ZaphodBurner wrote:clerkkent wrote:
My point? YOUR THEME CAMP ISN'T THAT IMPORTANT
In that case, NEITHER ARE YOU.
I'm sorry to have to be increasingly blunt, but, pick an art car, large installation, or any of the ~700 theme camps. Guess what:
They're more important than you. Or me. Or my individual camp.
Black Rock City isn't built for you or I to decide what's important. It's built BY burners in "camps"--or whatever they want to call their community--70% of whom don't appear to have tickets this year. They build it because they think it's important. And they have as much investment in the city as you or I. If theme camps weren't important, Marian wouldn't be on the fucking radio, and Andie Grace wouldn't be on the blog, talking about how radically important theme camps are to Burning Man.
The airport is in real trouble right now. They're so well-organized they actually got the FAA to put 88NV (in HAM, "Hugs and kisses from Nevada") on the map. It's the ONLY part-time private airport on public land in America. Each year, the airport crew donates HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS in combined flights gifted to hundreds, if not thousands, or Burners. It costs $100/hr for a pilot to take three passengers on a sightseeing trip around the city. The FAA has declared it one of the best-run private airfields in Nevada, serving the third largest city, but when you get there they will have been out there for weeks grading the runway surface and preparing the greeting booth, UNICOM tower and passenger lounges. They require a certain amount of participation to make sure that some jackass doesn't taxi his airplane into somebody's camp or flip the plane turning final and auger, AGAIN. It's not a "Let's start in January" kind of deal...it's taken them YEARS of sweat equity to pull this off.
To say that they're "not that important" is irrelevant, if not asinine. Thousands of people have gotten to fly around the city because of them. They're gifting to the community a whole, whole hell of a lot more to the community than an equal amount of unaffiliated burners. I've "hauled my ass to the playa" before, but, it's not the same as going down two weeks early and scraping a mile of playa serpents off the deck to make a runway such that somebody doesn't collapse a nose wheel and fireball. They don't have ice, or Center Camp, or coffee-slingers. They Rely on themSelves. Buying an airplane ticket, winning a lottery, renting a car, throwing a bunch of camping shit in it and driving to Burning Man just isn't the same. That's just camping. I encourage you to do that as often as possible.
ZaphodBurner, don't hold back now. Tell us how you really feel.
BTW, I 100% AGREE with this post!
Sure, there are some camps that throw up a dome and say, hey we are a theme camp. But there are those that are more vital. I am sure that BMorg will be looking through the Theme Camp apps and will consult with the Placers. Many of the Placers have been doing it for years. They know what theme camps bring something and what ones don't. If BMorg decides to give some tickets to Theme Camps and Mutant Vehicles, I do not have an issue with it as long as there is some thought process involved, not just 'this camp needs 58 tickets'. I know it would put more pressure on the Placers but I also know they know camps better than just about any one else.
