Post
by Eric » Thu Jul 28, 2016 3:25 pm
Before you get too many more anti-DJ comments, let me be completely honest: you will get somewhere close to zero gigs by posting on ePlaya, regardless how good you are or how long you've been doing it.
You get gigs at Burning Man by paying attention to smaller dance camps, finding ones that play music in the same vein as you, and getting to know people there. You schmooze. You talk. You see if they'll let you play a shift (never ever ever just walk into a camp you've never been in and ask if you can play - that would be like someone coming into your own personal space & saying they think they're better than what you have on). You come prepared to take the shittiest shift in the heat of the day to get your feet in the door. You have everything you will need to plug into their system - your cables, your own Serato box if you need it, CDJs, whatever (also: be prepared for it all to get wrecked, so don't bring your best stuff). Some camps will be loaded to the gills with equipment (and probably booked solid all week), some will have an iPod jack into their stereo. If you really want to play you come prepared to play anywhere.
All your past experience means nothing, unless your name is so world famous it's already filling arenas and getting asked to EDC (in which case you probably wouldn't be posting here). You start from scratch, prove you have the chops and the willingness to do the work, and next year, or the year after, you start getting gigs offered to you before the event.
How do I know this? Because my camp is filled with DJs, including some world-class names in our tiny sub-genre, and that's how they did it. They started with one on-playa party in 2005, the group collectively is up to 11 parties this year in BRC (so far) - plus one cute bar that's just spinning our music. We also got there by spinning in a genre that isn't common, but I know some house & techno DJs who pick up gigs by doing exactly what I described above. Burning Man is built on personal connections, get ready to connect to get what you want.
It's a camping trip in the desert, not the redemption of the fallen world - Cryptofishist
Eric ShutterSlut
Former Ass't Editor & columnist,
BRC Weekly