Assembly 2002 was held at the Hartwall-Areena in Helsinki, Finland. It was the eleventh Assembly party, and its fourth time at this venue. About 4600 full-time participants, and about 2000 one-day participants showed up, making this one of the biggest parties in scene history. Demo and intro competitions were held combined between amiga and pc. The party was divided into two parts; an 'oldskool' (read: demoscene) section (where entrance was half price) and a gamer section. An innovation this year was the Mobile Demo competition, encompassing everything from mobile phones to handheld consoles and calculators. A big point was being made of the prize money being an amazing 40,000 euros - the largest prize pot ever in a demoscene party.

Concerts were held by CNCD, Crankshaft (aka Yolk/CNCD) feat. Jugi, Tero (aka Deetsay/Panic) and Machinae Supremacy. This was the third consecutive year the event broadcast AssemblyTV during the event, to Helsinki Television (HTV)'s Mosaic Channel and over the web in Real Video and Windows Media formats.

The competitions are a story unto themselves. Seldom have so many entries been disqualified in hindsight. First a word on the preselection mechanisms; a jury selects the 15 best entries in a category, and then those 15 are presented for public voting. At a party of this size, and with this many contributions, such a preselection is unfortunately necessary. 2nd-place in the animation competition, Tamperelaiset Insinöörit's Whisky & Martini was disqualified due to being previously presented at a short film festival. Yodel Street Unit's originally 2nd-placed contribution for the Wild competition, What's Up (In Da Gangstahood) was also disqualified due to similar circumstances.

Party report featured on Static Line #40.

Results based on results.txt from scene.org.