My First Regional Burn
The past weekend I went to the 2009 Florida PreHeat regional Burning Man event. About 500 people were in attendance (or so I heard) at a ranch in Lakeland, Florida having come from places as far away as Miami or Atlanta.
From my experience it was closer to one of the weekend campouts that I recall from being in California than a Mini-Burning Man. There were seven camps with a music theme, 3 with a DJs selecting the music and one a live band type, with an energetic drummer! The remainder seemingly offering pre-recorded/pre-selected tunes. One mutant vehicle traveled the place, a golf cart bed, while the rest of the art vehicles being 2 golf carts with some lights added. Costumes and outfits were OK. Many people opting to remain in their street clothes for the weekend. Hoopers and poi spinners were out and about with a handful using fire.
The biggest disappointment came on Saturday night (say 10:30pm) when the organizer had all of the camps turn off the music and seemingly cease other activities to focus attention at performances on a single stage. Despite that an hour or so later the music came back on the existing vibe was killed and had to rebuild again. I also was missing any disruptive or thought provoking art. Only two installation pieces were in the open area, a large metal fish hooked up to propane (that I misses going off), and four foot flower that looked like something from Second Life. Fire art was non existent outside of poi spinners and hoopers although one individual brought a homemade propane torch that shot flame almost 20 feet straight up.
My participation was limited to individual interactions. When I wasn’t engaging with others I was meandering about the event with thoughts wandering. I found myself most often thinking about subtlety and also the interplay and differences of perception, reality, and unreality. I did not take too many pictures as I wanted to stay fairly immersed in the event and I find that a camera can separate me from the goings on. I did learn a new game, Go Stop, a very popular Korean card game whose rules and game play I am still deciphering.
Calamity and I arrived Friday night just as the sun set and stayed through Sunday morning. We met some people and have hopes of working with them to take the next event, Florida Afterburn, to another level. Living in San Francisco with the pervasive Burning Man culture gives a person a different spin on this event. It was my impression that many of the attendees do not express themselves outside the event nor follow the Burning Man precepts outside the event as do a comparable contingent of SF residents. I’m interested in attending other regional events and seeing what differences are present as you get geographically closer to San Francisco and Black Rock Desert eg. Dark Skies in Las Vegas and Burning Flipside near Austin.
Sunday after returning home we cleaned up our gear, snacked on some food, played cards and watched Wall*E and Babylon 5. It was a great weekend and I am looking forward to what comes next.
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4-21-09 additional
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In my initial post I forgot several key things. Like thanking all those that invested time and energy into making the event a success. I did not get the chance to meet the organizers of the event, nor to encounter (that I know of) many of those that also contributed as volunteers over the weekend. Thank you. You pulled off an event that helped rejuvenate me. It has been over a year since I have had the opportunity to interact with a community of like minded people and I truly appreciated the experience!
There were many virgins at the event, either PreHeat virgins (like myself) or virgins to Burning Man culture. With PreHeat being so new (2 years) and having doubled in size to nearly 500 people there number of new people is a large proportion of the population. My above comments were based on the people I met who were by and large virgins. I missed encountering many of the Burners established in the community and I think while inadvertently putting my foot in my mouth may not make for the best introduction I am now meeting more of the passionate members of the community. Reiterating from the initial post I have hopes to invest more energy in future events and am willing to contribute where needed.
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- Calamity at the tent
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- Greeters tent
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- Wide angle shot of our campsite
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- Fire Fish
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- Main performance area
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- The flower from Second Life
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- Atlanta Camp - good music!
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- The first sign you encounter at the event
April 20th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I completely agree with you on a lot of your thoughts. Particularly:
“The biggest disappointment came on Saturday night (say 10:30pm) when the organizer had all of the camps turn off the music to focus attention on performances on a single stage”
This was extremely irritating. I felt like it was “forced” observation.
The same thing happened during the town hall meeting. Making camps turn off music. lame.
April 20th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
i don’t appreciate it when someone comes to an area, goes to one event without knowing the people and disses the community activities. i will have to just resist any further temptation to comment on your observations or i will come off in a real negative manner.
the reverend billy “gawd” sharpstick
April 21st, 2009 at 10:33 am
I totally agree with Billy (love u Billy- great meeting u)
I especially didnt like the fact that you said that we dont live the burner’s way outside of the events. We have quite a big family here and we are very active. Did u even bother to talk to anyone? because it doesn’t seem that way after those remarks.
I “liked” as well that you forgot to say there was a fire ban for the whole area – which is the only reason why there was limited fire playing- maybe if u talked to people u would have known that.
Well, at least you enjoyed yourself.
Don’t hate, appreciate
Not so N Sain about u
April 21st, 2009 at 11:20 am
I like that the one pic with “Calamity” is in street clothes.
Way to “represent.”
April 21st, 2009 at 11:23 am
There was a little thing calle d “fire ban” that limited how much fire was available. I thought the talent show was a great addition to the event, and if you had been at the town meeting you would know that it was all about bringing the community together to acomplish bigger goals. Personally I find that the big burn focuses too much a blinky shit and bad dj’s instead of community and radical self expression. Every burn event should be different and if they all need to fit into the “Cali Mold” for you, then you should only go to those events.
April 21st, 2009 at 11:55 am
spectator!
April 21st, 2009 at 11:59 am
The ultimate irony here is that this guy didn’t bring anything to the canvas. At least one of the BM principles is “no spectators”. What we have here is a bitching spectator. Duh!!!
Dude, please go back to San Francisco and leave your two spots open for active participants. Thank you.
April 21st, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Each person is entitled to their opinion, but to me this ‘review’ comes off as condecending and negative so MY opinion follows.
Maddox Ranch isn’t very large. Hence, asking that music be turned down at times made sense. People who truly care about and are part of this community are interested in and want to HEAR the town hall meeting. (Comment on the talent show below).
I have been in the FL burner community since 2003…but there were many before me. During my time, I have watched our community grow from a small close-knit group to holding ever larger events that now encompass the core group and tons of new people.
It’s even somewhat amusing to me at times that there are so many new people that it is unknown to most of them who the long-timers are AND more importantly (at least to me) what the FLORIDA history is. It is my thought that if one wants to be part of a community, part of that is to learn its history…but I digress.
New people are welcomed warmly and with open arms. We were all new at one time. However, it is (mostly) the long-timers who are the one’s putting their work and sweat into events. (Not COMPLETELY the long-timers, but mostly). So it’s a bit hard to swallow when a first timer comes in and tells us what was lame about how things were run.
We had a record 468 tickets sold this time. For the SECOND PreHeat event. I repeat, the second PreHeat. For a second go round, I’d say the event did a bang up job and yes especially in light of the fact that there happened to be a fire ban on which is why there was much less fire than at events past.
So many people put work a ton of work into this event. But I have to specifically mention Storm, Tama and Rayne-Shyne who all busted their arses for months to put on this event. Did you even meet them? Did you see them Sunday? They were exhausted. Simply exhausted. They ran, they fetched, they planned, they fixed, they accomplished, they implemented etc, etc…to bring this event to everyone. How about some appreciation?
I think it was a great decision to ask that the thump, thump be turned down for one lousy hour to focus on a show that other long-time FL community burners busted their arses on to build and bring to us. THANK YOU SPARKS and MILES.
But even if I didn’t think it was a good idea, I’d still support the decisions of the organizer because I know her; well. And, I know her history and I know the sacrifices and the things she’s done for this community.
As I said, there were plenty of others who also busted their hump to try to make this a great event. 468 tickets sold and yet how many of those people were at the work week end? Um, not many. Maybe 20-25 tops. Those people also helped to put on this event…and the list goes on and on…
I personally was at the work week end and then also on-site the Thursday before the event to help in setting up our village…and I busted my arse the entire week end. Did you by chance eat a hot dog? Did you watch a movie? Did you have some popcorn? Did you walk the Labyrinth, did you stop by Off Du(r)ty Nuses? Did you go inside the purple RV? If you did, well then you’re welcome. If not, how did you miss us?
There was an untold amount of virgins at this event. In my experience, most of the time (not always, but most of the time) virgins don’t create art or bring camps because they are getting the lay of the land. They also don’t always know about costumes which again speaks to the abundance of street clothes. (Funny someone did mention Calamity in her street clothes though. Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle….)
I’ll wager that now that those folks are no longer virgins, when they come back…some will have costumes, some art and some a spark of an idea for a camp…and things will grow. More art, more costumes, more camps…that’s the way it works.
You said your participation was limited to individual interaction. Perhaps if you come again, then next time you could bring something more tangible than just yourself…and that would add to the art that was lacking.
My suggestion, (not that you asked for it), is get to know the FLORIDA community. Understand the history behind events. You’ll probably find yourself marvelling at the growth when next you find yourself most often thinking about subtlety and also the interplay and differences of perception, reality, and unreality. Because after-all, you are right about one thing; it is truly about perception.
Samaya~
Goddess of the Purple Passion Palace. Wongo Village Resident
April 21st, 2009 at 12:44 pm
People go the defensive so quickly. It’s true that regional “burning man style” events are different in different regions. It appears that the person posting this blog is merely comparing it with other events they have attended.
Some events have more art cars, some have more “participation”, some have more or less electronic or live music. They are all different and can be very different from year to year.
I read this article as a view of one person. I knew after reading it that many would view it as more of an attack.
I still agree with a lot of the things stated.
-There were a lot of people in normal clothing. (this has been the case at most ‘regional’ burns i’ve been to, more so here and a good bit at alchemy than at other burns i’ve been to)
-The organizers did make camps turn off music at 10:30 to put focus on one area. This was definitely something that bothered me. Seemed like “forced observation”. I know a lot of people that were disappointed by this decision. I understand why it was done and I did enjoy some of the talent show, but it did kill the energy of the burn and it took some time to rebuild it. This can be part of the burn for sure, but it shouldn’t be all that is going on (seems more like an organized show or concert which isn’t exactly what i see in a burn)
-Again forcing music to be cut off during the town hall meeting was something that i didn’t agree with. I know the meeting was a good thing and some good information was relayed, and i know the land isn’t that large so I can see why this was done, but the attitude of the organizers during this meeting and the harsh tones in voices I heard was very disappointing.
The first request seemed fairly nice and the music was thought to be turned down, but there was an issue where the it was not turned down enough. Then the attitude was brought out even though the people were apologizing not realizing it wasn’t enough. There was a little grrrr action, “you must obey me behavior there.”
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Anyways, I had a great time at the burn, and like i’ve said in other post, i love my Florida Family and Florida ‘burn’ events. I have a lot of respect for anyone volunteering their time to put something like this together and respect everyone that attends that makes the burn what it is.
The energy level of the event was amazing and was easily one of my most enjoyable weekends of this year. It was also my favorite event at the ranch so far. I can’t even begin to explain how much fun I had. Even though there was a fire ban, everyone put out some amazing energy!
April 21st, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Nice post Samaya! Very well worded.
In response to:
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So many people put work a ton of work into this event. But I have to specifically mention Storm, Tama and Rayne-Shyne who all busted their arses for months to put on this event.
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I completely agree with you. My hat goes off to them!
April 21st, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I appreciate all of your responses to what I wrote and I certainly did not expect to get so many passionate replies. In re-reading it I can see how some portions can be taken in a negative light especially by those who have invested much time and energy into making PreHeat a success. I have gone back and added some specifically positive highlights.
This post was also for my friends that continue to be deeply involved in the Burning Man culture so they have an idea of how and to what degree Burning Man and its related concepts are permeating into other portions of the country.
Lady N Sain – Did I talk to people, yes. Did I talk to everyone, no. Evidentially I missed many good people.
Hippy Dan – Do I think that every burn should fit the Cali Mold? No. But that was the basis for my comparison. Are you the same HD that I met at Blueberry Patch?
Taximan & Bad Elf – one of the ten guiding principles of Burning Man Culture is radical Inclusion – How are your comments furthering that goal?
Samaya~ – Thank you very much for the length and insight of your comment. Many of the people I talked to were virgins to Preheat and Burning Man culture. I was very supportive of the event and encouraged each of them to bring more. I have grabbed contact info from as many as I could in hopes of collaborating on projects and art for the upcoming AfterBurn and PreHeat. I can see the number of virgins and rate of growth are two reasons that may have skewed my perspective on art and costuming.
Justin – Thanks for the comments. You did what I failed to do in the initial post, to thank those that busted their ass to make this event work.
As for my participation I’d be happy to work with each you and anyone else in the area to “turn it up a notch” for the coming Afterburn or PreHeat 2010. Please let me know how I can best help out. You can reach me via email or call me at 415-305-1676.
April 21st, 2009 at 2:17 pm
>>>> many of the attendees do not express themselves outside the event…..comparable contingent of SF residents.
Don’t forget San Fran has more groups spearheading most of the Burning Man Principles. The Congress House of Representatives Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (CA-San Fran) is leading the Global Climate reform. The large jamband hippie base & summer of love have supported many of the principles of BM. You have a larger population thus more burners. There’s more people doing education outreach and it’s been going on in San Fran LONG LONG LONG before Burning Man.
You are missing the point of the other regionals and events how the influence of BM has spread and the growth rate is incredible. Everyone was a newbie at some time in there life and many of the attendees are focusing on outreach to prevent what happened to the Grateful Dead – those attending just to party.
Preheat grew by 79% in attendance. Do you expect that kind of growth rate to not have newbies or at least a large part be? I agree with Samaya that you please learn the history, background and community before throwing a BIG rock.
Bottom Line is the evolution is occurring in FL and more and more events and interactions are occurring each year. I believe FL more than exceeds other areas of the country with a growing community that interacts. 79% growth in attendance is phenomenal. Remember things DO NOT happen overnight.
April 21st, 2009 at 2:41 pm
>>>Taximan & Bad Elf – one of the ten guiding principles of Burning Man Culture is radical Inclusion – How are your comments furthering that goal?
you answer our cries of Hypocrisy with a cry of Heresy.
we know who you are.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:44 pm
if a low back, bright blue skin-tight polyester dress is considered “street clothes”, then i would be much more comfortable at work! but to each his own. maybe you missed my yarn party helmet bouncing around when it wasn’t too hot… but i’d hate to get into a debate over who was more “burningmanish”. that’s just silly.
we all have our own precepts over events like this, our families who make it as special as it is, and how hard we all work to bring what we can to events where we can let loose, meet new awesome people and broaden our horizons. i’ve already got plans on what i want to bring to the next one. the first time is always going to be the breaking in period but i had a great time, so thanks for pulling out an awesome event
April 21st, 2009 at 4:16 pm
i do have one more additional comment – i know there was a fire ban going on, which made me shocked to see someone had lit a paper lantern and let it drift off into the sky. was someone watching that to make sure it didn’t light anything on fire? i’m not sure if it’s supposed to extinguish in the air or if there’s a large chance that it would stay lit when it floated back down to the ground…
April 21st, 2009 at 6:53 pm
I agree about shutting down everything for the two shows (I don’t mind music stopping at some point during the evening, I’m old and cranky like that), and it really was a more “party in the woods” vibe and experience than a burn, which also was disappointing to me and my partner – but, I tell myself how will the kids ever learn if we don’t yell at them to pick up their damn trash, park their damn cars, and feed their own goddam selves…
The women who put themselves through what it takes to host an event really did a strong job, and had some fantastic ideas – and are just enjoyable people.
There were sooooo many “virgins” – we were all virgins to burns, once, and look at us now. Just keep being involved with the community, spreading the 10, and looking forward to next year.
Also, come to Alchemy and Transformus.
SC Libertine
PS: the ban was for ground fires, a lot of us were wondering what the heck those fire lanterns were. Nobody would claim responsibility for them.
But anyways, it was for ground fires, and they tried their damndest to figure something out. Kudos to the staff for pulling off as much fire and safety third goodness as we had.
m’s last blog post..In what will be the first of many
April 21st, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Yep. I lived in St pete for a long while
April 21st, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Its not easy to apologise but you did.
Welcome to the community – i hope u come to other events and get to know the passionate people in this community. Including all those that posted a remark here.
Join the Florida burningman chat group – most of us are on there and discuss about different gatherings, different ideas, ask/recieve advice, and fool around
Join and answer the newbie questionnare so we can get to know you.
April 21st, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Meeting Noa was a highlight of my burn!
m’s last blog post..In what will be the first of many
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:39 am
ohhhhhhhhhh, thanks m.
I am not entirely sure who you are – can i get a little more than a letter? can i buy a vowel?
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:08 am
I’ve been a bit swamped the last day or so with other conversations/things, but I wanted to give a follow up post to say Matthew (Kestrachern)- your name is Matthew correct? Anyway I wanted to say that I respect the way you responded back to all of the comments here and how you clarified your ‘thoughts’.
As I said in my initial post, everyone is entitled to their opinion and also that perception is key. I’ve had a lot of conversation about this in the past few days which has helped to clarify my own thoughts.
Funny thing for me but my latest mantra to several people lately has been learn the history, learn the history. When we go to school, we learn American history and world history. So to when I went to BurninMan, I learned what I could about BM history. To me, it was fascinating reading. Try the book “This is BurningMan by Brian Doherty” if you haven’t read it.
Then there is the personal Florida history which I hold very, very close to my heart. There are some extremely ‘passionate’ burners here in Florida, if one can ‘define’ burner any more and if one can find them in the midst of the influx of so many new people.
There are those who feel the pain of so much new ‘influx’ at once that it seems to sometimes delete the original ‘mix’ so to speak.
IMHO, there are some folks who just hear about a ‘great party’ and come, having ‘no idea’ of what ‘it’ is all about.
When they come in ‘small doses’, they can be mentored, councelled, coached, educated…but when they come in droves, that ‘job’ becomes difficult to impossible.
Some people obviously don’t ‘get’ that not all food in all camps is for everyone and you don’t just (literally) walk into a camp, pick up a plate with steak on it and walk off as if you are entitled to it because ‘everything’ is free…no commerce. THAT is not what it means. Or others don’t get that you don’t just walk into a camp and throw your trash in a garbage can sitting inside a ‘theme camp’ area…and the list goes on.
What you witnessed Matthew was a huge influx of (virgin) people, who I hope if they come back will learn what ‘burner’ events are really about and ‘get it’, but with the size of the growth, I just don’t know so we’ll see.
Until then, I go to these events, I enjoy them but that is becuse I stay mostly inside the “Nirvana” my camp mates and I create. A camp of those who I consider ‘passionate’ and who ‘get it’ in the midst of the outer mayhem…
We were ALL new once…but being new gives one the responsiblity to learn the ropes. Is it a ‘newbies’ fault that they don’t know? Of course not. It is not their fault, but it is their responsibility to learn the history and the culture just as it would be if they were moving to a foreign country…
Best Regards,
Samaya~
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:28 am
Je suis M, Michele, SC Libertine, she of the mighty megaphone.
I’m still missing that Hannah Montana CD.
m’s last blog post..In what will be the first of many
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
What a wonderful weekend.. It was my first as well!, been hearing bout it thru friends(long-time burners).I got to hang with OBE camp,Randy n crew! I am so greatful for the experince and appreciative to everyone involved. The people were beautiful inside n out! The ranch was awesome.. i love horses!!! Was bummed bout the fire-ban. Being my first time.. but fire dancers ect., were off the wall! Very talented!! Thank u all for yur assbustn n sweat!! Preheat Rocked!! Hope i can return!! ~Peace n Luvn~ Treazure
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Samaya~ I have learned the history of Burning Man. Where I fall short is in the history of the Florida Burners, AfterBurn, and PreHeat. Despite that there is only a few years it would be great to have some of the history on the respective websites. Maybe this is a good area for me to enrich my participation, do you know who I can contact? There was definitely a high contingent of virgins at the event and I spent much time talking to them reliving that first experience thought them and hopefully fertilizing their passion and desire for participation
Lady N Sain – thank you! I may not have a problem occasionally putting a foot in my mouth, but I also work to pry it back out as quickly as possible. I appreciate you pointing me toward the Burning Man chat group, I have no idea how I overlooked it. I hope you enjoyed my Who I am.txt
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Welcome to the chat group – i am a Scorpio as well – Holloween to be accurate
M – love u girl i had a blast with u – i’m so glad u came from SC – hope to see u again soon
N Sain
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Sorry for the confusion. My turn to clarify. My post wasn’t directed to you learning history, but I see now it was confusing and I guess you thought I was directing it to you when actually no…I was trying to say, I kinda see where you are coming from and here is why….and then I went on to explain about the event and ‘virgins’ and what I see as the effect of so many being at one event.
As I said, after I thought about some of the ‘things’ you said I could see why the event may have seemed so low key so to speak. I realized with there being so many virgins all at one time that the ‘normal’ energy of some past events was likely diluted (for instance by lack of costuming).
I wasn’t referring to you learning the history of BM, I was referring to any/all people new to any ‘culture’ having the responsibility to learn it’s ‘rules and history’.
Now, before anyone wants to flame me, let me clarify further. I LIKE virgins. I like virgins who come ‘in’ all wide-eyed and who WANT to become a part of what we have. It’s the people that come in with no respect that annoy me.
We are all new at one point. It isn’t a virgins fault if they don’t know proper behavior BUT that does not relieve them of the responsiblity to learn what proper behavior is and to act respectfully until they know what is proper and that was my point.
Walking into a private camp area and picking up a plate with a steak on it, isn’t proper. Walking into a camp and ‘hunting’ for a trash can to throw YOUR trash in isn’t proper. Did these people do this to be ‘jerks’? Probably not, but what it means is they need to be educated on what a burn is and what is proper. That’s a hard task when the majority are virgins!
On a side note, I was thinking about it today and one theme camp run by a couple of friends of mine was missing at PreHeat because they weren’t in attendance this go round. The camp is called the costume cabana. Too bad…more than ever we could have used it out there to get people out of their ‘street clothes’!
Matthew, as far as any Florida history, how about if you stop by the Purple Passion Palace at AfterBurn and we can have a ‘face’ conversation? I’d be happy to chat more in depth with you “in person”.
As is the case with most ‘history lessons’, it’s sometimes complicated, sometimes simple and quite honestly, sometimes just filled with ‘drama’. Learning the ‘history’ of a culture or a group of people isn’t just something posted to a website, it’s a process. People ‘share’ with others only when they get to know them on a personal level and develop a sense of comraderie and trust. I hope that makes sense.
See you at AfterBurn…or perhaps before. Watch the FL-Chat list there’s impromtu meetings, dinners, parties, etc. posted there…sometimes on the spur of the moment!
Until then, keep the Fire Burning,
Samaya~
April 24th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
We will continue to welcome those with open minds and spirits if they so choose to come. How certain people do things is not for everyone. But, it is a big state and there is plenty of room for another burn, more art, different ideas. Please feel free to use what you saw was good and develop something more to your liking if you so chose. Or volunteer. That is always a great way to get to know people. Be part of Burnt Oranges and get on the board. Develop a theme camp or spearhead a project for the community. So many ways for you to create the reality you envision.
For me, I like that it is still small enough that we can have a “community talent show”. I am always astounded and amazed by the beauty that continues to manifest in phambly new and old. I can listen to techno and have lights in my home or go to a club or house party for music. But the people are why I keep going back. The moving art that is the interaction between their energies constantly fascinates and intrigues me. But art and beauty are in the eye of the beholder.
The Blueberry Patch is a lot of fun and certain a nice recycled art venue. Glad to know that you have gotten to visit there. There is a lot of beauty in varied pockets all over. But the most beautiful I have found have been inside.
May you find all the things that make you smile and fill your world with delight…
Curry