Origin of "Sparkle Pony?"

[SunriseSunset]

Does anyone know the origin of the term "Sparkle Pony?"

I absolutely love it... it perfectly describes some people you meet on the playa. Just curious if it was maybe someone's playa name at some point... and then became an archetype?

[Savannah]

Here you go . . .

viewtopic.php?t=42029

[trilobyte]

Oh, it dates back to at least before 2005 (my 2nd year), I remember making fun of ppl bringing 6 bins of clothes and a not enough food or water in that year and a campmate telling me that was the term to use.

[Marley405]

Most terms can be found at

https://burningman.org/culture/glossary/

a FUN read

[trilobyte]

Re-reading the first post, and then spending a few minutes enjoying the glossary, I'll answer it again. I think I'd initially misread origin to mean when it first appeared.

The origin of the term has roots in radical self reliance, I think. Remember, Burning Man predates social media and internet resources as we know them today (no FB, no youtube, not even flickr), and prepping used to be a lot harder (there was little in the way of readily available information on shade structures, for example). Participants typically struggled to get their personal gear together, and you were doing it right if you actually managed to bring everything you needed to survive and not be miserable in the desert conditions. People would always help a campmate or neighbor if that person felt short, but there was a social stigma to not having your act together.

The people who failed in radical self reliance fell into a few categories. Mooches are what we called the people who'd hitch in with just the clothes on their back and maybe a single backpack, the ones who had planned from the start to bank on other people providing them with food, water, and even shelter. Sparkleponies were the ones who showed up with a considerable amount of stuff, usually bins filled with clothes and makeup... but little in the way of the supplies they needed to actually survive. Back before Burning Man took leaving no trace as seriously as it does today, glittery makeup was more of a thing back then, and one of the identifying marks of a sparklepony was that they weren't dusty or dirty (like the ppl who had been building and working on camp), they were always fresh-faced and sparkly from the makeup.

I'm not sure where the pony part of it came in, perhaps there's a connection with prancing and dancing.

[Jovankat]

Most terms can be found at

https://burningman.org/culture/glossary/

a FUN read

Oh cool! I hadn't seen this glossary on the main site before. One of the first things I did after I decided to go to my first burn was read a participant created BM glossary. It was a super useful and informative starting point. I just dug up the link and unfortunately it's not as easily navigable as it once was but there's still an awesome amount to learn from it!

[Eric]

I decided to use my google-fu today to see if I could figure out how long this has been used. While it must have been floating around in some groups previously, the first common mentions of it in relation to Burning Man all occur in 2010 - other than the Sparkle Pony Corral theme camp. That's when it hit the BRC Weekly's Playa Lingo column, that's when the Shroom added it to the Playa Zodiac (I miss the Shroom), that was it's first mention on ePlaya.

I found the long dormant Sparkle Pony Corral Yahoo Group, and that first seems active in 2008 - at least in publicly viewable posts, so at least they were using the word then. Sparkle Pony Corral first appeared on the playa in 2009, so I think they definitely get credit for popularizing the term among the general Burner population.

/pedantic post

[SoMuchLOVE]

I am thinking about selling my ticket to Burning Man. Too many things to plan solo, and I do not want to be a sparkle pony. <3

[SoMuchLOVE]

My plans came together! I am going and I will have all my gear/supplies! No Sparkle Pony here