L'il Dutch demonstrates proper procedure for takeoff.

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin took a spin around the Earth, whistling Shostakovich on the way down. This is not the sort of event you commemorate fully clothed.

"My wife will slap me on my wrist for saying this, but I feel that space has a sexiness to it," says Jared Davis, the coproducer of this year's Yuri's Night celebration, which takes over Artisphere on Saturday. He cites Barbarella and Carrie Fisher's Revenge of the Jedi bikini. "Even these guys, the Mercury astronauts in their silver spacesuits: It’s a giant bomb that they’re gonna strap themselves to," he says. "I feel that NASA misses a certain opportunity there."

So, on Saturday: Surf music from the Atomic Mosquitos and ska from Eastern Standard Time. An art exhibition featuring Davis, Andrew Wodzianski, and others. A robot that serves drinks. And a burlesque show featuring D.C. performers like L'il Dutch, Stella Sweet, and Rev. Valentine, plus Tigger, who the press release calls "New York's leading Boylesque star."

The burlesque show, Davis says, differs from other such performances: "We're doing plots," he says. "It's a relatively thin plot." It's about a space cruise ship 500 years in the future, he says, "and the crew is kind of having an adventure throughout the show. It's Star Trek meets Love Boat."

The first Yuri's Night was in 2004 in Los Angeles; Davis got interested in putting one on here in 2007 after he attended a Gagarin event at the Russian Cultural Centre. "I saw what they were doing and thought, This is a keg party and it could be so much cooler," he says. This year will be the fourth he's helped put a Yuri's Night on in Washington; the first was at Art Whino's old space in Alexandria, the next was at the Warehouse, last year's was at the Capitol Skyline Hotel.

Davis runs the scene shop for Arlington Cultural Affairs, so moving the event to Artisphere made sense, at least to him. He says he told his bosses "I'm doing the type of stuff for the type of people you want at the Artisphere."

On Saturday, he'll be running around, "putting out fires," he says. His costume will, by necessity, allow easy movement. Unfortunately, the orange NASA flight suit he admires, the "pumpkin" suit, does not suit the needs of a man who describes himself as "a tad tubby."

"The sizes, small, medium, large, extra large, the only difference in them is length!" he says. "So fat astronauts are apparently not encouraged!" He plans to wear a black flight suit, with patches from Star City.