This seems like a disaster for the official Burning Man org.
However, if they jump on this fast and hard enough with proactive PR they can emphasize the contrast between this unplanned gathering and their organized one to argue why Burning Man should be allowed to continue to the official events to head out just this kind of destructive and unaccountable damage to the playa.
But it’s going to be a tough needle to thread to communicate that without pissing off their base, who are not necessarily big fans of the cost and restrictions of the official event, even if they benefit from the logistics.
“We’re not dissuading people from going,” says Marian Goodell, longtime CEO of the nonprofit Burning Man organization, who plans on visiting Rogue Burning Man herself. “But I don’t think you should try to go if you’re not an experienced Burner. And if you last went in 1996, when we respected the dangers of the desert and communal effort was key, this is your year.”
…
“I was there in '96, it was scary as fuck,” she says. “People were driving 45 mph” — a speed at which cars can kick up large dust clouds on this ancient lake bed, not to mention hit things, especially at night. “I wouldn’t camp out on the edge of the playa, you’ll need to be near people,” says Goodell. “Camping in groups helps keep you visible.”
Ugh. Well, then, everything that goes badly is something that will now reflect on the official Burning Man org for condoning the unofficial gathering.
I guess it is pretty hard to expect that an org that promotes “radical self-reliance” as one of it’s key principles would condemn people doing just that on the Playa…
I was last there in '96. The drive-by shooting range was fun.
We will be lucky if none of the crowd that goes out there today dies. With the statement you quoted from Goodell and her attendance, the corporation is pretty on-side with the ‘rogues’, and I dunno how they weather this.
Seems a bit ridiculous that BLM and near by local governments had so much free time to harass the official event goers and to try to regulate Burning Man out of existence in past years, but not for this… :-/
It is really easy to lose a bike at Burning Man in a normal year when there are landmarks and roads. This year I betcha there are people right now who have lost their camp and will not find it until the crowds clear out.
I know how to poop correctly in my local woods (and where not to). Portapotties seem to be the minimally acceptable answer for this particular desert location, and from what I can gather they are not there. Maybe every last outlaw Burner will have thought to bring a honeypot with them, and will be packing a week’s worth of excreta out with them. but maybe not
Mind you this is outside of my comfort zone and I am not there but the CDC says that if you are properly vaccinated you have a .001% chance of getting hospitalized from Covid
Again, I am not there and do not want to spread Covid there or misinformation here but vaccinations are key. The recent big outdoor festival in Chicago apparently led to very few cases.
Edit: That’s the mortality rate but the vaccinated hospitalization rate is still extremely low.
Again I am not there and I am staying in hiding like we should but the idea that this is a super spreader event may be untrue. Time will tell.
The Delta variant has been shown to be spread even by those who are full vaccinated. There have also been enough reports of break through cases to give us all pause on large scale events like this.
People who are going to large scale events are not being responsible right now. We should not pretend like they are just because it’s an event we might like. I’m just as pissed about Dragon*Con going ahead this weekend here in the ATL.
We need to stop putting our OWN pleasure ahead of public health right now. The people there might be full vaccinated and might be masking up, but it’s an entirely unnecessary thing to be doing. I get that people are sick of lock down, but if we had locked down harder when this first started, we might be in a far better position with far fewer deaths. But we put $$ and politics ahead of public health.
