Burn Baby Burn

I just slept my first full night in a normal bed after spending a week in Black Rock City attending Burning Man. BM was founded in 1986 as a summer-solstice ceremony with 20 people and has grown exponentially since; 2019 boasted a crowd of 74K to a lucky bunch as securing tickets is hard since it sells out every year. The vibe, however, remains the same, operating on the tenets of Radical Inclusion and Radical Self-reliance. As the principles state, “Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.” Trying to explain what happened has caused me to watch and rewatch this video, which, while funny, makes a great point, it’s damn near impossible. 

Burning Man isn’t for the faint of heart. There are frequent dust storms, and—at nearly 4,000 feet above sea level—even cream with the highest SPF is no match for the midday sun. So why brave it? In my mind, it is the ability to be anonymous. It gives you the permission to be uninhibited in a safe environment. Like my campmates walking around naked working the bar. Or the supermodel and her boyfriend sipping mojitos at the morning disco knights party getting down next to me. It’s a voyeur’s paradise. 

Radical Inclusion is a big deal at Burning Man, so theoretically nobody has anything against anyone from the get-go. It’s up to you whether or not you’ll gain anything by it, but it would be good for starters to abandon the idea that you ‘do’ Burning Man. Nothing cushions you from participation like money. There’s none of this nonsense like in the outside world where people say, ‘We’re here and then we’ll go for a drink and that’s going to be better.’ No. You’re at the coolest, best party on the planet, and everything you’re seeing and everything you’re doing and everyone you are meeting is amazing. 

My body aches (every single muscle is inflamed) but my heart is full. After hearing about the Burn from so many friends, collaborators, and creators I admire, it has been an experience I’ve been seeking for some time. It lived up to all of the hype and then some. 

And now, I’m trying to process and understand what happened. Or really, what didn’t happen. As Ideaison, we laughed, we cried, we loved, we danced, we connected, we bonded. With clients, with each other, with strangers. We had really intense conversations about the meaning of life. About self actualization. About what it takes to be a good person, and the obstacles we face in our lives to authentically show up. We didn’t touch our cell phones for days, outside of snapping a photo here or there. I’m guilty of being way too attached to my phone so the chance to put my phone down and raise my vibration felt refreshing and revitalizing. The very nature of Burning Man requires participation— you are not an observer if you attend, you are a part of the experience. That changes the game for everyone involved. And it makes it REALLY hard to describe. 

Love it or hate it, Burning Man has become one of the most well known, and well loved communities of an alternative and gifting/utopian society in the world. So much so, that actors, celebrities and creatives of all levels flock to get their burn on. The organization of Burning Man went as far as to ban certain posh camps that charged members up to $100K to be a part of it, saying that they were taking away from the magic and missed the ethos of what the burn is about. 

All that said, finding the words to explain an experience that is unexplainable in it’s core and unfathomable in it’s vastness is difficult. But, I’m doing my best to pull some learnings, which I shall disclose now.

1. On the playa, age doesn’t matter. Our camp of ~100 boasted all folks from all walks of life across all ages, demos, psychos, geos. As a result, we found ourselves in compelling and thought provoking conversations. Age didn’t really matter as much as a similar and open minded view of the world, and an inclusive young-at-heart spirit. Unlike a typical music festival that is oftentimes intimidating if you don’t find your squad, Burners are so warm and friendly that you can make friends, of all shapes and sizes, everywhere. To me, I found it to feel comforting immediately as curiosity and exploration, in my book, should always be honored. 
2. Everyone deserves time to turn off and unplug. But we live in this weird state of the world where we feel we need to be connected ALL OF THE TIME. I’m the worst. I constantly feel pressured to stay connected and put pressure on myself to work even when I’m super burnt out. And like more than half of the American population, I sometimes feel “vacation shamed,” or guilt for taking vacation days. As an entrepreneur, there is an extreme pressure to succeed, and shame associated with failing to disconnect. Reversely, post burn I’m finding myself feeling pressured to post photos of my burn on social media to show that I did in fact have an incredible time. The Ideaison team had the opportunity to connect and appreciate art and meet creatives but also just to have fun and play, in our own ways. And we didn’t document it. 
3. One must disconnect to reconnect. Even though the majority of the people I met on the playa were new found friends, because we were all invested in the experience and in having it with each other, I found the conversations I had carried substantial value and weight. These strangers, are now friends. And close friends who I want to seek out in the real world.
4. Embrace your inner freak. For a long time I’ve always admired the free spirits of the world who care less about what others think of them and more about what they think of themselves. I think it takes a good amount of self confidence to step into Burning Man, as whoever you are or want to be, an even more to own who you are, and who you want to be perceived as. The most beautiful people I met on the playa were the most authentic. All the freaky people really do make the beauty of the world, and it was exhibited via ALL of the creative expression of art, big and small, on cars, at camps. In clothing choices (or lack thereof). You can’t escape the magic. 
5. The Playa Provides. Experience the gifting economy, the nature that together we can make others times better, together, inspired me. We found ourselves deep in Tycho’s sunrise set at the Trash Fence in the Deep playa only to turn around to discover the guerilla cheese lady, a kind soul making grilled cheese on the spot for fans. The moment couldn’t be topped, and then, a nice guy to our right handed us a bottle of champagne to cheers to the BEAUTIFUL sunrise. I was overwhelmed by the attitude of gratitude, and then turned around to see my friend Tucker. My eyes welled and tears started to flow. What could have meant more than that in that moment? We finished the sunrise, hopped on an art car to retrieve our bikes from the middle of the playa that we had to ditch in a sandstorm, and journeyed to our favorite Pho spot for some morning Pho before going home to sleep. In this day in age in the music industry we all get so caught up on money, the worth of it, trying to get by, working hard to prove ourselves, and paying artists what they rightfully deserve, but on the playa, they are all gifting their art of music. The nature of radical inclusion and gifting means that at any moment you can find what you need— whatever that means.
6. Networking is out. Connecting is in. We live in the gig economy, gone are the sentiments of climbing the “corporate ladder.” We work with who we work with because they reflect the ethics and morals that we find the most important. At Ideaison we focus more on who you are as a person, regardless of how much money you have and how successful you are and look at the world through this lens. Are we proud of our successes? Definitely, but that comes after building trust. Sharing a laugh over getting lost to a friends camp at 3 AM or disco dancing through the morning heat created immediate bonds, far beyond those that are established with an exchange of a business card. 
7. Bye bye Brands. It is traditionally not in the faith of BM to have a focus on brands, corporations, or sponsors. In fact, BM is as far away from corporate as possible. But interestingly enough, brand spin offs or implications are apparent. I think it speaks to the culture we live in, as Americans. We are SO bombarded by brands, but they don’t always add to our lives, they detract from it. We’re so embedded in it the corporate way of life that even on the playa we look for the familiar. Awfuls was an art installation in the deep playa that mimicked that of a convenience store/ 711, playa bike repair looked like the PBR logo and one camp event called itself Suburbia- with “scamazon” boxes in front of pop up houses in the form of tiny houses/art installations. 
8. No schedules, no limitations. Burning Man is made by and for the people. All programming is gifted. As such, you have to choose your own adventure, or let the playa choose it for you. Seeing that there’s no schedule, you have to roll with the punches and go with the flow. There’s a sense that you are always where you are supposed to be. Cases in point: Flume was supposed to play Friday and played Saturday, we stumbled upon a secret unannounced Tokimosta set, and Clozee played about 30/45 mins after the stage announced that she would. We had no choice but to be in the present and take life, minute by minute, as it comes.

So now what? 

I take these learnings back home with me, and I challenge my team and myself to remember who we were on the playa, and how we felt. We look clients in the eye when having conversations, especially when they’re hard. We’re earnest. We ask insightful questions. We go with the flow. We allow our creativity to flow, and we let go of inhibitions. We give without the expectation of getting anything back other than the satisfaction of giving. My friend Russ wears playa dust on him throughout the year as a reminder to take how he felt, how he acted, back home with him. I’m not sure I need to have that dust as a keepsake because it’s everywhere and will be for a while, BUT, I intend on taking my inspiration with me and channeling it for a long time.  Burn baby Burn