Hugging Face and Open Together kick off Open Source AI Week with a San Francisco launch party

The Midway hosts a community-wide kickoff on Friday, October 16. Hugging Face and Open Together will officially open Open Source AI Week with a free, public party at The Midway in San Francisco. The evening runs in two acts: a community meetup and demo session from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., followed by a DJ-driven dance party that goes until midnight. Organizers expect a strong turnout of model builders and developers from the open ecosystem.

Thirty-six community demo stations will anchor the meetup. Participants will show projects built on HF Spaces, Hugging Face’s hosting and inference platform. Every presenter brings their own laptop. Applications to demo close October 2. The goal, organizers say, is raw exposure to what the community is actually building — no marketing decks, no pre-canned demos.

Arcee AI and Reflection AI, two companies operating in the open-model space, are footing the bill. The first 500 attendees walk away with collectible Hugging Face swag. The party itself runs on open-source mechanics: share photos, open a pull request for the playlist, apply to demo — proof that the organizing ethos matches the slogan.

"The AI revolution will not be centralized." That tagline frames the ideological core: open models and open weights let developers build, share, and control technology without depending on a single vendor or a closed interface. The wording takes direct aim at the managed-API model that dominates today’s commercial market, positioning a decentralized, community-driven alternative against it.

Registration is open through the organizers’ official link. Arrive early — both for the limited swag and to make the rounds of the demo stations before the music starts. Open Source AI Week itself will continue with additional events in the days ahead; full details have not yet been released.