Fermilab’s 50th anniversary year has arrived, and though we’re happy to toot our own horn, on Saturday night Chicago’s Mucca Pazza tooted theirs for us. Ten horns, in fact, along with percussion, accordion, strings and a trio of cheerleaders to boot.
Mucca Pazza was the featured performer at Fermilab’s anniversary kickoff party on Jan. 21, presented by the Fermilab Arts and Lecture Series. The sold-out event drew more than 800 people from the local community to celebrate the rich history and vibrant future of the laboratory.
A preconcert party featured science demonstrations, flash-frozen marshmallows with the ever popular Mr. Freeze, a selfie station where guests could take pictures with Einstein (actually Fermilab scientist Milorad Popovic) and open access to both Remote Operations Centers, where people could ask questions of the scientists on duty. This was all set to the music of the Chicago Hot Six, featuring retired Fermilab scientist Roy Rubinstein.
The concert itself featured the 23-piece Mucca Pazza, a self-described punk rock marching band who played two sets of high-energy, brassy original music. In between numbers the cheerleaders toasted Fermilab, offered a chant praising the Tevatron and the discoveries made with it, and led the crowd in applauding the lab’s 50-year history. By the end the crowd was on its feet and clapping.
Saturday’s event kicks off a series of 50th anniversary celebrations that will last throughout the year. Visit events.fnal.gov for more information.
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
Fermilab's Harry Ferguson explains neutrino detection to a guest at Fermilab's 50th anniversary kickoff party. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
Celebration is everywhere you look in the Wilson Hall atrium. Attendees at the lab's 50th anniversary kickoff party take in demos on the first floor and an art exhibit and virtual reality detector tour on the second floor. The banners show important moments in Fermilab's half-century of history. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
Fermilab scientist Minerba Betancourt guides a guest on a virtual tour of a neutrino detector in the second-floor art gallery. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
It's cosmic shuffleboard! Kids learn about the trajectories of celestial bodies by sending discs down a magnetized shuffleboard. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
In the Remote Operations Center Fermilab scientist Anadi Canepa tells visitors all about Fermilab's involvement in the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
Jerry Zimmerman, known to many as Mr. Freeze, treats a kid to some frozen marshmallows. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
That's Albert Einstein on the right, but who's on the left? It's Fermilab's Dawn Staszak, emulating her friend. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
Peggy White (center) and Fermilab scientist Herman White take a selfie with Einstein. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
Mucca Pazza gets a standing ovation from the crowd for it's rollicking, high-energy marching band set. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Fermliab's 50th Anniversary Kickoff Party with Mucca Pazza
Now that's a party band. Chicago's Mucca Pazza celebrates Fermilab's 50th birthday at the laboratory. Photo: Reidar Hahn
