If you could change one thing about Burning Man..

[Ugly Dougly]

I really think the playa is exactly where this event needs to be. The beauty and starkness of the desert, coupled with the bizzarre and sublime that is Burning Man is to me a sweet mix. Building large art out there (first year for me) was amazing and the contrast between all the art and the surroundings was great. Certainly there is a price to pay with the dust, but there's always going to be something. My girlfriend goes to a smaller festival, Shambala up in Canada which is held in a beautiful forest location. Perfect, right? Well she says the dust there is mixed in with cow dung from the locals who run cattle in the same area and she's come back with lung and sinus infections almost every time. So for it's size, and sheer scope of what you can do, the playa seems like a great match for the event.

It started out on the beach. If it was made for the desert, it would have started there. The desert was chosen because nobody cared abut what happened there and it was free.

[Trishntek]

I think the playa is like a canvas void and vacant. To see what humanity can accomplish in a relatively short amount of time, as only humans are able to do, and leave the place nearly pristine shortly after the event is like few other places on earth.

[theCryptofishist]

"We" do own it, but it is rented to a for profit. That may be the difference between me going out on the playa to camp for a while with some friends and camping with a few tens of thousands of others at an event that at least makes enough profit to do it again.

Getting into a National Park costs you. Yellowstone is $20 for the car, and $12 for each person over 12 in it. I don't know if there are camping fees on top of that, but I wouldn't be surprised. That is good for a week and allows you into the Grand Tetons as well.
Some of the locals buy the year passes ($50) because being able to go through the park can shorten their commutes.
At Yosemite the car is $20, but that includes all persons in it. If you walk or ride your horse in, that's $10.
Moving over to the National Forests (where, incidentally Betty White has just been made an honorary ranger)...Okay, I;m not finding actual cost to enter a particular forest.
However, there is an annual inter-agency pass, currently costs $80, that lets you into National Parks, National Forests, BLM, BOR, and Fish and Wildlife Service land that is open to the public. So, $80 is probably more than any single admission (unless we are talking about something really special)--at a guess about 3, or maybe a little more.
At any rate, just because we own the land doesn't mean we are free to do what we like when we like. I can't see showing up at Arapaho with an ax and a really big truck and cutting down trees because, after all, I own them. I don't think they'd let me just show up with a crew to build an executive retreat and training center there either. I have no problem with usage fees, I expect them at any Federal Land and certainly California State Parks as well.
Now there is the matter of spending lots of money to pay LEOs to police an event that only seems to produce a small amount of crime, comparatively. It's a permit stipulation, but people I trust on these matters say that this is a problem and that the fees increase yearly, even though there's no actual justification in arrest or citation numbers.

[teardropper]

Yeah, that is all true. But I can, any time I want, go to the Black Rock Desert and camp for free. All over that desert. The BLM doesn't charge for camping there.

[bluesbob]

That everyone would actually read the Survival Guide and try their best to do most of the tips, suggestions, and necessities outlined in it.

And that all the bike thieves would get a broken axle during Exodus.

[Elorrum]

I'd like sound art cars... roving discotechs, to keep their distance from the temple.

[Elliot]

I'd like sound art cars... roving discotechs, to keep their distance from the temple.

THAT is a sensible, reasonable and REALISTIC idea!

[Simon of the Playa]

i'd like to see the temple as a roving discoteque.

[ygmir]

I'd like sound art cars... roving discotechs, to keep their distance from the temple.

THAT is a sensible, reasonable and REALISTIC idea!

I agree.......but also, probably unrealistic.

IMHO, most of those cars, are piloted/owned, by folks, who want everyone, to listen to what they like.......at times, it seems sort of a "power trip", that they can foist their tunes on others. And, to show how "big" their sound equipment is.

Of course, not all, and, not all the time.
But, I do see it, a lot, even in the "suburbs", where they do it, it seems, just to stir up others.

[Simon of the Playa]

Ygmir has once again reduced it to a "Size" thing...

like the playa is any different from defaultia as far as that's concerned....




"my art car is Long AND Wide....and it can spew 100,000 watts of juice all over 40 acres."


yep...Art Car Envy.

[Elorrum]

i'd like to see the temple as a roving discoteque.

a mutant silence vehicle. maybe the swarm guys could help with this. It would be a large scale project, mobile, that would always move beyond the discos trying to park by it. (btw. better spelling of discotheque than I did.) Alternately, the sound art cars could have their own empty drive up party barn and not call it a temple.

[ygmir]

Ygmir has once again reduced it to a "Size" thing...

like the playa is any different from defaultia as far as that's concerned....




"my art car is Long AND Wide....and it can spew 100,000 watts of juice all over 40 acres."


yep...Art Car Envy.

yes, yes...........it's a size thing........my momma took me to the "Michael J Fox" mohel clinic. I know, but, it was cheap.
so, I've grown up, with envy on anything larger than me or mine.

even though, I obscure my faults, with a gruff exterior.

[theCryptofishist]

Yeah, that is all true. But I can, any time I want, go to the Black Rock Desert and camp for free. All over that desert. The BLM doesn't charge for camping there.

Okay, okay, what we do is a smidgen more than a camping trip in the desert.



But only a smidgen!