We interrupt Slog silence to bring you this very important announcement!

Have you ever spent a Saturday night at the top of the Space Needle, drinking fine booze, talking about art, and dancing to soul music with people who read books? No? Well, that is all about to change. On March 31, at 8 p.m., we are invading the Space Needle. This is going to be one of those invasions where we tell them first. The event is called Satellite, and it's a benefit for the Stranger Genius Awards and Shunpike. In other words, a benefit for the arts.

But it's not one of those insanely expensive benefits—tickets are only $35, VIP tickets $75, and half the proceeds go to the Genius Foundation, which is the nonprofit that gives out $5,000 Stranger Genius grants to five local artists every year—an artist, a filmmaker, a theater-maker, a writer, and a musician. It's a no-strings-attached wad of cash honoring the talented freaks who shape the cultural landscape of this city. To keep getting better at this mission, Genius partnered in 2010 with Shunpike, whose work includes that art-in-empty-storefronts thing that really ought to exist in every empty storefront everywhere.

“Events like this aren’t just about the money raised in the room,” says Executive Director of Shunpike, Andy Fife. “It’s about the future of philanthropy in the arts in this city. We need to democratize the philanthropic landscape here to make it more accessible and appealing to young artists, donors, and leaders.”

Tickets are on sale now. Just click on these letters. A $35 ticket gets you hors d'oeuvres, two stiff drinks (cash bar thereafter), and four hours of fun, art, and dancing at the top of the Space Needle, with Emerald City Soul Club and J-Justice spinning (as well as the Space Needle itself). A $75 VIP ticket gets you all that plus unlimited drinks in the Cosmonauts Lounge, on a separate floor, with talks and performances by past Stranger Geniuses (to be announced later this week), as well as music by Zeke Keeble and Robert Deeble. Oh, and a swag bag filled with $120 worth of stuff.

The party goes from 8 pm until midnight. See you at Satellite!