Burning Man Other

I feel a slight panic inside my heart area.....it is June 21 ALREADY and today is Summer Solstice. I might make a stop later at
Nordia House here in Portland (where I used to volunteer). That place is so nice and they always have great displays and exhibits.
I did receive an email from The Jackrabbit Speaks, that is Burning Man's newsletter. And there was a really nice article on the solstice, here it is copied and pasted. Source, The Jackrabbit Speaks Burning Man Journal.

"Wherever you are today at 57 minutes after this hour, welcome the solstice. This celestial moment marks the day we honor Burning Man’s inception 37 years ago — the first time Larry Harvey, Jerry James, their kids, and friends built and burned a wooden Man on Baker Beach. Burning a human effigy, and celebrating the solstice on a beach gathering are not revolutionary acts unto themselves; humanity has created these moments and imbued them with meaning since before recorded history. But the impetus that brought these two acts together ignited something new (and also ancient) in those early Burners. Maybe it soothed unmet desires for ritual, communion and continuity at a time when people were feeling increasingly disconnected.
By 1990, the original crew merged with the Cacophony Society and other instigators, and engineered a leap from beach to desert. Before long Burners were building massive fiery art and other wonders, organizing theme camps, erecting a Temple, and piloting wildly illuminated mutant vehicles.
In short, we had a city. And then we had a global community — Burners around the world made the 10 Principles their own, launching Regional Events and local Burning Man communities.
So, happy solstice to you. We hope you make time to commemorate this moment in whatever way is meaningful."

"Burning Man is very much needed in our world as a place for rehearsing things that have a deeper spiritual value, and that nourish the foundation of identity: the feeling that you're at home in the world, and at home with yourself.” - Larry Harvey

I am VERY happy to be part of Burning Man, I am a participant in this event. It is a very special moment, that dusty week in the Black Rock Desert. Some do not understand it at all and that is OK, nobody is asking you to be there. But I understand it completely, I can feel it in my soul.
Happy Solstice my friends. ❤️

The pretty sky this evening. Can you see the moon and the star?

This year's temple at Burning Man got announced - Temple of the Heart.
The lead artist is a girl from Kraków Poland, Ela Madej. She lives in San Francisco now.
The Temple is designed to look like an upside down desert flower and the stem is going to reach up to the sky. The Temple will have traditional Eastern European lace patterns. I am very familiar with those, every window in Poland when I was little and later on when I would visit had white thin lace pattern curtains.
Ela says, "When I was growing up, my beloved grandma had a huge rose garden and we would all collect the petals to make rose preserves. Grandma passed away when she was 80. Grandpa outlived her by almost 17 years.
He never stopped taking care of her roses and making rose preserves.
Still today, I think the smell of rose preserves must be what love smells like. That's why the centerpiece of the Temple features giant roses."
There will be a rose altar in center. Beautiful! I am so happy that this girl from Poland that also loves going to Burning Man is the lead artist of the Temple this year!

The art theme for Burning Man 2023 was announced a few weeks ago - Animalia.
The first time I went to Burning Man was in 2013 after years of wanting to go. That first time I decided that I was going to try to go 10 years in a row as a start.....if I am lucky enough to be there next year that will be my 10 year in a row at Black Rock City in Nevada.
In 2020 I went to Baker Beach in San Francisco for the gathering there (Baker Beach is the place where the first Burning Man happened). In 2021 I went to Renegade Burn/Free Burn which was held at the regular location in Nevada. So if I do not count 2020 Baker Beach, then next year will be my 10th year.
And Animalia is so far my FAVORITE art theme so I am feeling EXTRA excited over it. I love animals and I hope with this this theme, which will be interpreted in many different ways of course because it is Burning Man after all, but I am hoping that it will bring more understanding and compassion for our fellow friends here on this planet -the animals. I think the future is vegetarian/vegan. In the future I think majority of the human population will look back at history and be disgusted with our treatment of animals.

Today the ticket registration for Burning Man opened. What I did not realize back in 2012 when I decided that I was for sure going to Burning Man that year (or so I thought) is that getting a ticket is a rather complicated matter. Tickets are not sold at the gate. You can't just show up and hope for the best although there are brave souls that do just that every year and I guess it works out for some of them. Maybe tickets used to be sold at the gate at some point but not anymore! So since I had not educated myself on how to get a ticket back then I missed out and instead 2013 became my Birgin year. Birgin = a first timer at Burning Man.
The first time I heard about Burning Man was around 2004. I was at Ash Springs hot springs in Nevada with my ex boyfriend David and a person there told us about this event up by Reno. We thought it sounded amazing then but didn't go for all those years and we lived in Nevada too. Well I didn't go until almost a decade later. I wish (of course) that I would had went sooner than 2013. I know I missed out on all those earlier years, so that is a regret of mine.
This year it will be a fight to get a ticket. The number of overall tickets decreased by about 20 000 and the number of tickets in the main sale, the sale I register for, are reduced to ONLY about 10 000 tickets.
A serious reduction from the 2019 main sale that had, if I recall it right about 30 000 tickets. Had I belonged to a theme camp my chances of getting a ticket would increase but I do no affiliate with a camp at Burning Man. I like to do my own thing. This year Burning Man decided to drastically reduce the amount of tickets in the main sale and instead increase the tickets allotted to the different registered camps.
You can also get a FOMO ticket but those are expensive, $2,500/ticket and then there are some for $1,500/ticket. Plus fees and taxes added on top of that. The main sale ticket cost is $575.00, plus fees and taxes.
So....I am hoping for the best.

A big change this year at Burning Man is NO MORE Center Camp Coffee Shop. Here is what Mango writes in The Burning Man Journal about the beloved Coffee Shop.
"In 1995, the Center Camp Coffee Shop was born as a single espresso machine sitting on top of hay bales. Rumor has it that a storm took out the bedouin-style tent that housed the bales, but the espresso machine and its offerings persevered — an early testament to the dedication and resilience of Burner culture. In 2000, the Center Camp Coffee Shop moved under a huge structure that can withstand 120 mph winds, truly an engineering feat. Since then, the Center Camp Coffee Shop has grown to over 1,000 volunteers and into a vibrant community.
Black Rock City is a continuously evolving, living experiment. As we shared at the end of last year, we will no longer do coffee sales at Center Camp in 2022. There are other big changes to our city, as well. This decision is ever so bittersweet, and it was not made lightly.
Center Camp Coffee Shop volunteers, you have for many years contributed to Larry’s idea. Under the guidance of Center Camp managers P Segal, Dana Harrison, and Marcia Crosby, you created a culture and an organic community. The Center Camp Coffee Shop is a beloved chamber of the beating heart of Black Rock City, and will forever be a part of our history. The memories and deeply-rooted value of your quarter century (!) of service is not taken lightly, or for granted. You have been inspirational and welcoming, and we can’t wait to see where and how you bring your energies, joy, and playfulness next. People like you are what makes Black Rock City… well, Black Rock City. From the entire Burning Man community, we offer a deep bow of gratitude to the thousands of the volunteers who have made the operation of Center Camp Coffee Shop what it has been."

Read the whole "Love Letter to the Center Camp Coffee Shop" here,
https://journal.burningman.org/2022/02/black-rock-city/building-brc/center-camp-coffee/

It IS bittersweet. I get tears in my eyes when I read that. I am sad that the Coffee Shop is no more. I LOVE that place and I started volunteering as a barista there in 2016 and did it through 2019. And it was amazing. I will miss everything about the Coffee Shop. Perhaps I will make my own coffee shop at Black Rock City. Many camps serve coffee and I did notice a decrease of people coming by the Coffee Shop starting in 2018. I understand Burning Man's decision to put an end to the Coffee Shop but yes bittersweet is a good word to describe the feeling.
I am hoping to find another place to volunteer at Burning Man. ❤️
The Man burns in 164 days.

Burning Man did not happen this year due to the pandemic. I was hoping that they were going to decide to put on the event anyways, I would had been one of the people participating but back in April Burning Man sent out the message that they decided to cancel. I know many people felt sad. I even cried.
BUT.....I am HOPING and I think that we might be able to pull it off next year.
Burning Man 2021. I got an email this evening that the fundraiser they had (and yes I donated) reached the goal and more. That is great! The Man burns in 295 days!



And if you are curious....here is a collection of messages sent to Burning Man with the donations.
donate.burningman.org/gratitude/
❤️

Somebody wrote down a list of how to recreate Burning Man at home, now that it's cancelled.
I had to share some of it, I am not taking credit for this, somebody else wrote it. And it is great!

Burning Man is cancelled this year. Here's how to play the home version.

-Tear down your house. Put it in a truck. Drive 10 hours in any direction. Put the house back together. Invite everyone you meet to come over and party. When they leave, follow them back to their homes, drink all their booze, and break things.

-Stack all your fans in one corner of the living room. Put on your most fabulous outfit. Turn the fans on full blast. Dump a vacuum cleaner bag in front of them.

-Buy a new set of expensive camping gear. Break it.

-Only use the toilet in a house that is at least 3 blocks away. Drain all the water from the toilet. Only flush it every 3 days. Hide all the toilet paper.

-Set your house thermostat so it's 50 degrees for the first hour of sleep and 100 degrees the rest of the night.

-Cut, burn, electrocute, bruise, and sunburn various parts of your body. Forget how you did it. Don't go to a doctor.

-Don't sleep for 5 days. Take a wide variety of hallucinogenic/emotion altering drugs. Pick a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend.

-Spend a whole year rummaging through thrift stores for the perfect, most outrageous costume.

-Shop at Wal-mart, Cost-Co, and Home Depot until your car and trailer are completely packed with stuff. Tell everyone that you're going to a "Leave-No-Trace" event. Empty your car into a dumpster.

-Spend 5 months planning a "theme camp" like it's the invasion of Normandy. Spend Monday-Wednesday building the camp. Spend Thurs-Sunday nowhere near camp because you're sick of it or can't find it.

-Walk around your neighborhood and knock on doors until someone offers you cocktails and dinner. Or acid.

-Get so drunk you can't recognize your own house. Walk slowly around the block for 5 hours. Tell your boss you aren't coming to work this week but he should "gift" you a paycheck anyway. When he refuses, accuse him of not loving the "community".

-Search alleys until you find a couch so unbelievably tacky and nasty filthy that a state college frat house wouldn't want it. Take a nap on the couch and sleep like you are king of the world.

-Spend thousands of dollars and several months of your life building a deeply personal art work. Hide it in a fun house on the edge of the city. Hire people to come by and alternate saying "I love it" and "this sucks balls." Blow it up.

-Make a list of all the things you'll do different next year. Never look at it.

-Have a 3 a.m. soul-baring conversation with a drag nun in platforms, a crocodile and Bugs Bunny. Be unable to tell if you're hallucinating.

-Go to a museum. Find one of Salvador Dali's more disturbing, but beautiful paintings. Climb inside it.

Are you tempted to go yet? Some of the BEST times of my life have been at Black Rock City.
My fave on that list is the Salvador Dali painting reference, after my first Burn that is what I thought, that Burning Man is like stepping into a Dali if I had to describe the event to somebody that had never been. Dali also happens to be one of my favorite artists.
I bet there will be a lot of Burners doing something ceremonial in place of Burning Man this year. I might think of something to do. I wonder if people will gather at Baker Beach in San Francisco where Burning Man first happened in 1986?