On the flight deck, a DJ booth kept the crowd entertained, next to yet another Cybertruck, the 12th. After sunset, Helen Blossom, a scientist at the genetic testing company Natera, orchestrated a cyberpunk fashion show with 20 models, along with a makeup crew of about 10 people. Some children, including Blossom’s daughter, modeled shiny outfits with tulle and headgear. Blossom said she’s started hosting events about women in tech and fashion after facing “comments and cliches from society that if I look nice, I’m not clever,” she said. “Women shouldn’t be only models, or PhDs, or scientists. We can be both.”
At 10:28 pm, as the DJ was attempting to warm up the trimmed-down crowd for a rave scheduled to last until 2 am, he reminded everyone this could be one of their only chances to party inside an aircraft carrier. “Dance. Get nerdy. Let’s go,” he shouted into a microphone. He instructed people to congregate on the dance floor by the end of his 10-second countdown. It didn’t seem to convince those mingling in the rest of the hangar to step forward.
Thomas Edwards came to the party that evening with his fiancé, whose company had held an exhibit. “As a Seattle-ite,” he said, “this seems like peak San Francisco.”