Why the Burning Man mass exodus is a sign of things to come

[Aerofoam]

The "Standard" was set in Woodstock, some things never change........

 

[okikuma]

The "Standard" was set in Woodstock, some things never change........

Actually, some important lessons have been learned, except for weather.

Wayne

EMS at Woodstock - JEMS: EMS, Emergency Medical Services - Training, Paramedic, EMT News

Forty years ago, hordes of people set off on a pilgrimage toward what was billed as “three days of peace and music” in upstate New York. In addition to lending its name to a generation, the 1969 Woodstock Festival had the potential to generate a medical disaster of epic proportions.

www.jems.com

People Were Born and Died at Woodstock. Here Are Their Stories

The Woodstock Festival saw scores of injuries

time.com

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=933286643683304

 

[airboy]

Mud Max???

 

[WaspAir]

Because whatever your idea of fun might be, it cannot possibly include a scenario in which you carry a bucket of your own stools. Even the most ardent readers’ letters will not persuade me otherwise. On this matter I am strict.

The modern ethic for mountaineers includes notions of "leave no trace". This means packing in dehydrated food, using local water or snowmelt to prepare it, and carrying out the "used food", as I prefer to call it for politeness. There are many products designed to assist with the process, often including double bagging with a dessicating or gelling agent, which is essentially the human equivalent of kitty litter. When treated in that fashion, it is far less offensive than one might imagine and remarkably compact, although it weighs more on the way out than it did on the way in, which always seems unfair to me.

It would take an enormous quantity of food consumed to fill a five gallon bucket with the treated waste. I suspect the bucket size is intended to emulate the common bathroom fixture dimensions for the comfort of a depositor who is unused to the practice.

 

[RogerB]

The modern ethic for mountaineers includes notions of "leave no trace". This means packing in dehydrated food, using local water or snowmelt to prepare it, and carrying out the "used food", as I prefer to call it for politeness. There are many products designed to assist with the process, often including double bagging with a dessicating or gelling agent, which is essentially the human equivalent of kitty litter. When treated in that fashion, it is far less offensive than one might imagine and remarkably compact, although it weighs more on the way out than it did on the way in, which always seems unfair to me.

It would take an enormous quantity of food consumed to fill a five gallon bucket with the treated waste. I suspect the bucket size is intended to emulate the common bathroom fixture dimensions for the comfort of a depositor who is unused to the practice.

Everest is littered with bodies, oxygen tanks and climbing related refuse … theory vs in practice unfortunately differ in harsh environments as well.

 

[WaspAir]

The point was a bucket of stools isn't required if you bother with even the simplest, cheapest, and lightest of sanitation products (e.g., plastic bags and a bit of kitty litter). I thought it might contribute slightly to the humor as well.

I've carried out in the Andes, Cascades, Sierras, Rockies, Tetons, and even on Himalayan neighbors of Everest (the Alps have so many huts with basic facilities that it usually isn't necessary there). The few ego-driven concierge climbers who spend $75,000 each for a shot at Everest and trash the place represent a tiny minority of the mountaineering activity world -wide and are anything but typical, just as Everest is only one hill on a big bumpy planet.

At its worst, Burning Man is not a life-threatening environment comparable to climbing. They drive in and out.

 

[Dale Young]

I personally, have no interest in going after meeting about 1000 of the attendees.

 

[WaspAir]

Dopeheads, weirdos, and wanna-bes'.

Just like the crowd at the DMV.

 

[Midlandprop]

Part 2

Burning Man is supposed to be a protest against consumerism, but many attendees are wealthy and take a notably luxe approach to counter culture - Brad Horn/AP
© Provided by The Telegraph

“Today, in the midst of a climate emergency, there is a real cognitive disconnect for an event that purports to be about all those things but actually is doing no favours to the environment,” says Murray-Watson. “The fact that you’ve got 70,000 people up to their knees in mud in what is supposed to be a desert – it’s just the perfect symbolism for that disconnect really.”

It all points to the idea that Burning Man has an increasingly confused image in 2023. Founded on a beach in San Francisco in 1986, it was once just a small party organised by artist Larry Harvey, who co-founded the festival and built (and burned) the first Man. In the 37 years since, it has evolved from being a pop-up community of artists, pagans and freethinkers who build a desert city from scratch, party in it and then remove it without leaving a trace, into something else entirely.

Silicon Valley types now see Burning Man as a good networking opportunity; celebrities and influencers view it as the event of the summer — a chance to be seen and photographed at an exclusive desert rave and tag all the brands that sponsor you.

With the influx of Instagrammers, actors (Susan Sarandon is said to be a fan) and CEOs (Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have been spotted there over the years) came, as you might expect, the luxury packages. In the noughties, an exclusive section of the site known as Billionaire’s Row popped up, with air conditioned yurts, cleaning staff and private chefs on tap.

Many Burning Man revelers stranded in the Nevada desert by rain and mud are willing to pay a hefty price to hitch a lift out - Reuters
© Provided by The Telegraph

“My clients fly in,” Keven Lee, a Los Angeles-based private chef, told The New York Post in 2018. “They are the elite: celebrities, billionaires, sports stars, developers, you name it. They trust me to take care of them 24/7.”

2019 saw a crackdown on the luxury offerings (known as ‘turn-key camps’), which hardcore Burners felt had begun to threaten the founding principles of the festival — namely, “self- reliance”. Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell said she was “stunned” by the growing “commodification and exploitation of Black Rock City and Burning Man culture”.

“Whether it’s commercial photo shoots, product placements, or Instagram posts thanking ‘friends’ for a useful item, attendees including fashion models and social media ‘influencers’ are wearing and tagging brands in their Playa photos. This means they are using Black Rock City to increase their popularity, to appeal to customers and sell more stuff.”

These days, if you come across what looks to be a “turn-key camp” on site, you are “encouraged to rat them out”, says Fromson. “No one wants that here. But every year there are a few that sneak in and do it under the radar and you would never know they were doing that.”

The chances are the clientele may not own up to taking the luxe route either. “It’s embarrassing [to say] ‘I went and did the rich people thing there,’ “ says one former Burner, who was reluctant to give an account of how the one per cent do Burning Man. “Like yeah, I did the ‘plug-and-play’ camp. No thanks.”

Willonius Hatcher, 39, comedian, screenwriter and AI content creator checks his phone at Black Rock City - Julie Jammot/AFP/Getty
© Provided by The Telegraph

The American journalist Emily Witt wrote about her experience of the festival in 2013: “No wonder people hate Burning Man, I thought, when I pictured it as a cynic might: rich people on vacation breaking rules that everyone else would be made to suffer for not obeying.”

For regulars like Fromson, from Vancouver, Burning Man is still “an experiment in self-reliance and creating a city that is formed around the ten principles that Burning Man espouses”. It might have a large carbon footprint, but “it’s the biggest Leave No Trace event in the world”. “Everybody is conscious to try to do the best they can to limit the impact on the environment out here.”

Thousands leave Burning Man festival after being trapped by washout

For others, it has lost its authenticity, becoming a kind of desert playground for the wealthy. This thesis knocking about the internet perhaps puts it best: “Burning Man answers the question ‘what if the most annoying roommate you ever had went out to the desert with other people’s most annoying roommate to have what they considered a good time?’.”

For the people who are sticking it out in the mud, though, this is all part of the adventure. “We are coping just fine,” says Lisa Iva, an artist living in LA, who is on her sixth Burning Man. “[We’re] using some bags around our feet or rubber boots. We expect to be able to leave Monday or Tuesday, depending on how fast the Playa [dries]. People are walking around, there are parties.”

“It’ll dry out within half a day in the direct sunshine,” says Fromson, cheerfully. “There’s no big worry here unless you have somewhere you need to be.”

If you’re in Silicon Valley this week, don’t be surprised if it seems like a ghost town. People might be working from home, or they might simply be stuck in the mud in the middle of the Nevada desert, waiting for the sun to come out.

BLM won't let them on the Lake Bed if it was wet...This is a lie & Propaganda & Planned.
Don't post this here..

 

[Aerofoam]

Why Are you posting this? BLM won't let them on the Lake Bed if it was wet...
Don't post this here..

Which part is a lie?
It seems like the whole event has become a contradiction in it's original purpose.
They were allowed on a barely dry lake bed that had been flooded a week prior.
I'm not picking a fight, just asking because I don't understand which part you are calling a lie.
If it is indeed reservation land, they can do anything they want with it.
As far as leave no trace, I believe they do clean up the trash afterwards and dry lake beds/ mud flats that get heavy weather tend to
"Self Level", so the long term implications are not really an issue....
I personally don't see the attraction, it may have been fun 25 years ago when it was smaller, but any event that needs that much infrastructure is too big for my taste....

 

[okikuma]

Why Are you posting this. BLM won't let them on the Lake Bed if it was wet...
Don't post this here..

It wasn't raining and the lake bed was dry for several days when the attendees arrived.

Wayne

 

[ventana7]

In contrast to all the commenting experts who have never been to Burning Man and have no clue- this was my 8th year there. I've volunteered at our airport every year and this year I was on paid staff at the airport which is the second busiest in Nevada for that week. In prior years we were a private airport in uncontrolled airspace but in 2022 we began using FAA controllers- the exact same guys that do Oshkosh, Reno Air Races and Sun n Fun as a matter of fact. We run a very professional operation with hundreds of operations a day including charter Caravans, PC-12s, King Airs and even a private PC-24 jet this year. We have parallel runways so we have an arrival and departure runway as well as a 3rd separate runway for the Medivac King Air. Our 4th runway is for ultralights - mostly trikes though last year we did have one gyro.

We have follow-me bikes and greeters meet every plane. Air, Ground and Unicom frequencies, Notams and pilot tests you take beforehand to get permission to fly in. We have ADSb displays which allows us to see the track of every plane- almost as good as a typical ATC radar.
Many of the private pilots who fly in and camp with their planes are also ATPs flying 767s. The lakebed gets pilots landing on it all year round. I am part of a team of 25+ people who focus on safety and professional operation. There are hundreds of other volunteers who help the airport run and many thousands of volunteers that help in other departments like any city would have.

Burning Man is a gifting economy (not barter) so GA pilots in single engine planes take hundreds of people for a scenic flight over the event. This is free- the pilots donate the cost- and for many recipients it is their first time ever in a small plane. Every pilot must attend a safety briefing on how to do the scenic traffic pattern before they can gift flights.

Other camps set up mini restaurants, bars, massages, foot washes, bike repairs, yoga studios, workshops on everything from astronomy, painting, jewelry making, better sex, healthy diets, etc. As I do in real life I teach a happiness workshop. I also gave the same speech on Happiness that I did for a TEDx talk which has had 200K views on Youtube and was in my Amazon #1 best selling book.

The event itself is by far the most creative place on planet earth for 10 days each year. The art on display often finds its way later into major museums or outdoor urban sculpture gardens.
In addition to a celebration of human creativity the event is open to and accepting of all sorts of human expression as long as it does not harm others.
A BIG part of the experience is radical self reliance - taking in everything you need to survive in a harsh environment- yet despite that it is also about helping those that are not so self reliant.

Of the 70,000 people "stuck" at the event- 99% were "stuck" exactly where they wanted to be and having a perfectly awesome time. Many said it was their best burning man experience ever as the community rallied around anyone needing help. If you had planned on leaving early as Chris Rock and Diplo and Christy Brinkley did - yes it was a problem. For the rest of us it was muddy but nothing more than an interesting new challenge.
It is a city of 70,000 people but compared with other cities that size it has 90% less crime. One person died during the 10 day period- this of course is far less than the number of people who died on average in most cities of 70,000. In a normal year it takes 5-8 hours to get in or out as there is only a small 2 lane road feeding the event. Attendees know this and expect it and it is part of the experience. You park your vehicle- share food and experience's with the people around you and every hour you start your engine and move forward half a mile then shut down and enjoy the experience until the next hourly surge.
Burning Man each year takes a barren empty dry lake bed and builds a very unique city of 70,000 and then weeks later the lake bed is pristine with even micro trash particles being picked up. Of the hundreds of campers who use the lakebed each year BM is by far the cleanest.

This year's mud event will certainly make the clean up far far more challenging but the Burning Man organization will no doubt do whatever it takes to accomplish that.

Having worked at the airport for years I have seen many celebrities come in. In past years people like Zuckerburg and Musk and all the other silicon valley thought leaders were there to be incognito and experience the same creative shot in the arm as everyone else. In recent years it has changed to an A-list bucket list item. Those people come and go and for 90% of the attendees the press and notoriety those people generate does not change the experience of the average attendee.

Most of this year's press (and the comments on this and other forums) was laughable to those that were there- creating drama to sell clicks. Hopefully by next year the news media will have something else to report and those of us that enjoy the event will do so.

Rob




Rob

 

[ventana7]

The modern ethic for mountaineers includes notions of "leave no trace". This means packing in dehydrated food, using local water or snowmelt to prepare it, and carrying out the "used food", as I prefer to call it for politeness. There are many products designed to assist with the process, often including double bagging with a dessicating or gelling agent, which is essentially the human equivalent of kitty litter. When treated in that fashion, it is far less offensive than one might imagine and remarkably compact, although it weighs more on the way out than it did on the way in, which always seems unfair to me.

It would take an enormous quantity of food consumed to fill a five gallon bucket with the treated waste. I suspect the bucket size is intended to emulate the common bathroom fixture dimensions for the comfort of a depositor who is unused to the practice.

If you take a multi-day river trip on any river in the Western US you will be carrying out your human waste. This has been the case since I began running rivers in 1975. Colorado River, Grand Canyon, Green, Yampa, San Juan, Rogue, Dolores, Salmon, etc, etc.
In contrast in my 8 years at Burning Man I don't recall anyone using anything but their own RV system or the portos installed by the organization.

 

[okikuma]

In contrast to all the commenting experts who have never been to Burning Man and have no clue- this was my 8th year there. I've volunteered at our airport every year and this year I was on paid staff at the airport which is the second busiest in Nevada for that week. In prior years we were a private airport in uncontrolled airspace but in 2022 we began using FAA controllers- the exact same guys that do Oshkosh, Reno Air Races and Sun n Fun as a matter of fact. We run a very professional operation with hundreds of operations a day including charter Caravans, PC-12s, King Airs and even a private PC-24 jet this year. We have parallel runways so we have an arrival and departure runway as well as a 3rd separate runway for the Medivac King Air. Our 4th runway is for ultralights - mostly trikes though last year we did have one gyro.

We have follow-me bikes and greeters meet every plane. Air, Ground and Unicom frequencies, Notams and pilot tests you take beforehand to get permission to fly in. We have ADSb displays which allows us to see the track of every plane- almost as good as a typical ATC radar.
Many of the private pilots who fly in and camp with their planes are also ATPs flying 767s. The lakebed gets pilots landing on it all year round. I am part of a team of 25+ people who focus on safety and professional operation. There are hundreds of other volunteers who help the airport run and many thousands of volunteers that help in other departments like any city would have.

Burning Man is a gifting economy (not barter) so GA pilots in single engine planes take hundreds of people for a scenic flight over the event. This is free- the pilots donate the cost- and for many recipients it is their first time ever in a small plane. Every pilot must attend a safety briefing on how to do the scenic traffic pattern before they can gift flights.

Other camps set up mini restaurants, bars, massages, foot washes, bike repairs, yoga studios, workshops on everything from astronomy, painting, jewelry making, better sex, healthy diets, etc. As I do in real life I teach a happiness workshop. I also gave the same speech on Happiness that I did for a TEDx talk which has had 200K views on Youtube and was in my Amazon #1 best selling book.

The event itself is by far the most creative place on planet earth for 10 days each year. The art on display often finds its way later into major museums or outdoor urban sculpture gardens.
In addition to a celebration of human creativity the event is open to and accepting of all sorts of human expression as long as it does not harm others.
A BIG part of the experience is radical self reliance - taking in everything you need to survive in a harsh environment- yet despite that it is also about helping those that are not so self reliant.

Of the 70,000 people "stuck" at the event- 99% were "stuck" exactly where they wanted to be and having a perfectly awesome time. Many said it was their best burning man experience ever as the community rallied around anyone needing help. If you had planned on leaving early as Chris Rock and Diplo and Christy Brinkley did - yes it was a problem. For the rest of us it was muddy but nothing more than an interesting new challenge.
It is a city of 70,000 people but compared with other cities that size it has 90% less crime. One person died during the 10 day period- this of course is far less than the number of people who died on average in most cities of 70,000. In a normal year it takes 5-8 hours to get in or out as there is only a small 2 lane road feeding the event. Attendees know this and expect it and it is part of the experience. You park your vehicle- share food and experience's with the people around you and every hour you start your engine and move forward half a mile then shut down and enjoy the experience until the next hourly surge.
Burning Man each year takes a barren empty dry lake bed and builds a very unique city of 70,000 and then weeks later the lake bed is pristine with even micro trash particles being picked up. Of the hundreds of campers who use the lakebed each year BM is by far the cleanest.

This year's mud event will certainly make the clean up far far more challenging but the Burning Man organization will no doubt do whatever it takes to accomplish that.

Having worked at the airport for years I have seen many celebrities come in. In past years people like Zuckerburg and Musk and all the other silicon valley thought leaders were there to be incognito and experience the same creative shot in the arm as everyone else. In recent years it has changed to an A-list bucket list item. Those people come and go and for 90% of the attendees the press and notoriety those people generate does not change the experience of the average attendee.

Most of this year's press (and the comments on this and other forums) was laughable to those that were there- creating drama to sell clicks. Hopefully by next year the news media will have something else to report and those of us that enjoy the event will do so.

Rob




Rob

Rob,

Did all the aircraft depart the lake bed before the rain arrived?

Wayne

 

[ventana7]

Rob,

Did all the aircraft depart the lake bed before the rain arrived?

Wayne

No- none departed before the rain arrived because they were all exactly where they wanted to be. (Just like 71,000 of the 72,000 other people at Burning Man who were also exactly where they wanted to be).
When the runways got wet we closed the airport so they did not fly for 2 days. It rained Friday late afternoon and I and a few others drove the runway Monday morning at 7 am and it still had a few wet spots. We checked it again about 11 am and the arrival runway still had some soft spots but the departure runway was dry. We opened the airport up about 1:00 pm Monday with single runway operations. Some people flew or drove home Monday which is maybe a day later than they had planned. Normally the Man burns on Saturday night and the temple burns on Sunday night. Many pilots and drivers stayed an extra day to see the Burning Man burn on Monday night.

 

[loftus]

In contrast to all the commenting experts who have never been to Burning Man and have no clue- this was my 8th year there. I've volunteered at our airport every year and this year I was on paid staff at the airport which is the second busiest in Nevada for that week. In prior years we were a private airport in uncontrolled airspace but in 2022 we began using FAA controllers- the exact same guys that do Oshkosh, Reno Air Races and Sun n Fun as a matter of fact. We run a very professional operation with hundreds of operations a day including charter Caravans, PC-12s, King Airs and even a private PC-24 jet this year. We have parallel runways so we have an arrival and departure runway as well as a 3rd separate runway for the Medivac King Air. Our 4th runway is for ultralights - mostly trikes though last year we did have one gyro.

We have follow-me bikes and greeters meet every plane. Air, Ground and Unicom frequencies, Notams and pilot tests you take beforehand to get permission to fly in. We have ADSb displays which allows us to see the track of every plane- almost as good as a typical ATC radar.
Many of the private pilots who fly in and camp with their planes are also ATPs flying 767s. The lakebed gets pilots landing on it all year round. I am part of a team of 25+ people who focus on safety and professional operation. There are hundreds of other volunteers who help the airport run and many thousands of volunteers that help in other departments like any city would have.

Burning Man is a gifting economy (not barter) so GA pilots in single engine planes take hundreds of people for a scenic flight over the event. This is free- the pilots donate the cost- and for many recipients it is their first time ever in a small plane. Every pilot must attend a safety briefing on how to do the scenic traffic pattern before they can gift flights.

Other camps set up mini restaurants, bars, massages, foot washes, bike repairs, yoga studios, workshops on everything from astronomy, painting, jewelry making, better sex, healthy diets, etc. As I do in real life I teach a happiness workshop. I also gave the same speech on Happiness that I did for a TEDx talk which has had 200K views on Youtube and was in my Amazon #1 best selling book.

The event itself is by far the most creative place on planet earth for 10 days each year. The art on display often finds its way later into major museums or outdoor urban sculpture gardens.
In addition to a celebration of human creativity the event is open to and accepting of all sorts of human expression as long as it does not harm others.
A BIG part of the experience is radical self reliance - taking in everything you need to survive in a harsh environment- yet despite that it is also about helping those that are not so self reliant.

Of the 70,000 people "stuck" at the event- 99% were "stuck" exactly where they wanted to be and having a perfectly awesome time. Many said it was their best burning man experience ever as the community rallied around anyone needing help. If you had planned on leaving early as Chris Rock and Diplo and Christy Brinkley did - yes it was a problem. For the rest of us it was muddy but nothing more than an interesting new challenge.
It is a city of 70,000 people but compared with other cities that size it has 90% less crime. One person died during the 10 day period- this of course is far less than the number of people who died on average in most cities of 70,000. In a normal year it takes 5-8 hours to get in or out as there is only a small 2 lane road feeding the event. Attendees know this and expect it and it is part of the experience. You park your vehicle- share food and experience's with the people around you and every hour you start your engine and move forward half a mile then shut down and enjoy the experience until the next hourly surge.
Burning Man each year takes a barren empty dry lake bed and builds a very unique city of 70,000 and then weeks later the lake bed is pristine with even micro trash particles being picked up. Of the hundreds of campers who use the lakebed each year BM is by far the cleanest.

This year's mud event will certainly make the clean up far far more challenging but the Burning Man organization will no doubt do whatever it takes to accomplish that.

Having worked at the airport for years I have seen many celebrities come in. In past years people like Zuckerburg and Musk and all the other silicon valley thought leaders were there to be incognito and experience the same creative shot in the arm as everyone else. In recent years it has changed to an A-list bucket list item. Those people come and go and for 90% of the attendees the press and notoriety those people generate does not change the experience of the average attendee.

Most of this year's press (and the comments on this and other forums) was laughable to those that were there- creating drama to sell clicks. Hopefully by next year the news media will have something else to report and those of us that enjoy the event will do so.

Rob




Rob

I have not been to Burning Man - always wanted to, but seems I've missed the boat with the demand for tickets etc.

 

[Andino]

I've never understood the fascination with "radical self-expression." Seems acutely narcissistic, but, whatever. As they used to say, "It's a free country." I spoke with a pilot a few years ago who regularly flies in the Burning Man, and described what it takes to tape up and seal the aircraft from the desert sand. So, I just don't get it. Happy to remain a "square" about it, too.

 

[Tyger]

Other camps set up mini restaurants, bars, massages, foot washes, bike repairs, yoga studios, workshops on everything from astronomy, painting, jewelry making, better sex, healthy diets, etc. As I do in real life I teach a happiness workshop. I also gave the same speech on Happiness that I did for a TEDx talk which has had 200K views on Youtube and was in my Amazon #1 best selling book.

Have you seen Daniel Kahneman's TED Talk on happiness? I wonder what you might think of that.

 

[ventana7]

I have not been to Burning Man - always wanted to, but seems I've missed the boat with the demand for tickets etc.

Most years there are tickets that become avaialbe at the last minute as people who have bought them have plans change. This year for some odd reason there were thousands of tickets available in the last few weeks and people were selling them below face value. If you are serious about going get in touch with me via DM. I am one of 4 people who take turns with daily management of the airport and we are always looking for aviation volunteers.

 

[ventana7]

I've never understood the fascination with "radical self-expression." Seems acutely narcissistic, but, whatever. As they used to say, "It's a free country." I spoke with a pilot a few years ago who regularly flies in the Burning Man, and described what it takes to tape up and seal the aircraft from the desert sand. So, I just don't get it. Happy to remain a "square" about it, too.

Too many people think of themselves as "not creative" or "not artistic" and so they aren't. If you think of yourself as not creative you may spend your life stifling your own ideas in your work and life. It is quite fascinating to see people find a side of themselves they had forgotten about. One friend of mine sets up a sort of art studio and hundreds of people have the experience of creating something that is self expressive - for many they have not done anything like that since elementary school art class.