philly

I'm told real men drink beer, poured out of a ceramic-top growler, into a horn (only if the empty skull of your defeated enemy isn't close by). This was the scene that greeted me at this year's Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby at the end of May (yeah, yeah, I have some catching up to do from all the wedding stuff I had going on). This was the first time I had made it to the derby since the first one 4 years ago when I was working one of the tables.

The crowd was massive, ten times what it was when I was there last. I'm told the crowd has doubled each year since and I believe it. There were some of the old teams in the actual derby and tons of new ones. The creation of a new beer company in town happened since my last visit and they've been a major part of the derby as sponsors of the event. They came through this year with a steam engine. It was ginormous.

But this was my favorite kinetic sculpture of the day. The guy described himself as a 'flying sack of manure' – how do you think up that one? It was awesome. Below is a flickr set of a bunch of shots from the day. It was cloudy and it sprinkled for a bit, but that didn't deter the crowd or the kinetic sculpture riders from enjoying the fun.

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