With its roots in the underworld glamour of piracy, and its feet firmly in the slick-and-awesome design camp, The Gathering brings together 5,000 rave and rock teenagers from all over Europe - and the girls get in for free. But this isn't Glastonbury, or Lollapalooza, and while sleeping bags and music are a phenomena shared in common with these two great bastions of alternative culture, The Gathering is motivated by a completely different thrust.

Over the Easter weekend, among a jumble of wires, and row upon row of computers, networked groups frenetically code demos in a aircraft hangar in Norway. The Gathering requires similar stamina and endurance to the dance marathons that happened in 1930s Depression-era America - only it's not only cash prizes that are at stake, it's kudos, glory and, perhaps for a few, a lucrative games-writing career.

Anyone outside the demo coding community will not be aware of the enthusiasm, the adrenaline high, and the camaraderie of The Gathering - and we want the lowdown. So share your secrets and stories, tell us everything about:

• The Gathering itself
• The history of the event
• The honour code among participants
• Skills and techniques involved in creating a demo
• Key personalities
• Questionable ethics

Tell us it all.

Are you attending the Gathering this year? Then register as an h2g2 Researcher and become eligible for the first h2g2 Demo Award - The Gathering 2000. Find out more here .

For those unfamiliar with The Gathering, you can find out more from www.gathering.org. There's even a live webcam on the site, look under TG00 - Party Stuff - Webcams.

Here's a link to a photo of a previous Gathering event, scroll left to right to get the full effect.