Friday night marked our first ever Chicago meetup, which we held as part of Ray Noland’s opening night for the “Run, Blago Run Show”.

Ray hosted a private get together for project Backers, a thank you for supporting the ambitions of an artist. It was also a great time to meet Ray, view the works of art, and pick up the rewards for those that supported the project. An added bonus was to simply meet others who backed the project locally, and celebrate our collective efforts to see this project come to life.

A number of Kickstarter members were in attendence, so thanks to Kit Geary (his project: Prints on a Wall), James VanOsdol (his project: Chicago Rocked!), Eric Reagan, Nick Disabato, Clayton Brown (good projects on the way), and many others (Sorry if you’re missed, but you’re not forgotten. Drop a note in the comments if you attended!).

(Project creator James VanOsdol (Chicago Rocked!) on left chatting it up with Nick Disabato sporting the WNUR T)

(Rob Hamilton & his wife Pam at the meetup)

The show officially opened its doors to the public at 6pm and quickly filled the space with project Backers, friends, passersby, and even a nice community of Kickstarters running their own projects or looking to launch shortly. With a rotation of DJs manning the turntables, some great organic goods to nosh on, and of course some booze, the show was kicked off in style, and we were extremely grateful of Mr. CRO’s hospitality in letting us innagurate our Chicago pressence at the opening of his weekend show.

Thanks to everyone who came out, introduced yourself, gave us feedback on Kickstarter, and of course simply enjoyed the evening, the art, and the warm Chicago air.

Check out more photos from our Flickr pool, and add your own.