How would you organize a regional burn if part of the land had to be open to the public during the daytime?

[sparr]

Suppose you wanted to organize an event similar to Transformus, Firefly, Burn in the Forest, or any of the other mostly-wooded regional burns, but the land has a quirk... Most of the forest is open to the public during daylight hours. A small amount of forest and some open field space could be private, and the forest entrances/borders could be closed from dusk to dawn, but an arbitrary number of people could walk into the forest while sun is up.

How would you navigate this unusual situation? What changes would need to be made to the events? Would you try to extricate people without wristbands who were still present at night? Would you make any efforts or changes to dissuade or prevent theft? What other concerns might come up in this scenario? What sort of ten-principles concerns or benefits would be raised by this scenario?

[gaminwench]

Interesting idea.

My first take would be to encourage 'public Art and installations' in the part that is open during the day; give it a voluntary, strong 'local, family, community' feel.

Keep any adult related stuff in the 'private area' of the woods and all camping in the open field beyond; only wristbands beyond that day gate.

At night, the whole thing becomes a free for all for the wristband folks.

(I'm just making up how these spaces relate physically to each other)

It is an interesting thought experiment, to integrate burner ethics with public free access.

Kind of like the old Ren Faires, where only participants/performers/vendors could be in the 'backstage areas' and be on premises after hours (when all of the really good stuff was happening).

I've not been to Oregon Country Fair, but I've been told by many that it is/was much the same.

You would need to give Art/performance/workshop presenters a choice of desired placement, so they could tailor their offerings to the public day crowd, the private day area and of course the camping area would be off-limits to the day folk.

Welcome back, Sparr; where've you been??

[Popeye]

Is there a physical barrier betweeen the public are and private?
Is the private area large enough to acconadate all the camps?
If so, look at it as the private area as being the Burn with access to the public area for Burners. Set up art suitable for the public in the public area and camps and Burner only art in the private area.

[Molotov]

If it is a public park, how could you legally prevent "Joe Citizen" without a wristband from wandering through your camps and art areas without some type of closure permit or order (similar to the playa) for those portions of the park.

To me that exudes an air of exclusivity that is contrary to several tenets of the Principles of Burning Man.

[sparr]

My first take would be to encourage 'public Art and installations' in the part that is open during the day; give it a voluntary, strong 'local, family, community' feel.

That's definitely part of the plan!

Keep any adult related stuff in the 'private area' of the woods and all camping in the open field beyond; only wristbands beyond that day gate.

Adult stuff seems sensible. Camping in the open field is a concern; most of the events I'm comparing to have most of their camping in the woods where the shade is. I guess we could aim for a cooler time of year?

You would need to give Art/performance/workshop presenters a choice of desired placement, so they could tailor their offerings to the public day crowd, the private day area

My thinking is that placement in the public woods would be a lot more generous, with tighter controls on space in the private side, to balance out the demand

Welcome back, Sparr; where've you been??

Around Founded a couple of coliving projects in the bay area, ran a camp at BM, doing small makery projects. Making waves somewhere else for a while. Now I'm looking at buying 370 acres in Vermont, and thinking about what fun we could have on it, hence this post. Thanks for the tips.

Is there a physical barrier betweeen the public are and private?

Mostly no, but it's a pretty straight line on a mostly clear field, so just a few people could watch a temporary fence.

Is the private area large enough to acconadate all the camps?

That depends on how many show up It's larger than a lot of other properties I've seen small regional burns on, but much smaller than others.

If so, look at it as the private area as being the Burn with access to the public area for Burners. Set up art suitable for the public in the public area and camps and Burner only art in the private area.

This is a recurring suggestion and seemingly a good one. Thanks.

If it is a public park, how could you legally prevent "Joe Citizen" without a wristband from wandering through your camps and art areas without some type of closure permit or order (similar to the playa) for those portions of the park.

It's not a public park, but there is public access to the forest. You couldn't prevent them during the day, that's the whole premise of the question.

To me that exudes an air of exclusivity that is contrary to several tenets of the Principles of Burning Man.

How is giving the public access to half your event more exclusive than our usual approach of giving the public access to none of it? If anything, this seems significantly more inclusive.