It all began in late 1997. A student and WDKU DJ named Aharon Varady had come to realize the local fringe music scene was splintered into several factions, and that each group seemed to be unconcerned with, or unaware of, each other's existence. He set out to change that, hoping to bring these groups together through his interest in ambient electronic music - something he believed was also (or could be) shared by the otherwise disparate groups.
Along with fellow DJ Kevin McGillicuddy, Aharon organized the Stupid Robot festival (considered by its creators to be a Gate to Moonbase Alpha prototype). The event, held at the Astrocade in January of 1998, was a success, and served not only as a music festival, but also as a benefit for PETA.
Aharon's next move came in the Fall of 1998, when he created the Philadelphia Ambient Consortium (Music and Noise), generally refered to as PACMaN, and its online home, Simpletone.com. This included listings for local events, the Philly Ambient discussion list (now a Yahoo Group), and PACMaN Radio.
Before long, Aharon was contacted by Toshi Makihara, and talk of a second Stupid Robot event began. Ultimately it was called Sonic Logos, and was held in the legendary basement of the First Unitarian Church in February of 1999. The people involved had another successful event under their belts. At the same time, the visibility of PACMaN began to grow steadily.
That summer, Andrew Zitcer got in touch with Aharon. Andrew had co-created an organization called The Foundation Community Arts Initiative, whose mission was to bridge the gap between the University of Pennsylvania and the surrounding West Philadelphia community, through cultural events held in a non-alcoholic setting. After having read Aharon's posts on the Philly Ambient list for several months, Andrew approached him to see if he would be interested in putting together an event at The Rotunda, a community space in the back room of a former church. Aharon agreed, and Gate to Moonbase Alpha was born.
The name "Gate to Moonbase Alpha" was chosen in homage to the sci-fi series Space 1999 (Moonbase Alpha was the name of the spaceship and "the gate" was a periodic sonic gateway to the ship). Aharon added more mythology later on, with the creation of each event's flyers, and in writings now found on the Simpletone site.
The first of what would be many more events was held at The Rotunda on October 15, 1999. The idea was to have a monthly series, and while this was how things started, the first part of the following year was somewhat disjointed in terms of frequency. That, however, would change soon enough.
In the spring of 2000, Aharon DJ'd at an event organized in part by Gina Renzi. A few months later, Aharon, impressed with Gina's programming, asked her to help out with Gate. The September 2000 show was the first the pair organized together. They remained "co-conspirators" through the April 2002 event, after which Aharon moved back to Ohio, leaving the series in Gina's hands.
That summer, Gina became the Director of The Rotunda, but continued organizing the series singlehandedly, despite the growing demands of programming hundreds of events per year.
During her time as curator (both with, and then without, Aharon), Gina helped to expand the scope of Gate to Moonbase Alpha, bringing in music styles like IDM, noise, and free improv, and elements such as visuals and performance art.
In the Spring of 2003, Scott Cole got involved with the series, when Gina had expressed a need for a flyer designer to a mutual friend. Scott has designed most of the posters and flyers for the series since then.
Three years later, he took over curatorial duties on the series (beginning with the May 2006 show). A few alterations were made: the name of the series was changed to Gate, and it was decided that events would continue through the summer months for the first time. The Gate website was also established, and went live in June of 2006.
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Further details may or may not be found here:
Simpletone's Gate to Moonbase Alpha page
The Foundation's "About Us" page