This Northern VA County Featured Prominently At DC Pro-Data Center Party: Reports

WASHINGTON, DC – Virginia, home to perhaps the world’s largest concentration of data centers, was very much on the menu at a party celebrating the industry in Washington, DC, on Saturday.

Cocktails named after Loudoun County (the Loudoun County Iced Tea) and posters proclaiming “Virginia is for Servers” and “Visit Loudoun County, VA,” were featured at the party at Pubkey in Washington, DC, over the weekend, according to the Washington Sun and other outlets.

The Partiful page for the event reads: “In light of the bipartisan psychosis over AI data centers, it’s about time that the people who haven’t lost their minds get together and celebrate the glory of American compute.”

More than 1,000 people RSVPed for the event; the Washington Sun reports that hundreds attended.

Reason reporter Reem Ibrahim interviewed attendees about their support for data centers. Most touted the reported economic benefits of the controversial projects.

The party was hosted by writers Ed Tarnowski and Jonas Du of The Compute Optimist and Pirate Wires, respectively, and CEO of the nonprofit Young Voices Casey Given. Young Voices is a talent agency for pro-free-market and generally right-wing young communications professionals.

Gizmodo and Tech Squared expand on the hosts’ links to tech-focused venture capital firms, think-tanks and other organizations.

Protesters and hecklers periodically interrupted the event and were escorted out by security, according to multiple reports.

Some local Northern Virginia opponents of widespread data-center development said the party "actively mock[s]" their communities.

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