After six successful seasons, HBO’s hit comedy Silicon Valley is saying goodbye. On December 5th a few hundred faithful fans who have invested in Pied Piper from the start-up’s earliest iteration were in Hollywood for RussFest, a sendoff pulled straight out of the Nevada desert (and the season’s penultimate episode) and sponsored by none other than Tres Comas Tequila.
Throughout the evening, attendees were able to fully experience RussFest as the embodiment of “Silicon Valley” favorite, Russ Hanneman—popping inside solar tents for tequila tastings or sitting for a spiritual “guru experience,” on behalf of former Hooli CIO Gavin Belson. Steampunks on stilts maneuvered around white picnic tables where fans could snack on fried artichoke balls (Russ’s aphrodisiac of choice) or get a faux tattoo of the Pied Piper logo or “Not Hot Dog,” another one of the show’s infamous app ventures. There wasn’t a dress code, but some certainly went playa-chic with unicorn onesies, goggles, and wings to fully inhabit the one-of-a-kind event based solely around Russ’s self-interest.
The DJ provided all of Russ’s nu-metal and hard rock favorites, tapping into the early-to-mid Y2k hits that fuel the RussFest founder’s fantasies. Other signs promised some of RussFest’s more Russ-specific attractions (including a bleach-it station), and swings, slides, and ball-pits provided outdoor Russ-inspired fun. Russ himself (Chris Diamantopoulos) was on hand to jump behind the bar to pour “the best damn cocktails you’ll ever try,” the titular RussFest cocktail and The Rebillionizer.
A dedicated altar to the show’s most iconic moments provided a nostalgic look back at items from Silicon Valley past, including Richard’s wet jeans (from his first meeting with Ragiva), and cast and crew were in attendance as three dancers in red comma costumes performed a spectacularly bizarre spectacle before HBO’s Executive Vice President of Comedy Development, Amy Gravitt, introduced the final episode.
“This show has been a part of our lives for many years now, and I think what Alec [Berg] and Mike [Judge] have put together in this finale is a really beautiful sendoff.”
The chaos of RussFest quieted as attention turned toward the last-ever Silicon Valley episode, bittersweet as fans said raised a shot of Tres Comas to the characters they’ve been rooting for since the show premiered in 2014. Once the episode ended, the room returned back to Russ’s desert dream world, where RussBucks can buy anything you can dream of, like a massive, on-brand dry humping hologram.
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