exactly let me talk on the sleeve of the bartender can you imagine doing that yeah right like

31:30like imagine fun go bar and like and just like you wait for like he's there for 10 seconds and he reaches over and grabs literally touches the bartender and tugs on his sleeve yeah i mean i don't know he kind of i don't know twice he yeah yeah knocked out yeah wild like yeah anyway you know is this place can get a little rough yeah it's detried to Ian is is fully lived in by the locals who have learned to survive it and navigate it so well um from from from your perspective for people who have attended or considering it you know what what are you guys trying to build upon in terms of you know are are we looking at more immersive experiences are we looking at more entertainment options what are the things that we can look forward to for in in terms of you guys are i never doubt that it's bigger better faster all the lukises but from from from your perspective what are you building on for this year you want to talk about the new build we i know we started talking about it a little bit yeah there's part of it is the new build like i said there's one aspect is a facade

32:35that's like 94 feet long to wrap the building just for more you just want to every 360 views to be just so dialed in anywhere you look here here in this world but then also like Colin was saying like we built this world and now we're getting a chance to populate it and last year it was kind of our beta test with immersion and we learned a lot and this year we've we're dialing that in plus doubling the amount of characters and and the aspects of those characters so there's more people that you're going to run into but like you said the person that you talk to you didn't know if it was a patron or a performer yeah and we're hoping that that just continues and we only want to just add and supplement that so it's yeah it's like i mean we're asking people to come and come into costume and come and be a character but it's like be it's probably because we are we're taking a space and we're putting a costume on it and we're totally transforming like this environment and it's like and and you know we want you to come in there and be and and just

33:39step into that world yeah and not you know and not and not be pulling anybody else out of it basically want to just pull everybody in deeper and so so the you know it's like one of the things we're like excited about here and and like is just that this new build kind of closes a gap we've always had as far as like like okay it's hard to like you know kind of capture this this particular part of the space and and so on some level we are limited by the amount of like square footage that exists of course yeah environment and so what's what's happening to happen now is that like we have sort of filled that footprint and we're going deeper and we're making it better and we're making it more immersive density and we're making it more like you know again just just so that it's more immersive so just so that it's like wherever wherever you look you know you got to use a little imagination when it comes to like the skyline and stuff like that sure no we we've only got one sun unfortunately but like right but uh but there is uh uh uh you know we're trying to

34:39kind of like continue to fill in those gaps and to make it like a like all I got deeper and and richer experience we're already talking about changing the skyline a little bit you know but there's definitely a lot more depth of detail that we that we are beginning to dive into more where yeah like like Dan said we've only got so much square footage and we've kind of filled that all out and now it's just getting more detailed and denser and and more as we bring in more people too we've got people with more skill sets and it's just like in the last few years we've gotten all these awesome engineers and 3d printers and and tech guys that are programming all these like incredible grilles and drawings and all this all this cool stuff that's just like adding more to the immersion of like you know it's like it's cool to see some panels but then to be able to walk up to a panel and like push a button and have it actually do something yeah the detail gets more granular it's like we were we were very much painting in broad strokes and I mean when I say we I mean like he's mostly he's doing the painting basically but like well actually both you guys do a lot of painting but like but the um uh but in terms of like like okay we're we're we're trying

35:45to sketch in a space and what's happening now every year it gets a little more detailed it gets a little more like like where you can get closer to the props and it gets a little more like okay well I like like I'm believing this illusion that's being kind of cast more and more and then on top of that there's all the interaction of the the immersive like there's more there's a lot more people to interact with who are part of the storytelling we're part of the thing and plus all the people plus the people who are like you know grifting on that and taking your damn parts you know your coins yeah more alien more alien yeah we're adding more aliens this year and we're dialing one of the things we added last year but you you got to be in on our our market buskers like all the musicians that add we want we want to hit every like all the senses and smells and sounds and as soon as you walk in you're entering the party you're kind of passing through customs and processing and then you're spit out into this bustling market where you should feel a little uncomfortable like right you're going to get ripped off but there's also those people

36:50playing some strange instrument in the corner and and then like you did you got to like we know the buskers their times up yeah where's arresting them for me me showing up their dress you know so I remember I can't it was Dan or someone was like hey can you switch in your imperial officer and you know like just just walk around right and so being that like earlier in the night like I had I was running one of the missions where I was like basically running some coaxi mara I can't remember some fuel cells or something and so I knew what the the case had looked like and so I'm dressed as an imperial officer walking around the stormtrooper and I see some kid walk by with that case and I looked and I stopped him and I go you there I'm like I I need to see the contents of that case and he just starts like freaking out and his buddies like wait wait no no no there's nothing in there that's actually you know so like I'm just playing along because I know that it's fun for that kid to get a shake down right and when you have those levels of people who get what you're putting out there I think adds to the elevation of the storytelling of what it is

37:57that you guys are doing so that the expectations almost allow for you to essentially become a part of the experience which is I think where all of us were so frustrated that the the Halcyon Galactic Star Cruiser experience didn't meet Disney's profitability model or whatever it was but that was one of those we were we were incredibly moved by at how much people bought into the experience I yeah Adam from you know you guys attended it would you say that that was probably like the the main takeaway I don't remember what food we ate it was cool but like our experience was definitely the humanness of just forgetting where you were 100 percent like you mentioned one of guys mentioned it earlier like the casino of it all you know like you're just in there there's no actual windows and for the what we went on the second one ever how many people were dressed up was just like a beautiful thing and the next time we went the percentage of people who were dressed up was even higher yeah but at that point we already knew it was closing and

39:00it was just nothing good has happened since yeah right you're right yeah the question that I want to ask to is well hey real quick before you do yeah a couple questions from from discord from the patrons oh we need that relevant to what you were just talking about new stuff being built this is the best screen name you'll hear from any discord of any Star Wars podcast 43 percent burnt Anakin is the screen name the A wing is incredible are there any plans to try and bring in more ships always well so we have we have the alurus which doesn't get as much attention as I think we it deserves the alurus was this vessel from a a student film from the 80s that we extracted from a garage in basement a basement rather a metro Detroit well you found it because it was like a marketplace ad that said spaceship in the basement no no it's a spaceship interior you know there we go sure from spaceship interior free and there was a little tiny picture

40:02that was like 360p little tiny thing and it was a guy with like like look with some glowing keyboards right and it was sort of like and so I reach out you know count found it I reach out and was like hey so um could with this fit in the back a like a Jeep Cherokee or whatever and he was sort of like he didn't think I just said like you should you should come see and so I went there went to an engagement of the basement this is this house in Detroit and first of all immediately it's clear but there's not just an interior there's an exterior like I'm looking at a spaceship in built into a basement and it's all dusty whatever any any and he leads me back in and I go inside step inside this thing I go through this little you know crushing space and it's dark and he's like okay just give me a second let me plug some things in and and as he does it I'm standing there and like lights are coming on and it's the most I mean literally the most ample and experience I've ever had in my life like it was so magical dust there was dust in the air and like being illuminated like as these as and because it's like the control panels were all like you know it was it was they were sourced from

41:05like like you know military surplus you know places but military surplus in like 1980 right there's what's there there's helicopter control panels and there's all this kind of stuff and it's and it's amazing and he fires it all up and it was and it all where he came back to life and it was so yeah we brought a team in and we had to the thing is it was built into his modest basement to make this film back in like 1980 in when he was in college and and so it's like we had to bring a team in we cut it all apart took it all apart made to meticulous notes and photographs and like all the wires had things the wiring was I mean I never thought it would ever go back together right there was there was concern that it would never come back together again money on it um but we had some but we yeah but we had to we had some good some good folks and we got it back together so anyway um long way around to say that we do have another spaceship that's in that that sits in the main like uh uh kind of theatrical space and uh has this beautiful

42:08long history but also just to add to that we're also open if you've got a spaceship let us know right yeah we we've we've added some speeders uh and we have a swoop at the up yeah the the end speeder the the risk or hybrid the problem really with adding more ships is just space eight yeah I mean it's that the eight wing alone the eight wing is the smallest ship in the rebel fleet and it takes up so much room but you have a spaceship let us figure it out yeah yeah this is not to say that it's not wanted it's just uh but yeah we're waiting for an action to fall on our back but yeah yeah on an extreme again yeah but but but it's like yeah so um give us some leads if you have any right nice do you guys do the uh the clever staging with the speeders like Alex's edge does to to make them seem like they're floating like how they use like the the fuel line you know they hide the stand in that and wires and shit with some cleverly placed buckets and simple look yeah we try to make it float the eight wing is on we built on a trailer

43:10and so we have landing gear that hides the wheel nice for a box in front of it we want to do some mirror effects like one and it's on like a boat trip it's on like a boat trailer where you can remove the main the main line of it so it's like uh you know just the rear axle remained right so so it still stands but like but yeah you are still hiding some of the structure but but the the story of it is it's it's it's in need of repair so it makes sense that it's landed and it's it's you know having problems with its repulsor lifts and all that it it attracts yeah yeah it tracks what we have from from the patrons Adam uh well there's physics buddy Joe wanted to know what your favorite prop or set pieces I mean that story about the cockpit that'll that'll do oh yeah that's a good one unless there's anything else I mean the imperial wall panel is so impressive I've got some great pictures in front of that and I'm always like man this is that that imperial hallway are more than that I feel like for sure so recognizable you know

44:12the pill the pill pattern yeah yeah one of my favorites honestly I think partially because it took us so long to get there is the cantina benches uh they are head carpenter Brendan you know design and built it's like for the first whatever five six years we were we had folding chairs in the in the booths cantina and we were like every year it was like we got to get these things down we got to get these things down and it was like it was the first year I made the I built a template yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah well I had been up for three days straight hadn't slept in like doors are in a half hour and I'm like still jigsaw and trying to make these these like chairs and people are like John give it up you got to like just stop now and I know that's something for those is one of those details there's always another larger priority no yeah 100% it's like every year it's like doors open you know without there being somewhat paint somewhere but like but that one in particular is pretty funny because it's like yeah the benches but something that was designed from the beginning right but we just couldn't get there and like literally like we hang on to this

45:17this chunk of plywood that like where the jigsaw got pulled out like you know whatever like an hour after doors opened or whatever or like like it was like so that we stored that for like five six years until we finally got around more recently I mean I'm honestly is it more than that is it like seven eight seven eight seven eight but like we did finally you know and the thing is the bent like the the chairs like when you're taking pictures if people are in them you can't really tell right yeah yeah but like but if you're sitting in the cantina you feel it you know you're sitting it wasn't they were folding chairs but they were like they were like classic they you know they they were yeah yeah they weren't you weren't sitting in the booth that you knew that hunt solo satin right yes exactly you finally finally got those those got assigned out and then we got them a poster beautifully a poster by actually one of our our vendors is this incredible leather worker and um he got them all twisted for us Jake and um they're just uh they're every time I see I'm in the cantina now it's like it makes my heart glow uh yeah just uh getting to sit on

46:17them and they have this great like marine vinyl please yeah they're so they're so good and they're comfy and you sit in there and if you can get in one of those alcoves you're like I'm I'm the highest roller at this place yeah they're they're so soft after because everyone wants to sit in those spots and once you get in there and you kind of post up it is it is unbelievably cool you know my my question for you guys at this point you know John like watching you with those kids for the the family part of the early part of the day was one of the coolest things because I'm like we have been a little critical of some of the marketing for the the newest movie coming out Mandalorian and Grogu but like when I was seeing you work with those kids but like hey we're gonna go on a sneaky mission we gotta you know grab your your nerf blasters because that's been kind of the thing that's kind of been like the you know the fun part about about space dive is the space the the nerf blasters are encouraged but you watching you walk around with those kids like those they felt like they were

47:18in Star Wars I mean they felt like they were totally in it and that to me is the best kind of stewarding the next generation of fans because without people who fall in love with this stuff there is no space dive once you guys decide not to do it and so like the part that I think is awesome about you guys having family day and encouraging people to see their kids see the side of themselves and see that creativity is alive and well and that we need less we need less bankers and less insurance people and we need more artists that understand that like this doesn't lawyers didn't make this artists made this and people who understand the power of creativity in a way that 50 years ago a guy had a crazy idea to sell fun to movie about world war two in space and here we are 50 years later you guys have taken the George Lucas mentality of going what what is the emphasis of storytelling and it's if you can suspend your disbelief that is the essence of what makes Star Wars a 50 year

48:22project that's still being added to in my opinion yeah and getting you know you get adults in there and there's suspended disbeliefs and people buy into it you get kids in there and it is beyond suspended disbelief it is like it is yeah it's like a six year old with earth gun becomes the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter like yeah are there seeing seeing these kids like get so engaged with it instantly they buy and do it like right away yeah I've said it before it's the best hangover I have all year family day it was like it's rough getting there oh yeah totally hey I'm like we're like we haven't gone to battle like it sounds like three days and it's partly like we know we talked about it like we talked about it the first year like we well wow we should do like a family day and it took us like five years before we actually like we had enough like going have we had enough like worked out that we could actually do it it was hard to get people to bring

49:22their kids down to a pretty rough part of Detroit yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Vince people uh thankfully one of the things that really helped with that was Vault of Midnight Comics yes right around the corner Haitian right next door yeah and so there was already this kind of built-in you know family activity there and the timing free comic book day is the first Saturday of May so that always lines up with us so we were we were able to kind of partner with them and do this awesome cross-promotion where they have been sponsoring our family day costume contest so you know costumes aren't mandatory on family days but they're like obviously highly encouraged encouraged yeah kids kids are free adults or you know it's it's significantly what was in 10 bucks yeah it's kind of price yeah yeah yeah yeah so especially because we just want to give kids in the neighborhood a chance to go do something totally ridiculous 100% so yeah we've got we've got the costume contest going now where you know uh kids get a chance to come out and

50:23test there you know we for the costume contest specifically we we really want to encourage us like creativity and uh getting kids to like get their hands on some amazing and made stuff like create their own characters and yeah we've seen some awesome showings from the family day costume contest and it's a blast and the costume contest is sort of taken a little step up this year too we've got some fun plans for that this year so and so some of you we haven't talked about really really at all is that like you know there's there's a lot of I mean it's a full slate of of those multiple stages there's there's a ton of bands there's like for less there's all kinds of this variety of variety acts there's like you know there's there's indoor outdoor stages all that kind of stuff is a stage that's totally dedicated to like DJs and dance music and so within universal I kind of stuff but I want to just come around because it's like but there's also on family day we have like incredible interactive like kind of family friendly like you know just creative crazy band action happening yeah nice yeah watching watching job of the hut go out and

51:25get all the kids to like roll around on the floor was definitely like I'm like I have never seen this before but this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen and to and to your point the the outdoor stage is set up is like a more of like electronic music but you guys did this brilliant cover of where you put a screen down and projected stuff onto the screen an amazing it's such I know that the concept of it is so simple but the effectiveness of it feels like you are like literally watching these hollow projectors the music is awesome there's haze in there so the lights are going off it is like it's so perfect and so if you don't want to be inside listening to the bands you can be outside in the in the in the different markets you can go into the den so there truly is something for everybody from my experience as someone who is extroverted I saw a lot of people just really just kind of like people watching and kind of seeing the experience of of feeling like you're sitting you're seeing the sights you're you're smelling the smells you're getting all that experience so well done I'm super excited to come we're coming the second weekend again and it

52:29seems like it's really like I think when people have bought in to seeing how much work you do and makes it easier for people to volunteer their time to be a part of the team and I'm sure it sounds like that's where it sounds like a lot of the scalability has been a benefit of people being like how do I get involved because this I recognize that you guys are doing something truly intergalactic here yeah crew is massive now it's something to become a pretty huge undertaking from where we started of just like essentially seeing that space and knowing you know whatever being on the spectrum and having blueprints in my head I walked into that bar and I'm like I know a way we can turn this into the cantina and having you know wanting to get drunk in that bar since I was six years old yeah I'm sure it's boxing it's a turn into this ridiculous thing and now I don't even know how many people I mean to the amount of managers yeah we've had to hire we've had to hire a crew manager just to help us keep track of all the

53:31chair sure there's a lot there's a lot of volunteer energy goes into it but it's like but a big thing that we really emphasize is that like you know there's a lot of people that we that we're we're paying it's like it's like you know people pay money to come to this party and we funnel that through to the people that make the party and that's really hard it goes right back into the I mean there's hundreds of people that are that are part of that and it's like you know again it's something that it's a point of pride then because it's like you know for a for a while like you know you didn't and we still don't know we don't know what's going to happen next year but it's like this year but like we do we kind of try to put it all out there and a lot of people put a lot of energy into it and we try to just make sure that all that that people are awarded for everything that they do and that we're you know we're doing something that everybody feels like there that you know that there's there's a community around this and oh without a doubt yeah yeah of course it's fun you know it's a lot of fun but it's but but there's like you know that aspect of it I think it's something that we we try to emphasize well I think that's a that's a great place to wrap up but I do want to continue for a few minutes a conversation about

54:33the build out and like maybe walk through these slides that we have in the bonus segment for patrons if you guys are willing to hang out for a few more minutes yeah for sure yeah awesome well for everyone else who isn't a patron who's ending right here let people know where they can find you on the internet what the dates are how they can get tickets etc so space dive 313.com tickets hopefully we'll be going on sale very very soon and what how the dates are the May 1st 2nd 1 2 4 8 9 be with you yeah yeah yeah so so and first two weekends of May first two weekends of May plus the Monday which is the actual 4th I will say that the the first time we did this was a Monday and that was one of those very much you build it they will come and people showed up on a Monday night you know like in 2015 it was awesome so yeah yeah but like yeah those yeah one two one two four eight nine yeah and the Saturdays are the family days yes family days on Saturdays 11 to four space steps three one three on Instagram yeah and

55:38and the the promo is amazing I mean like even as graphic designer myself like I love seeing everything that you guys are coming up with because it's well done it's curated the pictures are great you know like we've just it's it's it's every detail about what space that puts out shows that this is a labor of love and it's a project of passion and it's unbelievably cool so once again as someone who's attended I don't completely in debt to saying anything that we can do to help to even just promote it get it out there this is the kind of fandom that we love to be a part of so me the force be with you guys and of course I hope that paint can dry because I know it's going to be wet the day that we walk in and that's going to be amazing round out all right guys thanks again everybody thanks for watching thanks for listening patrons will see you in just a minute may the force be with you

56:39thank the makers produced by Adam Russell and Jason Chiotto and edited by Jason Chiotto if you enjoy the podcast you can support us by leaving a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen or you can support us directly at patreon.com slash thank the maker pod where you can get access to our discord server exclusive content exclusive merch and more our patrons literally make thank the maker possible