To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the world's most infamous BitTorrent site, the Swedish Pirate Party took on the task of organizing a party for thousands of revelers. Rather than having tickets at the gate, the event was to be a crowd-funded affair, with each pirate chipping in a few dollars. But with just two weeks to go before the funding deadline is reached things are looking very precarious indeed. If the event is to go ahead as planned, a huge effort is needed in the days to come

Against all the odds and following a stormy decade online, The Pirate Bay will soon celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Earlier this month the Swedish Pirate Party said they would help mark the occasion by organizing a big birthday bash to be held in a location just north of Stockholm.

The event is set to host artists and DJs playing across several stages, hopefully accompanied by thousands of Pirate Bay supporters from around the world, but with the August 10 date less than two weeks away, the party looks in doubt.

During the second week of July the Swedish Pirates began a crowd-funding drive for people to contribute towards tickets, but a week later just 30 people had chipped in around 38,730 Swedish kronor, less than 10% of the 450,000 kronor ($69,293) goal.

Realizing that the 450K goal was too ambitious, the organizers reduced it dramatically. At the time of writing it sits at 200,000 kronor ($30,798) but even that amount is proving problematic. Currently the fund contains just 53,319 kronor ($8,210), some 146,681 ($22,587) short of the target. The party can still go ahead with less money, but with serious cutbacks.

“Lower than 150,000 kronor means we can’t pay the rent and the music-equipment (lights and PA’s) for the bands playing,” the Pirate Party’s Erik Lönroth explains.

“As of today, we lack 98,000 kronor. It really isn’t much money for a party with bands and a venue for [several] thousand people. But time is short and moving fast. Twelve days left and we are definitely worried.”

The cheapest tickets for the event cost just 100 Swedish kronor (about $15) so the cost of admission doesn’t really appear to be a deciding factor in why just 92 people have shown support for the funding effort so far.

Admittedly the event is at the height of summer, so many people may be committed elsewhere, especially when the party was announced just a couple of weeks ago. And of course, for The Pirate Bay’s international fans a $15 ticket is just the tip of a huge flight and accommodation costs iceberg. That said, 92 is very low indeed and actually less than the number of artists who reportedly applied to play at the event.

But despite the low turnout the Pirates aren’t giving up just yet. Lönroth is today reminding people that the event is about much more than just The Pirate Bay.

“Its not as simple as celebrating a web site. Thats stupid. No, it’s a celebration of 10 years of file sharing, love and freedom made possible partially through it,” he explains.

“The Pirate Bay is not even the only site of its kind, never was, but it has become a symbol for something more. That is not stupid, it matters. It matters, because it tells a story of our time. The story about real people, doing real stuff that mattered here and now – and tragically – those people got destroyed for it.

“It’s happening still, only in other, different contexts. I’m celebrating The Pirate Bay on the 10th because I’m celebrating ideas made clear and possible through copying, sharing, internet, technology and people caring. Maybe I’m an idealist, but as John Lennon wrote: ‘I’m not the only one’.”

The Pirate Bay Party crowdfunding page can be found here.