The group Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers (IAF) held a “left behind” party in Des Moines May 21, the day on which Harold Camping, a California-based broadcaster, predicted that all Christian believers would ascend to heaven.

Camping said that this event, known to some Christians as the Rapture, would leave hordes of unbelievers to suffer the torments of the Tribulation.

But if unbelievers who attended the party were suffering, they certainly hid it well.

The party took place at the Underground bar and started at 9 p.m. One of the main organizers of the event was IAF secretary Kyle Bailey.

“One of our goals as an organization is to increase the visibility of the secular community,” said Bailey. “Something as widespread or well-known that has so much buzz behind it is clearly a secular versus an extremist position. We would definitely want to come out and make a public statement that we are on the secular side.”

IAF members proposed a celebration shortly after Camping made his prediction.

“Almost as soon as we heard Harold Camping was predicting the end of the world on May 21, we knew that we had to throw a left behind party,” Bailey said.

The event kicked off with a poem called “Catacomb Confetti”, read by poet Josh Boyd. 

“These days are damp with misfortune,” Boyd read. “Just today, angels lost luggage in the yard. Hands rubbed raw, the sap on their skin steaming . . . . You show me a lost weight, I’ll show you a North Star.”

Boyd believes there is no set date for the end of the Earth.

“I think if there was going to be a Rapture then it would be unknown,” Boyd said.

Jason Uhlmaan is a member of IAF and was responsible for booking the bands that played at the party.

“It was really word of mouth,” Uhlmaan said. “We had bands approaching us wanting to play. It came together on its own within a few months.”

The festivities were the group’s way of refuting the specific religious group that believed the Rapture was coming.

“Three percent of the population believe in this very specific brand of Christianity,” Uhlmaan said. “As soon as you hear people talking like that, it becomes appropriate to throw a party, get together and poke fun at organized religion.”

One of the bands that played was The Neverends, led by Willy Muse. Muse graduated from Iowa State in 2009 and is currently designing men’s pants in New York City for J. Crew.

“I came back to Iowa and my brother got me a show,” Muse said. “This is kind of a reunion show. We used to play in Ames and Des Moines.”

Muse saw May 21 as a pretext for celebration.

“I love it,” Muse said. “It was an excuse to have a party and prove someone wrong again, as [Camping] also predicted it in 1994.”

Sabahal Hassan, who attended the party, saw the Rapture as a way to draw attention.

“We are just disproving someone’s own superstition,” Hassan said.