Burning Man is NOT a Festival
- Bob
- Posts: 6748
- Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2003 10:00 am
- Burning Since: 1986
- Camp Name: Royaneh
- Location: San Francisco
- Contact:
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
The festival has been called a "festival" in the BLM permit documents since the festival began.
Welcome to the festival.
Welcome to the festival.
Amazing desert structures & stuff: http://sites.google.com/site/potatotrap/
"Let us say I suggest you may be human." -- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
"Let us say I suggest you may be human." -- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
Bob, I think he is speaking figuratively. It's like saying, "You are not a man," to an adult male. Technically, yes, he is a man, but he is really just a sniveling little poodle whipper.
The camp with a difference
Never mind the weather
When you camp with Plug & Ply
Your holiday's forever
Never mind the weather
When you camp with Plug & Ply
Your holiday's forever
- incubus_pantomime
- Posts: 77
- Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:44 am
- Burning Since: 2012
- Camp Name: Lamplighters (thanks, guys and gals!)
- Location: Houston, TX
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
I'm a virgin this year, so feel free to tell me I'm grossly misrepresenting BM. When family members and friends here in good ol' Texas ask me what Burning Man is, I tell them that it is an experiment in temporary or alternative community. I know that makes BM seem like a trial-and-error event (which I know it most certainly is not), but I feel that those words give a more rich description of BM than simply saying that it is a festival. I've been to music festivals, culture festivals, and art festivals, and none of them seem comparable to BM (at least not to me).
Again, this is just a virgin's two cents...
Again, this is just a virgin's two cents...

"I think perhaps love thrives on unlikely circumstance and chance : life thrives on these principles, and is life not love? And love not life?"
- Simon of the Playa
- Posts: 18385
- Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 6:25 pm
- Burning Since: 1996
- Camp Name: La Guilde des Hashischins
- Location: Rochester, Nevada.
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
oh please, all of you just get over yourselves.
It's a Goddamn Cult.
Deal With It.
It's a Goddamn Cult.
Deal With It.
Frida Be You & Me
- H.G.Crosby
- Posts: 1918
- Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:47 pm
- Location: Boston, New York, Paris, Tangiers
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
yes, now start Cultivating, and Bee Fertile.
Once I noticed I was on fire, I decided to relax and enjoy the fall™
- Roberto Dobbisano
- Posts: 2973
- Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 5:54 pm
- Location: Dobbidossola, Italy.
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
Honey flavored Kool-Aid it is then...
I'll just tell them it's Almond-Honey Flavored Kombucha or some other horse shit...
you know how stupid hippies are, they'll drink ANYTHING if they think it's organic.
I'll just tell them it's Almond-Honey Flavored Kombucha or some other horse shit...
you know how stupid hippies are, they'll drink ANYTHING if they think it's organic.
"10 principles? you cant HANDLE the 10 principles..."
- Lonesomebri
- Posts: 2356
- Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:54 pm
- Burning Since: 2018
- Camp Name: CAMP THREAT
- Location: NorCal
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
"When family members and friends here in good ol' Texas ask me what Burning Man is, I......."
........drop my pants and set the house on fire.
........drop my pants and set the house on fire.
- Ugly Dougly
- Posts: 17082
- Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2003 9:31 am
- Burning Since: 1996
- Location: เชียงใหม่
- Contact:
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
incubus_pantomime wrote:I'm a virgin this year, so feel free to tell me I'm grossly misrepresenting BM. When family members and friends here in good ol' Texas ask me what Burning Man is, I tell them that it is an experiment in temporary or alternative community. I know that makes BM seem like a trial-and-error event (which I know it most certainly is not), but I feel that those words give a more rich description of BM than simply saying that it is a festival. I've been to music festivals, culture festivals, and art festivals, and none of them seem comparable to BM (at least not to me).
Again, this is just a virgin's two cents...
It IS an experiment in temporary or alternative community (TAZ). Have you been reading Larry's earlier writings about BM?
It's also a gathering of crazy artists in the desert. "Festival" implies something more conventional.
And yes, it is a cult as well. The sooner you accept this, the better off you'll be.
- Simon of the Playa
- Posts: 18385
- Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 6:25 pm
- Burning Since: 1996
- Camp Name: La Guilde des Hashischins
- Location: Rochester, Nevada.
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
duh...
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Frida Be You & Me
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:48 pm
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
Ugly Dougly wrote:stinkyfoot wrote:Actually a festival is exactly what Burning Man is if you care about things like definitions and English literacy.
If you've been reading closely, you'll discover that this thread is about connotations, not denotations.
I don't pay much attention to connotations that are clearly the result of the slow but inevitable stripping of meaningfulness from the human experience which is the inevitable result of corporate appropriation of cultural phenomenon.
Don't say burning man isn't a festival, re-appropriate festival from the corporate overlords who want you to think that festival is nothing more than spending shitloads of money on overpriced beer while listening to wall street approved music puppets.
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
Bestival?
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
stinkyfoot wrote:Ugly Dougly wrote:stinkyfoot wrote:Actually a festival is exactly what Burning Man is if you care about things like definitions and English literacy.
If you've been reading closely, you'll discover that this thread is about connotations, not denotations.
I don't pay much attention to connotations that are clearly the result of the slow but inevitable stripping of meaningfulness from the human experience which is the inevitable result of corporate appropriation of cultural phenomenon.
Don't say burning man isn't a festival, re-appropriate festival from the corporate overlords who want you to think that festival is nothing more than spending shitloads of money on overpriced beer while listening to wall street approved music puppets.
+1
The camp with a difference
Never mind the weather
When you camp with Plug & Ply
Your holiday's forever
Never mind the weather
When you camp with Plug & Ply
Your holiday's forever
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
The organization's communications arm, anyway, is very careful not to call it a festival, which connotes the presence of ten dollar pizza stands and paid entertainment for many people around the world. We (they, now, I guess, though I'm still sort of helping out here and there) call it an event, an equally inadequate but much less festivally-charged word...
- Lonesomebri
- Posts: 2356
- Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:54 pm
- Burning Since: 2018
- Camp Name: CAMP THREAT
- Location: NorCal
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
- theCryptofishist
- Posts: 40313
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:28 am
- Burning Since: 2017
- Location: In Exile
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
*waves at actiongirl*
The Lady with a Lamprey
"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.
Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri
"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.
Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri
- Ugly Dougly
- Posts: 17082
- Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2003 9:31 am
- Burning Since: 1996
- Location: เชียงใหม่
- Contact:
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
¡Yo quiero FIESTA!


Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
*waving back at Cryptofish!* See, I'm still here, a little for now. 

- TomServo
- Posts: 6160
- Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2004 1:17 pm
- Burning Since: 1999
- Camp Name: Black Rock City Assholes Union Local 668
- Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
Why don't we just call it a Blood Worship?...to keep things interesting
anything worth doing is worth overdoing..
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
"Burning Man is the biggest hippie festival in the entire world."
-- Eric Cartman
-- Eric Cartman
- Turtleburp
- Posts: 523
- Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 7:52 pm
- Burning Since: 2001
- Camp Name: Barbie Holiday Village - Soap Supplied!
- Location: Melbourne
- Contact:
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
I have often described it as summer camp for adults, too, after starting off with "It's an art festival in the desert" and mentioning having to bring your own water.
And I and others have always described it as the Special Olympics of art.
Ya wanna go and support it but sometimes you just gotta laugh.
- BBadger
- Posts: 5637
- Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:37 am
- Burning Since: 2018
- Location: (near) Portland, OR, USA
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens
Hate reading my replies? Click here to add me to your plonk (foe) list.
Hate reading my replies? Click here to add me to your plonk (foe) list.
- Roberto Dobbisano
- Posts: 2973
- Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 5:54 pm
- Location: Dobbidossola, Italy.
Re: Burning Man is NOT a Festival
busted.
i am SO glad im not the only asshole who does this....
i am SO glad im not the only asshole who does this....
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
"10 principles? you cant HANDLE the 10 principles..."
Return to “Philosophical Center”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests