At the festival in the broiling Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada, tens of thousands of people “leave behind cellphones, capitalism and judgments” for a celebration of “radical self-expression”.
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Rejecting this label, White Oceans counters that it has sought to be inclusive toward others in the festival who do not pay to enter its camps – hosting hours of free music and even feeding Burning Man attendees who aren’t paying to stay there.
Of course, many argue that the festival’s original intentions have been muddied as celebrities and Silicon Valley tech moguls flock to the desert – creating a market for expensive and exclusive marquees with private chefs and, blasphemously, electricity.
Another burner said that the organizers of White Ocean had a team of security guards and when she approached the compound they shouted at her.
While Burning Man does allow some such groups that make a sizable contribution to the experience to operate, it rejects commodifying.
One particular attendee, Kenny Hoff, has uploaded over 60 videos from Camp Questionmark: a popular music camp at Burning Man which hosted everyone from Skrillex to Griz this year. Luxurious so-called “plug-n-play” camps have sprung up which use hired staff like cooks, builders and security, and allow worldwide jetsetters to drop in for quick visits. The camps generally attract global party people who prefer to stay in luxury camps instead of sleeping rough, and don’t mix with anyone not of their class.
And while most people have officially left Burning Man, workers there are still cleaning up the site, and will be for weeks. In order to do that, Walters explains, you must also lose some of your inhibitions, which in the case of Burning Man often means dressing down, if not completely, at least to your underwear.
Yeah, it is all incredibly silly but now the revolt of the Burning Man peasants has caught the attention of the media. “This wasn’t much but it’s a great start”.
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And this year – the 30th anniversary of the festival – was no exception.
