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Last year, Elfreth’s Alley Museum commemorated the 10-year anniversary of one of the most infamous events of its 323-year existence: hitchBOT’s demise in Philly.
The gathering drew around 550 people, which was a record First Friday turnout for the museum.
So the museum is running it again this Friday, with the hopes of eventually growing it into an annual festival.
“We want the hitchBOT Festival to become an annual Philadelphia tradition — something uniquely Old Cilly that gets a little bigger and stranger every year,” said Jeff Winner, one of the event organizers and the owner of the popular Old Cilly social media accounts.
The event runs from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. The museum will also be open free of charge during that time.
Much of the activities will be similar to last year’s celebration. Guests can create their own hitchBOT and collect other robot-related gear.
Two ornaments are decorated to look like Canadian hitchhiking robot hitchBOT, before and after its visit to Philly. (Nick Kariuki/Billy Penn) 
Attendees at the Elfreth’s Alley Museum’s “Remembering hitchBOT” event got to make their own robots with various activities. (Nick Kariuki/Billy Penn) 
Irina Khrapatina, with her dog Coffee, shows off her temporary tattoo at Elsfreth’s Alley Museum’s First Friday event commemorating the hitchBOT.(Nick Kariuki/Billy Penn) 
Old City residents Jefferson Ta (left) and Jacob Joseph got creative with their robot ornaments at the “Remembering hitchBOT” event. (Nick Kariuki/Billy Penn) 
Chrissie O’Brien decorates a robot ornament to look like hitchBOT at the Elsfreth’s Alley Museum’s First Friday event commemorating the hitchhiking robot. (Nick Kariuki/Billy Penn)
For a suggested donation, beer will be provided — fittingly — by Human Robot Brewery, along with other refreshments.
There will even be a message from the bot’s creators, Canadian professors David Harris Smith and Frauke Zeller.
Harris Smith and Zeller created hitchBOT in 2013 as a social experiment in trust and technology, with its long distance travels relying solely on the kindness of strangers and documented social media. After successful trips across Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, it embarked on a 2015 journey from Boston to San Francisco.
On Aug. 1, 2015, just two weeks into its trip, it was found decapitated at the top of the alley. No charges were filed, no culprits were found, but the incident went into the “Bad things happen in Philly” file, and was perhaps a harbinger for the fraught relationships people have with modern technology today.
The idea for the commemoration began with an April Fool’s post by Winner on Old Cilly, advertising a fake inaugural “Rust in Peace” festival remembering hitchBOT’s legacy.
“Everyone thought it was real,” said Susan Poulton, the event’s co-organizer and vice president of the board of directors of the Elfreth’s Alley Association, and a resident on the alley. “And so, I thought, why not make that a great First Friday topic?”
Winner said that the group wants to see if last year’s turnout was a fluke. He previously said he dreamed that hitchBOT could gain enough traction to be on the same level as Groundhog Day’s Punxsutawney Phil, with an annual “Rust in Peace” festival drawing folks from near and far.
“Eventually, we hope to outgrow the alley itself and get a permit to move into 2nd Street,” he said. “Make it a true block party, with food trucks and live music performances.”
Maybe that’s the level of celebration Philly owes hitchBOT, for its trouble.
