2014 increase in foreigners?

[gibson_]

Did anybody notice a LOT more people come to Burning Man from other countries this year? Does anybody know why that could be? Burner Express maybe?

[chuckularone]

There seemed to be dozens of Russian skydivers in the Burning Sky camp across the street from us. Not to mention all the Australian accents I heard all week.

[Canoe]

And many claiming to have arrived in the States, even as late as during the week of the event, without tickets...

[theCryptofishist]

You do know that you're dealing with an extremely small sample size? What is true of the people you meet on playa, may not be true of all 70,000 people at the event.

[BBadger]

Not to mention that distinct sounds, like accents, are more noticeable to your ear than the background chatter of voices you're accustomed to hearing.

[VultureChow]

I had an RV with 7 gorgeous Italian boys come through my lane at Greeters.

All virgins

[Lonesomebri]

The big increase is in Ravers, people only interested in the Electronic Music and DJs and following festivals, and Bucket-Listers, people only interested in checking a box. I can see how this increases the amount of people willing to travel a great distance with little to bring and little understanding of the event.
For some reason there has been a huge appeal to these people, who otherwise might know very little about camping, LNT, the desert, creating art, contributing, burning Man, etc. I blame Media Mecca, though it is the fault of all the hype. Why does the event appeal to more people who are voyeurs, ravers and bucket-listers, is the issue for me, not nationality.

[motskyroonmatick]

I rarely left our block so I'd have to say specifically that our block had a huge amount of awesome friendly foreigners.

[Hoolie]

I read on the Burning Blog that an influx of overseas visitors was a contributing factor in the Will Call fiasco:

The contributing factors include the number of tickets that are sold electronically and require a check-in. Those include...the increasing number of tickets sold to international participants, who now are about 20 percent of the population (the organization does not ship tickets internationally).

http://blog.burningman.com/2014/08/buil ... t-so-wild/

So, yeah, it's not just your imagination. As to why, I think it has a lot to do with more global awareness about the event. Ten years ago, it seems like most Americans hadn't even heard of Burning Man. Now people from all over the world have learned of it, and are apparently making their way over to check it out for themselves.

[Jovankat]

20% of people being international doesn't seem like that much for an event that is so well known (hell there was a Malcolm in the Middle episode!) and that has regionals around the world. I'd be interested to hear how that number has risen over the years, has it been rising steadily or has there been a jump?

As for the idea that international burners are limited in what they can contribute I'd say that's a. probably an over exaggeration and b. that it's balanced by how often they can attend. There will always be those that come once, don't offer much and don't come back. Does it matter where they came from in the first place? Plenty of what is offered by regular participants could be pulled off by an international burner, maybe not a virgin but domestic virgins have the same problem. If anything having more of the bucket listers or ravers who come and don't quite "get it" being international would minimise the chances that they'd return because it's so expensive that you have to REALLY want to come a second year when you're a foreigner but for locals it's less of a big deal. I really think that those that want to come back will want to "do it better" the next year and will find ways to do just that. I could be biased though since that has been my personal experience.

[theCryptofishist]

Yeah. I remember the Wires managed to really put on a show while flying in from Norway. Even when they weren't there, they managed to have some really cool stuff on display.

[jneilvindy]

I loved every single foreigner in the Flamingo FTW camp! The diversity, difference in outlook and enthusiasm for being there since most of them had to jump through hoops and hurdles just to get to the event was awesome to see and experience.

I miss them all terribly!

[CaptainVic]

In my experience there have been significant numbers of internationals since I started attending in 2002. Back in 2006 we asked everyone that walked up to our bar where they were from, and we counted 20 countries in one evening. This year my highly objective random survey found burners from Australia, England, Ireland, India, Israel, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, France, even Canada. I stopped asking after the first day.

[Lonesomebri]

One of our camp foreigners showed up on the Burner Express. They had gone to a hardware store in Reno and built a small pull cart on wheels to tow their gear to camp. This cart was used over the week by dozens of people to haul ice, gear, wood to the burn, etc. She brought outlandish home-made costumes and gifts for everyone. Volunteered in Center Cafe on Burn night. Stayed past Monday, and the last thing I saw of her, she was mooping a clean sight. Oh god, this is no foreigner, they belong in BRC. The true foreigner to me is the Raver/Bucket Lister/Plug and Play of any nation.

[Simon of the Playa]

^whole lotta "yes"^

[lucky420]

I met someone from Siberia on playa a couple of years aga. Siberia!

Now just waiting on the North Korea contingent to arrive...

[Lonesomebri]

I met someone from Siberia on playa a couple of years aga. Siberia!
Now just waiting on the North Korea contingent to arrive...

I heard that the Eternal President of the Democratic Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un was holed up behind the walls out on 9 and L and did alittle segway dance on burn night, for the community. I feel that only good things will now come his people's way, what with Kim's contact to so much LEDs and EDM.

[lucky420]

Shit! I always miss the good stuff

[maladroit]

DJ Dear Leader