2005 population?

[Savior69]

I know they hate guessing at the population #'s but anyone have a good guess? It didn't seem bigger that last year to me, but I'm sure there were a few more.

Thanks

[JediDale]

The total amount of people was 35567. As I understand it, this info was given to the newspaper from BM LLC. Inside straight! I will take 3 cards and hope for another 5!


Genuinely,

Jedi Dale Of Reno

[Savior69]

Wow, thanks for the quick responce.

If that # is correct, this will be the first year to decline in population.

A trend or just reaching its critical mass? I think that this is a good # to stabalize at, any bigger might be too much. Anyone who has gone to any of the Phish festivals, they were around 60-80k i think, would know what I'm talking about. Too big!

My first two years I was telling everyone I knew about it, know I tell people not to go!

[spectabillis]

... this will be the first year to decline in population.

nope.

[JediDale]

It was noted to be a very slight increase. I don't have the numbers from last yers burn. If someone does please post.

Genuinely,

Jedi Dale Of Reno

[Ranger Genius]

After the weather in 2004, I wouldn't really be surprised by a decrease in population, or at least an acute leveling. Next year will probably boom, though. Balmy weather will do that.

[JediDale]

Ranger Genius! Can you speculate on the weather for next year? Maybe take the El Nino, global warming, and playa trends into account and give a best guess? I predict next year will be hotter and less windy. "The Force" is clouded on this one, many possibilities and variances subject to the future it is!

Genuinely,

Jedi Dale Of Reno

[Ranger Genius]

I meant this year's balmy weather, doofus. Less clementine conditions tend to discourage repeat offenses by those less dedicated. Wait, is that a triple negative?

But for next year, I'm predicting it will be hot and dusty, with cold temperatures at night. High winds at times, the direction of which will be inconsistent. There will also be occasional whiteouts throughout the event, especially late in the week.

Eat your heart out, Sylvia Browne!

[Savior69]

nope.

I stand corrected. According to the official timeline,The population went down in 1991, the first year it moved to the Black Rock Desert. In 2001 it only grew by a few hundred.

2004 was 35,664, so if 35,567 is correct only a 94 person difference.

[JediDale]

Ranger Genus, er, "Genius"

you were working off assummation! Putting too much into the reply. I understood exactly what you meant, I just wanted your guess. Want to
know the power of "The Force"? It's going to rain next BM.


Genuinely,


Jedi Dale Of Reno

[spectabillis]

I stand corrected. According to the official timeline...

Thanks, I keep misplacing that link. Actually I thought there was another drop in population after the move, definately wrong on that one.

[Ranger Genius]

Ranger Genus, er, "Genius"

you were working off assummation! Putting too much into the reply. I understood exactly what you meant, I just wanted your guess. Want to
know the power of "The Force"? It's going to rain next BM.


Genuinely,


Jedi Dale Of Reno

I don't live all that close to the Black Rock, so I'll defer to your predictions, but I do live in a fairly similar environment (though the BRD gets about a third more annual rainfall than West Utah does), and can say that we rarely see two years in a row as wet as this one was, so I would expect a less hardpacked playa (read as: dustier event) next year.

[geekster]

General rule of thumb is that there are very few "average" years. The average is ... well ... an average. Periods of unusually dry weather are followed by periods of unusually wet weather and vice versa. Having said that, this fall is shaping up to be cooler and wetter so far in the Bay Area. Today is cloudy and cool while generally the easterly winds are blowing and the fire danger is high. The easterly winds have been weak this year so we might get a wet winter this year as well. At least the early part of it.

The worst thing that can happen is a little bit of rain to dampen the playa, then a hard freeze that freezes the playa solid and causes the frost to "fluff" the playa surface up, and then a thaw and no more rain. That causes an extremely dusty, fluffy playa surface. That happened one year and it was fucking NASTY according the the accounts I read.

It is safe to assume that any given year will be quite different from the immediately preceeding year.

[ZaphodBurner]

NExt year there will be more because of the Discovery Channel thing. If they "get it," this could work out in BRC's favor because fratboys and hippies don't watch the Discovery Channel.

(I'm out for hippies this year. Dudes walked through our camp, RIGHT BETWEEN our circle of chairs, didn't say hi, howdy, kiss my ass or anything else, and except to comment that our generator--which we were using only loud enough to run a power tool to keep our theme camp running--was loud.)

(( Then another came through asking for a ride to San Francisco. Says only 3 times in 10 years he hasn't been able to bum a ride. That's a 30% failure rate to con somebody into taking care of him, and a 100% failure rate to get a clue.))

(((What was I talking about? Oh, yeah...)))

...Black Rock City is already too big for an 8-day participant to fully experience. It certainly doesn't need to get ANY larger.

[sputnik]

Based on the new info I present the following graph with linear extrapolation into future years

[nova_mike]

I bet gas prices and the high cost of travel had something to do with the numbers this year.

Weather has never been a factor for why anyone I know didn't go the following year. it's always money.

[Berknsuz]

[quote="(I'm out for hippies this year. Dudes walked through our camp, RIGHT BETWEEN our circle of chairs, didn't say hi, howdy, kiss my ass or anything else, and except to comment that our generator--which we were using only loud enough to run a power tool to keep our theme camp running--was loud.)

(( Then another came through asking for a ride to San Francisco. Says only 3 times in 10 years he hasn't been able to bum a ride. That's a 30% failure rate to con somebody into taking care of him, and a 100% failure rate to get a clue.))[/quote]

Do I detect a bigot on the site? Quite a sweeping accusation you're tossing around. I love the gift economy at BM, and the HUGE tollerance, even unconditional love, each soul has for the other. In a socially bankrupt culture, we need to carry this energy out into the rest of the world. I hope I can cross paths with you, and make your day, as I did for a bunch of folks who's camp I wandered through. Your flying hippie.